I like the sound of that

Try February:

Los Angeles (LAX) to Vancouver (YVR) - Mon, Feb 6

Air Canada 551

Vancouver (YVR) to Shanghai (PVG) - Mon, Feb 6

Air Canada 25

On the way back:

Shanghai (PVG) to Vancouver (YVR) - Tue, Feb 14

Air Canada 26

Vancouver (YVR) to Los Angeles (LAX) - Tue, Feb 14

Air Canada 554

Price including taxes & fees $820.30 ( + the cost for you to get to/from LA )

AA will get you over 11 hours 35,000 miles...UA get you back, 32,000 miles...13 hours one hour lay over....UA CC and a AA credit card will do it...SPG/ Continental.../Chase has many ways..not a big deal.....

Lot of Chinese use AC it is cheaper if you are paying cash..

Quick update here:

My dates are still flexible, but would like to go the second week of May, so that I can have my trip coincide with my uncle's.

I applied for the AA card with Citi and was denied, am going to try to get them to reconsider, but as of now that's where I stand with Citi.

Got approved with Barclays USAir card for 40k miles. Can I use this to get one-way? I tried searching their website, but can't seem to find anything.

US Airways does not allow one-way awards. It is 60K US for Economy to North Asia, 90K for Business, 120K for First round trip.

However, US is known for selling miles at discounts (usually 100% bonus) many times during the year. However, I think they just ended a bonus on 12/31/11 so don't know when the next one will be.

One good thing about US is that you are allowed to route US-North Asia via Europe (and stopover there) which can be fun on Biz or First.

US appears to be part of the *A. Can I transfer the miles to one of the alliance partners and get a one way ticket that way?

The stopover sounds cool too. I don't know anything about stopover rules, but I would love to stop somewhere along the way.

No, alliances mean you can use your US miles to book on *A partners --- you cannot transfer miles between partners.

I would look at the US Airways forum for tips on how to book with US miles ... you'll need enough for a round-trip though.

Seems like the best thing for me might be to try and get the extra 20k miles with US Airways.

Is there anyway to trade some of my Southwest miles?

Is it possible to get miles with US Airways somehow from Chase? I have a good non-rewards card with chase that I could trade, so I think I should be able to get approved with them for a new card. I think I read something about being able to trade Marriot points, or maybe there is something along these lines I could do.

In general, airline points are non-transferrable between different airlines, whether they are alliance or not.

Chase is not a credit card partner with US Airways ... they are with United Airlines (yes, I know, both *A but still different companies) and there was a prior post that showed how to get Chase cards to get United miles.

Hotel points -> airline points conversion are usually very inefficient (high # of hotel points needed for low # of airline miles) with the exception of the Starwood program, which gives a 1:1 ratio for many airlines (and 1:1.25 if you transfer 20,000 points).

If you currently have a Chase card, I would suggest applying for the Sapphire Preferred 50K first. If you don't get approved, you can offer to close your current Chase card for the SP card. You still need to meet the spending requirement though.

I would also keep on Citi to get the AA card. Both AA and UA allow one-way awards, so you could mix and match a trip by flyin OneWorld (AA or Cathay or Japan Airlines) one way and *A another.

I got approved for the sapphire, so now I have the 50k UR points to work with as well as the 40k with us airways. So how do I use these points to get me back and forth to Shanghai?

The first step is to complete the minimum spending requirements for those cards; only then will you receive the points/miles.

After that, you'll have about 53K Chase UR points (which can transfer to UA) and the 40K with US.

You need 65K for an economy round-trip with UA. They allow one-way awards.

You need 60K for an economy round-trip with US Airways. They do not allow one-way awards.


So, you either need to find a way to get 12K more Chase UR points or United miles

OR

20K more US Airways miles.



For the 12K Chase UR points, if you do online shopping, I highly suggest you use their Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall. I just spent $100 on Groupon and with the shopping mall, I earned 1200 more Chase UR points, for a total of 1300 when you include the $100 I spent.

For the 20K US Airways miles, it's probably best to wait for a 100% Buy Miles promotion, since 20K miles right now is $750, which wouldn't be cost effective.


Did you get approved for the Citi AA card? If you can complete the spending requirements for that, it would really help, since AA and UA allow one-way awards. You could fly AA one way and UA the other.

Thanks again for the advice. I'm going to meet the spend the day I receive the card and I pushed my statement date up, so hopefully I get the points in a reasonable amount of time.

The citi recon. line was no help (as is typical from what I gather) so I sent them a letter, will keep my fingers crossed, but at this point it's not looking good.

The US Airways card says I get 5k off award bookings, does that mean the award ticked would only be 55k?

Also, I found a good rate in the UR mall for a RT flight on Emirates Airline for $814 from LAX to PVG. I called Chase and they said I could apply my points towards it without having enough to buy the whole ticket. Can you confirm if what the rep is telling me is correct? If so,the 50k would translate to $625 in credit towards the flight leaving me only paying about $200 for the flight, which I would be pretty happy with. Not sure if this is a bad use of points though.

Emirates might take you a bit out of your way, since mooriginating in Dubai. If originating out of SAN, a direct connection, or one stop would be best. Many US-Asian flights last 12-24 hours, depending on connections and stops. It's a long ride, especially in coach.

If you can pay for a normal airline ticket with the Saphire, look for a good carrier and routing. You do know you'll need a visa as well, eh?

Probably going to depart LAX, I'm closest to SAN though. I don't mind going out of the way in general just looking for the cheapest flight. If I do fly Emirates, I'm actually going to see if I can stop in Dubai for a night or two. I think that would be pretty cool.

Keep in mind that if you use the Sapphire for the Emirates flight, you can't transfer them to UA -- is that $800ish deal round-trip? If so, it might actually work out.

The US Airways 5K reduction only works if you book flights only on US Airways. Since they do not fly to Asia, you won't get the discount for this trip.