We may be moving to PVG for a few months, and I've been looking to see what destinations we could reach from there for short trips. So far, using random dates, I haven't found much of anything for under $1000. I've tried NRT, BKK, HKG, SIN, PER, SYD, and a few others. Did I just happen to pick bad dates? Or are there really no good (*A) fares to anywhere from PVG?

Were you using Expedia or something? Most US booking engines can only quote silly full-fare prices for international sectors, you need to find a local TA.

I was using ITA as a top-level search (specifying PVG as point-of-sale), but also went directly to ANA's web site to check the PVG-NRT fare.

There are plenty of discount tickets from Shanghai to various destinations.
The biggest problem is, you have to be able to read Chinese. Then you can search fares at ie. http://travel.yahoo.com.cn .

I know this is not short ride, but Shanghai-Europe by SQ gives good value.

For example:
Shanghai-Singapore-Europe in SQ-M class(3 months) is from 6500 CNY, B class(6 months) is from 7200 CNY.

1 USD is roughly 8 CNY.

Don't forget fuel surcharges which you'll be charged 60 USD x 4 segments = 240 USD(!).

I suggest you plan on using miles for a lot of those leisure trips, particularly Japan. For SE Asia, I usually buy tix because you can usually get to SIN, BKK, SGN, KUL etc for around $350 (much less from Beijing, if you don't mind airlines like Air Zimbabwe or Sri Lankan), but NW miles are useful for these destinations as well (*A awards aren't such a good value when you have to cross zones).

For a small snippet of the discount fare scene, you can check out the following page on CTRIP (Chinese, but pretty easy to comprehend):

http://www.ctrip.com/supermarket/Fli....asp?dcity=sha

I should add another note on redemptions: on NH/CA, I usually redeem in Y because I don't think C warrants the extra 10k miles, but I like regional C on OZ. On NW (which often means CZ/MH), I try to get J in at least one direction (NW lets you split awards).

Except that we need the EQMs. Which also rules out all the oddball airlines.

ctrip.com doesn't seem very useful in English. I can't figure out what to put in for "Delivery City" (Issue City PVG is not exist, Issue City Shanghai is not exist, etc).

personally, i have no trouble picking up enough eqms with the transpacs and europe trips. for intra-asia when my company's not footing the bill, sri lankan starts to look mighty attractive (pek-bkk rt for $225).

ctrip is pretty much completely useless for international bookings, but the page i referenced is nice because it shows some of the better deals on offer (in general terms).

Sure, when your company is paying, it's not hard. For those of who pay for our own travel, it's not as easy.

Maybe it's good if you read Mandarin, but I can't get it to show any offers in English at all.

another trick that i use on occasion when i want to go to nrt (and the us) is to pick up a discounted rt on nh to lax or sfo and take a stopover. believe it or not, this is almost always cheaper than a standalone ticket to tokyo. the only downside is that discount y on nh only gives 70% mileage credit.