Japan 2020
 

He y I am new to award travel and wanted to get idea for flying business class to Japan for the Olympics. I know this will be a difficult to obtain but I can be very determined!. Does anybody have any ideas as to how I could possibly accomplish this for myself, my husband and 3 year old? I have about 220,000 AA miles and 100,000 Amex rewards points.

You will probably need more miles. AA is unlikely to release (m)any sAAver award seats (i.e. at the lowest number of miles) around that time. To get them (if any are made available) you would need to start looking at the earliest point of availability, and probably set up an ExpertFlyer alert, and don't be too picky (e.g. be prepared to split up your party or take connections).

Assuming you cannot get sAAver award seats, you'd need AAnytime awards. These will run at least 120K miles per person each way. Thus for 3 people, you'd need to gain a decent amount of additional miles over the next months.

Thank you jridge from what I understand I can purchase cathy pacific flights and japan airlines with AA miles? Should I also transfer over Amex Rewards to Asia Miles or Japan Airlines?

4japan2020 Welcome to FT

From where?
Business class award flights will be extremely hard to get. May be impossible.
3 business class awards on the same flight is ~10 times harder (or other factor)

You can use AA ff miles for award flights on AA, Cathay Pacific CX, Japan Airlines JL, other Oneworld airline & AA non-alliance partner airlines

AA forum threads
HELP DESK: MileSAAver / SAAver award questions, assistance

AA oneworld & Other Airline Partner Award information, rules (master thd)

CX---> AA Award: Cathay Pacific / CX, KA availability, etc. (master thd)

JL---> AAdvantage Award using JL / JAL / Japan Airlines (master thd)

We are leaving from NYC. I am wondering if we should try business class from NYC to China than it's a short plane ride (3 hours) from china to Japan since business class award availability is so difficult from NYC directly.

Awards can start to become available 355/330 days out depending on the airline/ffp. People start looking & booking from then

You do not have enough AA ff miles for 3 x USA Japan business class awards.
https://www.awardhacker.com/#f=New%2...=0&c=j&s=1&p=0
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=NYC-NRT...T&MS=wls&DU=mi

Amex MR Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program?

In my opinion you have at best 10% chance of getting 3 business class awards for Olympics. (more likely 0% chance).
Time to make plans to buy air tickets with cash.

Consider these Award booking services - a list and some reviews

Regardless of it being the olympics, the carriers will still release their usual number of reward seats wont they?