I had a test booking using RJ to BKK via AMM one-way business class - and it costs $190. This is inline with the $190 to $210 I have seen using CX on this route.

Dont know which routes it does not cost you much.

You got the AA level completely wrong.

AA is 135K on All Partner award - cheaper than AS 140K and BA 150K.

Where did you see AA being 185K?!

Remember, partner award is at Saaver level. The high level is only for AA metal ANYTIME award which you cannot even have with partner. I think virtually all programs when using partner flights, it has to be the Saver level award.

However AS' 140K F to HKG on CX is the same level to Africa as well so as buschoi already pointed out you could have gone to Africa with HKG a stopover, if Africa is in your future travel plan this is a good thing to remember.

The AA all-partner award would require you to travel via Europe, not Asia. I'm guessing that the travel via asia would end up at 185k as it would be charged as two awards.

Since WHEN AA All Partner awards to Asia require you to route through Europe?!

AA All Partner award specifically requires one to go TPAC for Asia. Yes, if going to Asia via Europe there are 2 awards - NA to Europe and Europe to Asia. But that is not what the OP asks.

The poster of this thread wants to know which program has the least mileage cost to Asia. He does not say he wants to go Asia via Europe.

I dont see any program forces to route though Europe to Asia. In fact, Aeroplan and may be CO in the past, allow you to route through Europe to Asia without additional mileage cost.

It does not matter which program costs less, the importance is which program can find award seats easier. So far CX on AA miles or BA miles seem to be the easiest to find award seats especially getting closer to departure, in F - because CX is a smarter airline which rather gets some money from its partners in the "sale" of award seats rather than letting the F cabin flies empty. Airline seats and hotel rooms are the most perishable commodities when you come to think about it. The smarter ones would hold out their award seats till much closer to departure then release them if it is obvious there would be no revenue sale.

iirc, another difference between BA & AA redemptions is:

BA allows for unlimited stopovers (w/no backtracking) whereas
AA only allows a stopover at the NA gateway

The BA unlimited stopovers are limited at Natural Connection Point on most direct routing.

I think this unlimited stopovers feature is being overtouted by various websites which either the bloggers did not understand the rules or being deliberately misled the readers by omitting the important details on how the rule works. It finally caused BA to enforce the "Natural Connection Points" instead of a very lose approach in the past.

People are getting shot down on routing that were reported allowed in the past. There is a thread in BA forum one can read details if interested.

Would you mind posting the link to the thread that you are referring to, or giving a few examples?

I have heard of some fairly unusual stopover allowance in the past. It would be a shame if BA started severely restricting the ability to do so.

i was charged over 250 for one way ticket JFK - AMM - HKG.
that includes the phone fee, it has no YQ?

There is a dedicated Thread in BA forum regarding Stopover rules.

Starting a few months ago, people are being told the stopovers must occur at Natural Connection Points on most direct routes. In fact the language in BAEC T&Cs are almost identical just without the Natural.

The rules have been there but they are not enforced in the past because the majority of BAEC members do not abuse this privilege. However the Chase 100K Visa changed all that. With the publicity of various blogs touting the "unlimited stopovers" allowed by BA, without giving the caveat that the stopovers were only for the connection point on most direct route to the destination.

It is only a shame that we are now facing strict enforcement because the abuse of such benefit.

The most recent example is that the famous / infamous route to SA and onto Eastern Island routing that was possible last year and may be earlier this year has been consistently shot down.

It has YQ. the poster about no YQ either has outdated info or inaccurate info.