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On April 5th, Air China started flying from Houston To Panama on Tuesdays and Sundays. The route allows Air China to service central America from their hub in Beijing. The route is an interesting one, and my speculation is that it has something to do with Panama’s proficiency in tax avoidance, and Air China recognizes an increased demand in their clientele looking for ways to get their money into other markets. Purely speculation on my part, but of all places, Panama is a peculiar destination to pinpoint from China. The cool part is that you can experience a Air China’s first class suites on a short flight, or try out their business class with almost guaranteed avail. It is a fifth freedom route which means you can book these legs separately from any continuation from/to Beijing.
It’s pretty wide open for the entire schedule.
Here are prices in Econ, Biz, First from the States on various airlines
- Avianca
- 18k, 36k, 46k
- Aeroplan:
- 20k, 30k, 42,5k
- Singapore KrisFlyer:
- 17.5k, 30k, 40k.
- United MileagePlus:
- 17.5k 30k, 40k
How you can buy miles, use stopovers, transfer, etc
Avianca often puts their miles on sale for under 1.4 cents which means you could buy business class for less than $500 and first for less $640. Pretty solid deals. Singapore Airlines has a great stopover policy, meaning if you were to fly business class from Manchester to Houston, you could pay $100 and then later in the year fly from Houston to Panama all for 70k miles. You can of course transfer Amex into Aeroplan or Singapore, Chase UR into Singapore and United…Citi transfer direct to Avianca.
Service:
One of the biggest complaints of Air China is that the service sucks. This flight is less than 4 hours, so if you’re considering flying them on a much longer flight, you’d get a taster with this flight. Air China is one of Star Alliance partners you’ll often see with tons of avail to Asia, and also facilitates a great sweet spot with Virgin Atlantic miles ( 75k in first R/T from LHR to PEK).
Business Class on Air China features seats very similar to what is found on American’s transcon business class A321T or their 757s.
First class is massive and personally, I’d spring for the extra 10k miles just to try it out.
You could buy the route as well…although prices get steep fast.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
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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