Hi. I'm looking to book 1 roundtrip FF award ticket from NYC to anywhere in China (in order of preference: PEK, HKG, SHA, PVG), departing in early August and returning approximately two weeks later. I have 50,000 SPG points (i.e. 60,000 miles) available to transfer to any airline that Starwood participates with (15+ airlines). I've checked a few sites and called a few airlines for awards availability, but haven't found anything yet. Is there any chance of finding an awards ticket for August to China considering it's the busy season, or should I just give up and buy a ticket? If anyone happens to know of an airline that has awards availability (I'm willing to make up to 2 transfers) for my earlier mentioned itinerary, I would greatly appreciate it if you could private message me. Thanks.

Ygpm...

Interesting topic, but no responses noted. It would be nice to know the responses and what action you take or don't take. Not surer why the response has to be a private message.

I'll keep you updated on what I do - responses don't have to be via PM, feel free to post here.

I would do the checking by phone, not online. Seems like most airlines' online systems don't allow them to check partner award availability online. Once you find something that works for you, you should be able to put it on hold, transfer your miles, and complete your purchase.

Are you looking for a ticket in Coach?

Originally, I was going over to PEk in late August and award tickets were awful. I was told double miles or no go. I switched to October and found tickets, but with not non-stop from North America to China. The flight back left Hong Kong late afternoon and I had to overnight in Soul.

So I looked for Cheap tickets. CO out of Newark was high. I ended up with Air Canada out of LAX. I change in YVR, but to go from YVR instead of LAX was costly.

My cost was $3,135 per ticket business class. To make this work I am overnighting both ways at LAX at the Sheraton Gateway (7,000 Starwood points total for the two nights) and taking Delta to LAX (25,000 miles per ticket -- since I have old delta FF miles not just Skymiles I am getting a FC seat round trip for those miles).

Where I wished to use miles all the way, busy times and less than 331 days out makes it tough. If you are willing to take flights that go out of your way and maybe even fly coach part of the way, keep trying -- something might open.

Now the person I taked to at CO told me that for Asia, CO did not post standard awards until closer to flight time. So I plan to keep looking there. The Air Canada tickets are not only relatively cheap, they are refundable!

Air Canada flies 763's to PEK and 343's to HKG. It is upgrading its fleet starting in April (so THEY say) and the Asia flights might be among the first to get the new seats. I am not counting on anything, but you can always hope.

There is, however, BF award availability on CO in August for EWR-PEK on Weds and Thursdays as well as some to HKG.

mshaikun...you couldn't find anything easier on CO/NW?

Define easier.

I could not find a ticket for under $4,700 at the time. That is $1,600 higher. Most alternatives were over $6,000 and not refundable. That meant adding cost of travel insurance.

Late June and July are nearly impossible to get award tickets to asia. August is not too bad.

CO is going to start services to Shanghai. So, something may open up. With OnePass, you also has the option of using Korean Air. I have much better luck with Korean Air than NW or CO.

When? (I haven't heard of any new DOT applications since the 2004 round)

As for the topic at hand, I predict that AA will be a good bet because I think that ORD-PVG will have too much capacity and they won't be willing to drive fares too low during the peak season. UA will be subject to the same economics, but less so because they have an established customer base.

Point #2: August is the heaviest travel month of the year in the US-China market. Evidence of this, is that many otherwise unrestricted fares don't permit any August travel.

Point #3: While I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find an airline to take your 60k miles (because there are so many options), I think you'd be better off paying cash and earning miles, especially if you enjoy our FT "game". I can all but assure you that you'll be able to get from NY to PEK for less than $1000 and IMO, 60k miles are worth more than that (not a lot more, but definitely more, once you back out the opportunity cost of the ~17k miles forgone).

By a couple of CO employees on the elite phone line. I believe they said around June time frame. I know the schedule is not in the computer systems yet. I have been looking.

Is it going to be EWR-PVG? Please, please please.

I'm pretty sure those employees were mistaken. TMK the next frequency allocation isn't scheduled to begin until mid 2007 (for flights starting in 2008).