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Great AA First Class Award Avail LA to Hong Kong

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American Airlines flies their Flagship, 777-300ER, from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and it’s a nice long route to fully enjoy all the perks of premium travel: pjs, movies, nice champagne.  Normally, I wouldn’t advocate spending the difference between business ( 70k AA miles, and First 110k), but one of the the little secrets of American’s premium cabins is using Etihad. I was looking at space to Asia, and happened upon a nice bevy of availability throughout the year. If you’re using Etihad to book, the difference between business, which has limited avail, and first class is just 12,500 miles.

Etihad award chart for AA.

Etihad Partner Award Charts

Various points of availability.

a screenshot of a computer a screenshot of a flight schedule a screenshot of a flight schedule

One of the best ways to transfer into Etihad is American Express membership rewards

How you’d utilize Amex points is by searching the availability on AA.com.  When you find the dates that you want to book, call into Etihad and ask them to pull the space, transfers are instant, so once they have found the space ask them to hold. You can transfer 1000:1000 into Etihad, the points should populate, and they can book your tix.

The great thing is that you can utilize the Qantas first class lounge in LA, but you also have access to AA’s Flagship dining experience in Terminal 4, which I haven’t experienced yet, but comes very highly recommended.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 60k points after $4k spend in 3 months
    • Worth $750 in Chase Travel℠ and way more if you maximize transfer partners
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  • $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
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  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
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  • Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
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We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

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Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

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6 Comments

  • TS May 17, 2018

    Availability is better than usual, especially for AA, but I’m not sure I’d call it great. Very few dates for 2 people.

  • Christian May 17, 2018

    Nice post. I avoid American to Asia due to past experiences, but I noticed that Korean, Garuda, and ANA are Etihad partners. Does Etihad charge YQ on any of them? Thanks!

    • Christian May 17, 2018

      Never mind. I just went to Etihad’s website to hunt for additional information, but found that except AA, the above are all distance based.

  • Sam May 16, 2018

    Thanks. How many Etihad miles is it in this case to book AA First to Hong Kong?

    • AdamR May 16, 2018

      Per the chart, it’s either 62,500 or 67,500 for F. I don’t know if EY considers HK to be in Asia 1 or Asia 2 and I’m too lazy to look.

    • Miles May 16, 2018

      67.5

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