1. Moondog's advice is solid, head on, and should be listened to by all seasoned FTers
2. That being said, moondog, I feel that the OP may not obviously have as much experience as you in this type of transactions purchasing and using US miles, so maybe something not as straightforward as say you or I are used to.
3. Is AA and DL still having their battle? I was seeing ridiculous fares MIA-PVG for around $500 for weeks on end March-May...

IME, it's best to use a white lie in this case (well, when broaching any gray areas like US to Asia via Europe): "Your colleague, Vivian helped me find these flights, but the call was dropped unexpectedly. The flights are: ....."

Regarding points 1 and 2, the way I see it, the downside risk to him is no more than the cost of a short term ANX or Expertflyer subscription (or zero if he is willing to tolerate ANA), as long as he doesn't buy the miles until after he as a reservation in hand.

Basically, there are only two areas in which his lack of experience could (possibly) hamper his efforts:

1) the research front... we're here to help
2) communicating with the US people in a smooth manner (i.e. divulging just enough info and knowing when to hang up and call back in order to reach a different agent)

While I know many of have invested oodles of time into these matters in order to become good at the game, this stuff isn't rocket science.

Unless the OP has a Dividend Miles account prior to 2/1/2011, he won't be able to get the 25% toolbar bonus.

I don't know what the details of the purchased miles are. So I have no idea how much it would take to buy the miles required.

On the CO site, there are "saver" business awards available on AC for the time period indicated by the OP. These would connect through Toronto on the non-stops between YYZ and PVG.

Total miles = 125K. Travel dates 6/15 and 8/16. Depending on the departure city in the US, there may be an overnight in Newark or Toronto on the way out. This would be US domestic first class to YYZ and then the new AC lie flat business pods between YYZ and PVG.

I believe that fare war (or skirmish) is over. I did a bunch of fare searches for the OP's dates and his prices reflected the market.

90k US fetches the same ticket. In the event the OP doesn't have an account, I would gladly give him one of mine. Low batt, so no time to check the cost, but around 1250, all in (biz class).

ETA: With my remaining juice, I just checked it: $1237.50 for 45k miles (=90k). Taxes should be around $50.

I'm glad you know that because I don't have access to the US award search system.

My basic point was that AC has made business class award space open to other *A carriers for the OP's time period. That is the big deal.

That ... and finding open award seat to and from YYZ

Can't call yourself a true FTer if you don't know the ANA tool .

there really isn't any reasonable fare...I just checked flights from all the major east coast hubs to chinese airports....even checked tokyo and it's still just as expensive...i imagine that you'll be able to get a $1200 fare if you wait a little bit longer, but that will be from JFK most certainly.

i imagine you'll have to be a bit flexible with your dates, but try the US reward idea. if there's nothing in Y there most certainly will be a Biz ticket available somewhere around your dates....and you should try to check into other airports in China for availability such as Beijing or Guangzhou. Guangzhou actually has a decent number of flights going to it, and a flight to SH won't run you more than $150

good luck!

I know the ANA tool. But it has its limitations.

While I agree that it can be annoying to use (especially that new first step), it provides the exact same results as Award Nexus.

Speaking of Award Nexus, if the OP were to PM Peter explaining his situation, I'm pretty sure Peter would hook him up with a trial account.

I'm getting the feeling (esp with recent DL moves) I should be jumping to the *A game here in China...

I use the AC and CO sites because they have month based availability calendars for specific award types. It makes finding the cheapo award dates very easy. Then, when you know the dates for the critical flight segments, you can use ANA to fine tune the flight search.

As far as the first step on ANA ...

If you use FireFox, there is a GreaseMonkey script floating around on the boards here somewhere to bypass the initial ANA only search.

Sure.

Actually, just to clarify, Award Nexus has a free membership for FT members, which you can sign up here, so not even a trial is needed. It comes with 100 points (about 15 weeks of availability search) and periodic refills.

I would absolutely not count on the airline agents to give you the full pictures. Without exception, all the effective mileage redeemers that I know would do all their research themselves, using the various free and paid sites, before calling in and feeding specific flights to the phone agents to book.

On a daily basis, I see connecting flights that are only visible to some, but not all, of the various airline sites. That is why it is imperative to check all the resources.

ANX is a good start, and even if you only want to stay on the free membership, check out the tips page. Anyone who do their searches manually on the various sites will find that page to be very helpful (it took me 9 months of research and hours of experiments to compile some of those data).