Using miles for China adoption airfare
 

My wife and I are in the process of adopting from China and I'm trying to figure out if there is a strategy moving forward or if we just pay cash for airfare. We're pretty early in our process (past home study) and still have probably 12-18 months before we travel. I've searched the China Adoption threads on FT and it seems the most recent is about 14 months old and relates to DL (of which I have 0 miles).

There will be three of us traveling to China (us and our daughter (8yo)) and four returning (us and our 2 daughters (8yo and ~18 months)). We fly out of SEA. I'm almost positive we'll start in PEK for a few days. After that, we may go to parts unknown (not too worried about that) and then we'll return home from Guangzhao (CAN). There and back have to be relatively straight forward itineraries due to the stress (especially on the return) so I can't really take advantage of stopovers or fun routing. We'll probably have about 5 weeks notice to travel (maybe a week or two more) and I'd like to fly business (even if I have to pay for one).

Here's what I have (to date):

AA 170K
AS 300K
BA 140K
UR 100K

On the way, AA seems pretty straight forward out of ORD to PEK (unless I'm missing something easier/cheaper from SEA).

On the way back from CAN, I'm thinking Cathay (via AS)? We can't transit Canada so YVR is out but could go though SFO (via HG).

I can't see using BA due to YQ, multiple stops, and distance but I may be missing something.

Am I on the right track? I've never traveled internationally and never booked an international award ticket so I'm just trying to figure out where best to accrue (and have a back up plan) or just figure out if it is even worth it (although, I'd really like to us miles for all/some of the airfare).

Thanks in advance for any help.

It may be very hard to find the saver/low award tickets in business class for 3 or 4 with only 5 weeks notice.

I agree with mikelat that it would be very hard to find business class availability for 3/4. You will probably have luck with CX availability on a last minute award T-one week, but you would need to be flexible about your U.S. gateway city.

Depends on timing.. China seems seasonal.
I booked a flight yesterday for China for this Wednesday - that's 4 days notice..
tons of availability in March/April when i looked in economy and business.. and on AA and UA.

So if you have to go during a high season. no chance. (i.e. december was hard, i couldn't get a ticket a couple of years ago even several months out)..
but march/april no one goes there, so you should be good.

AA is not good for Seattle.. flying to ORD then connecting is going backwards.
UA is much better - connections through SFO, or partners that connect through NRT, ICN, or Taipei somewhere.

I don't know how the points will work out for you on this but you may want to check out Air China to/from PEK. I was able to book awards seats in biz class for 5 people so they appear to offer alot of award availability. On the flip side if you must pay $$ out of pocket for the tickets I believe Air China is the cheapest out there.

IIRC, CAN's not far across the mainland border from HKG. You may want to think about crossing into HKG and flying from there on the return.

Can you not route SEA-ORD-PEK on AA metal?

I'll look into this as it should be easier to get on CX. Just not sure how hard it would be to get to HKG with a newly adopted child. :-)

You might want to consider late in ticketing fees and fees to change dates in various programs. My impression is that when people do Chinese adoptions, often the return date gets changed several times after they're in China.

You will need to be careful in obtaining a one-way ticket for your newly-adopted daughter. I don't know the specifics of how such tickets are priced (and they may vary by airline), but she won't be able to fly free. You might find some information on threads regarding award travel to/from China with infants, not just those regarding adoptions.