lsquare

I just want to know if the start date to achieve 40,000 miles is based on membership date or start of the calendar year?

I understand that different booking class may affect how many miles I earn with Asiana, but I'm wondering how can I verify that everything is calculated correctly? I recently flew TK from CDG-IST, IST-HAN and roughly 3,000 miles were credited to my Asiana account.

From where I am, there are lots of cheap Air China flights to CAN, SHA, ICN, and PEK. In general, I'm assuming all CA booking classes qualify for some miles under Asiana's program? According to GCM, I'm looking at least 12,000 miles roundtrip between the Chinese cities and my base. So a couple of flights can help me achieve status especially if it's cheap. How can I check for the fare class when searching for flights on Kayak or Google Flights?

Thanks!

Schweden

It's based on membership date.

Just click through to Expedia or the airline page and it should show booking class in the details.

paperwastage

nope. there are fare classes that can accure 0%. need to verify whether the cheap fare counts

https://flyasiana.com/C/US/EN/conten...alliance-miles

Air china:
Mileage Earning Not Available O,I,X,N 0%


one cheap fare I see is T = 25%. 1/4 of 12k = 3k.....


you have 24 months (from your initial membership date) to get *G. look at the benefits of *G (lounge, priority boarding/seats), not worth mileage running unless you are really close to the limit

lsquare

Thx. In your opinion, what's the most cost effective way to achieve *G without a mileage run with CA?

I just checked with Expedia and they do show the fare class. It's L so that means a lot of flights to attain status. I wouldn't mind a couple of cheap premium economy or J fares just to do this.

lsquare

Thx. How can I find the membership date online?

paperwastage

2019 Mileage run for *A gold

a good balance between $ and time:

EWR-SIN nonstop on SQ Premium Economy R
currently around $1500, can be under $1100 during a sale, earns 100% (RT = 19k miles).


UA/AC usually has USA-China for under $550 fare class G/K, which earns 50% (17k RT = 9k miles)

jimmielin

If you're flying CA the guys over here do CAN-PEK-JFK/EWR return in Premium Economy, it books into Y/E/E/Y for the four segments if you want to maximize miles (100% Y, 90% E), make sure you book the domestic segments on a plane without premium eco to get Y, 10% more miles. Otherwise four flights in E/E/E/E are also a good choice. It works out for about $700 round-trip if the dates fit right, that's about 13k miles.

Most fares on CA earn miles, except a few nasty "special discounts" on their website or Chinese OTAs, who sell economy in the N bucket (which is for nonrev travel) or business in award buckets (I). But that's more of an exception, in general cheap fares are in L/K with 25% if you book ex-outstations, or T with 25% or 50% ex-China.

elliott44k

Is there a reason it has to be CA?

Also, once you hit Asiana Gold (20,000) you will get a 5% bonus on your mileage.

sol95

elliott44k

Oh is that so? Didn't know that, thanks for that info.

lsquare

Thank you so much for the information. What's the best way to search for CAN-PEK-JFK/EWR fares on CA in premium economy? $700 for 13k miles sounds pretty good. A few of those trips and I'm good to go.

lsquare

It doesn't have to be CA. It could be AC, UA, or any other *A carrier that flies out of North America. You got any other ideas on how to do this? This sounds fun and it wouldn't be so bad if I do this in premium economy.

Schweden

From what I've observed over the past few months from the East coast:

Cheapest way => UA/AC K fares (~5.7 cents USD per mile)
Best value => BR/NH/etc Premium Economy (~6.7 cents USD per mile)
Cheapest business => CA Discount Business Fares (~11 cents USD per mile)

If you can find SQ premium economy at near $1,100, then that is a great deal and the cost per mile is comparable to a UA K ticket to SIN. However, BR/NH premium economy is usually the best value/comfort proposition and offers a better choice of destinations with the stopover in Japan or Taiwan. Overall cheapest business class would be if you could find a cheap fare to somewhere south on CM or AV as it can be had for 8.5 CPM or even lower sometimes.

lsquare

I guess my question is how does one quickly and easily search for those fares on Google Flights? Or what OTA do you use?

Thx.

Schweden

Google Flights.

- Enter home airport, enter destination as "Asia" or a specific airport if that's important
- Select travel length weekend/1 week/2 weeks
- Select travel month
- Filter airlines "Star Alliance"
- Select class