AzSteve

Hello!

New guy here. Traveling to Thailand in November from Phoenix. I plan on using mileage on one of AA partners, either Pacific Cathay or Japan.

Couple of questions:

Cathay or Japan?

Business or First? Or is it even worth spending the miles for business or first?

Which airline is operating the nicest/newest airplane from the states and from which city?

Thank You!

Mwenenzi

Have you used AA ff miles for a lonh haul award flight before? Many airlines/routes do not have first class.
The best is the airline that has award availability with AA miles. Award availability is far from guaranteed.

Have you checked award availability on AA? AA.com shows only a fraction of all the airlines you can use AA miles for. Award Nexus will show almost all of them (excepting a couple non-oneworld partners). If you find availability on Award Nexus, you have to call AA on the phone to book it.

The first rule when using miles/avios/points in any program is "book what you can find" i.e. you can't expect there to be availability on every flight. Or an award you see today still will be available tomorrow. If you need to get from A to B on a certain time, using ff miles/points is not always a viable option.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ssistance.html

Oneworld and other airline Awards Rules, Information 2015 on

LondonElite

You really can't go wrong with F in either CX or JL. My preference would be CX but ultimately it'll be down to what flights you can get from LAX or SFO for the TPAC leg.