Yes the 144-hr is true, as long as you can travelling to a third country not, in which case it counts since you're arriving from Hong Kong SAR and going to US.

I wouldn't mention that HKG was a connection point from US to prevent issues from arising.

FYI, for anyone who is doing a MR from the east coast, you can get the trip down to 1.25 cpm with creative routings. You can force 3 stops in each direction. For optimal routing from East coast to China, force South East (like IAH), West Coast (like SFO) and Japan (like KIX). This will net you nearly 23K miles and possible at as low as $259 from what I've found. Also look to finish in smaller Canadian cities.

Could you possibly provide an example of a 20+K routing from the east coast? I haven't found any IAD/DCA routings of >19K for under $450.

Found SFOHKGHGH returning PVG-Canada via LAX for November before thanksgiving for $312.

what an absolute mess

All that hopping off planes to trains and back on planes and youd be too damn tired to even enjoy asia

not worth it at all

You must not know a true mileage runner then.:). Goal is to obtain most miles with the least amount of money and the least amount of time.

Taxi fare from HGH to Hangzhou city center is about 100 RMB (~$15) and the shuttle from Hangzhou city center to PVG costs about 130 RMB (~$20). In Hangzhou, it is best to use the subway because it is very difficult to get a taxi without didi App. Hopefully, this information helps.

You can also arrive at HGH and depart from HGH (i.e., without traveling to PVG).

Great find - I played around a bit to see if I could get it ticketed on other than 016, failed. :(

Why not book on 016 anyways? Most of the flight is on UA metal, so either way, RDM earnings are minimal - and the fare difference far outweighs the benefits of getting more RDM on other non-UA metal.

I found a routing for $267 from BTV, returning to YUL which I don't think I can use sadly: https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...-IADYUL0UA4723

Instead of arriving in YUL at midnight (or IAD at 7:30 PM), you can get a red eye SFO-IAD and arrive in YUL late morning on the 12th for $295: https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...-IADYUL1UA4625

Completing the r/t requires two nights in HGH and a $16 bus ticket YUL to BTV.

I'm curious if my itinerary above has room for these modifications. ITA doesn't replicate the above Google Flights output so I'm not sure what the fare basis is (and I can't say I'm an expert at parsing the fare rules either!).

Still don't think this is necessarily a "best practice". Nor is the situation you're describing above the same as "and you can just miss that segment" as you described in post 1. I'd almost suggest you just fly that middle segment and pop back to HKG rather than try to manipulate it out of your control.

I see many flaws in this strategy.

First, "Go through customs slowly".. You don't control customs (especially Chinese customs)? Are you just going to sit on the toilet for 30 mins? What if the DragonAir flight itself is delayed an hour or two? Etc.

"They will delete that segment".. Will they for sure? I'm sure agents can/may/will.. but I'm not sure this WILL work 100%. I could be wrong, but IME calling in as you're abusing the routing/rules (hidden-city) isn't a good strategy.

Lastly, if talking about SZX, one can say "oh i missed the flight, I'll just take the next train", but how does one "get alternative transport" to HGH or CAN without an agent rebooking them? CAN is like an 8 hour train, HGH?

Anyway, great fare, solid routing.. love all these destinations.. just don't like to suggestion to some (who may be novices) to try and force a complex "hidden city style" hack (while in country) when it's OUT of your control. My personal strategy is control as much as you can rather than cede it over to the airline.

Best of luck.

Analyzing my mid-year standing. I won't have any trouble reaching the PQD for the year. I'm falling short on PQM and need a push toward the next Lifetime tier. I've booked two of these round trips.

If you click to United and scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a "View fare rules and restrictions" link. Far from expert myself, but the second one above (for example) is

City pair Fare class Fare basis code
BTV-HGH G GLE03NMB
HGH-YMQ S GLX03DM5

Just booked EWR-HKG-HGH-SFO-IAH-IAD-YYZ in early April for $392US. Need to pay to get down to EWR for the positioning flight -- I couldn't find a way to make this work on one ticket starting from YYZ (is GLX03DM5 only valid leaving Asia?)

I missed that link at the bottom, thanks for bringing that to my attention!