best carrier using ff miles to china
 

i am trying to fly from the united states to taiyun airport in southern china. does anyone know an airline that would be best choice using frequent flyer miles. also i guess i could connect through hong kong. looking to either purchase ticket, then use miles to upgrade to business class, or use ff miles for business class ticket.
thanks
michael

If you have miles with American Airlines they have a great deal for Biz Class to HK (and continuing on to mainland Asia) for 80k miles on Cathay Pacific. Its the best biz class FF deal to Asia that I'm aware of.

You need to be aware that most all airlines won't let you upgrade - using FF miles - from coach to biz or 1st class if you are using a cheaper, discount fare.

United is one of the few carriers that will allow you to purchase a discount ticket and upgrade with miles.

Where is taiyun airport? What province?

I found a Taiyuan airport (TYN) in Shanxi province, but that's in northern China.

If you're flying from the west coast, paid business class fares on China Eastern start at $1950 from LAX to Shanghai. I don't know how that compares with the upgradeable coach fares you're finding. When are you going? There are severe cut backs in flight schedules due to SARS currently. I think the China Eastern transpacific flights are only operating 3 times a week right now.

If using miles only, Cathay is probably the best choice. But I believe it is 85,000 miles and only to Hong Kong, not destinations in mainland China. I'm looking at the CX85A award on the AA site. From Hong Kong, there aren't any direct flights to TYN that I'm aware of, but perhaps I have the wrong airport and you intend to fly to a different one.

The best transpacific airlines are Cathay Pacific and Singapore. Cathay is in the same One World alliance as American and you can use your miles. Where is Taiyun? I have never heard of it.

Hey Kenstee, the AA award mileage levels have gone up. They are going up again by the end of the month, according to aa.com.

All current airline partner awards must be ticketed by July 31, 2003 and travel will be valid for one year.

Beginning August 1, 2003, a new partner award structure will be available. This new award structure will offer one list of awards that are valid on any of our current airline partners.

View complete details on the new All Airline awards

Michael,

1.) Where are you flying from?
2.) What airline miles do you have?
3.) What province is Taiyun in? (familiar with Taiyuan, not Taiyun)

to mthomp77
i can leave from anywhere on the west coast. actually trying to fly to guangzhou from the us. any thoughts?
thanks
michael

Using frequent flier miles, you'll be able to fly to Hong Kong with your miles and but you'll have to buy a ticket from Hong Kong to Guangzhou (it's a fairly short hop - about an hour, as I remember). The flight was fairly inexpensive a few years ago. The Chinese airline that flies the Hong Kong to Guangzhou route is not affiliated with any US frequent flier programs.