Helping a friend adopt

James from BNA

VR Jacket Guy
I'm trying to help some friends adopt in China.

Current balances-
AA 65K in account one, 108K in account 2, 65K in account 3
330k UR
200k Avios
90k MR

Dates (all economy seats)
2 adults, CHS>PEK, May 9, 10, 11
2 adults, 1 lap child, HKG or PEK to CHS, May 25-27

They might be interested in buying cash tickets and upgrading with miles to business.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 

sriki

Level 2 Member
That's admirable. Hope, everything goes smoothly for them.

I took a quick look and there is availability on UA X on May 9 & 10 (CHS-IAD-PEK) at saver level. 35k + $80.6. $75 of the fess is close-in ticketing that can be avoided if they status or transferring UR to SQ instead and booking partner award (45k).

For the return, there is PEK-ORD-CHS on united on May 27. I looked for two people as I do not know how lap infants ticket works. Same 35k + $35. For HKG departure, there is availability on May 27 with two stops (SFO, IAD) at 40k miles. I looked up avios/AA availability for the return and the options were limited from HKG and more expensive. I can look into this more if these do not work for any reason.
 

James from BNA

VR Jacket Guy
@sriki, thanks for the reply.

The more I think about holding a 17 month old in my lap for a 14 hour flight in economy, the more miserable it sounds.

I'm thinking about booking them on the United saver outbound and then using the 3 orphan AA accounts coming back at the AAnytime economy award of 65k one way.

Dad books the window in the 3, 3, 3 config. Mom books the aisle. I book the middle seat and never intend to travel. I hold it until after the flight takes off, and then pay the $150 fee to redeposit my 65k miles.

I suppose the airline could give my seat to a standby passenger but for $150 it might be worth it.
 
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sriki

Level 2 Member
@sriki, thanks for the reply.

The more I think about holding a 17 month old in my lap for a 14 hour flight in economy, the more miserable it sounds.

I'm thinking about booking them on the United saver outbound and then using the 3 orphan AA accounts coming back at the AAnytime economy award of 65k one way.

Dad books the window in the 3, 3, 3 config. Mom books the aisle. I book the middle seat and never intend to travel. I hold it until after the flight takes off, and then pay the $150 fee to redeposit my 65k miles.

I suppose the airline could give my seat to a standby passenger but for $150 it might be worth it.
Why book using Anytime at 65k? You could just book 3 tickets at 35k on UA and still come up less than 2x65k.
 

jleey98

Level 2 Member
Have you thought about transferring to Korean Air? They price out at 125,000 plus taxes from the US to China plus ~$440 in taxes and fuel surcharges round trip.

More than likely, you'll have to purchase a ticket from CHS to your gateway but the price is very good and the seat and service you'll get is better than Air China.
 

SanDiego1K

Level 2 Member
You're a classy guy. I applaud you for helping your friends in this way. Are your friends confident of their return? It's been awhile since friends adopted in China, but I always understood that the return date wasn't fixed. There's a lot of paperwork to be done such as getting a passport for the baby that makes the travel date uncertain. Also, if you are willing to use points for 3 people for the return, can you book the third seat for "baby xxx" (their last name)?
 

dukerau

Level 2 Member
A few negatives to booking cash and using miles to upgrade:
  • It's difficult to find availability and also often more costly than just booking a business class award from the outset. This is due to requirements of a certain fare bucket to be eligible or a cash copay if you buy a discount or deep discount fare bucket.
  • Less flexibility - award tickets are inherently flexible. While many complain about fees to change/cancel awards, they're extremely low compared to cash (non-refundable) tickets. And instead of having to pay the price differential in addition to a change fee to change at the last minute, you just need last minute award availability, which is generally good. As SanDiego1K brings up, when I've known people who go abroad to adopt, it never seems to work out as expected in terms of timeline.
 
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