AA miles are a great sweet spot for redeeming business class awards between the U.S. and China: just 55,000 AA miles one way, compared with 70,000/80,000 one way using UA miles or Delta miles. That’s a much better deal. But AA business class award space between the U.S. and China is usually extremely hard to find, leaving many people with lots of miles but no good way to use them. Today, however, OneMoreDay found a lot of AA business class award space between Los Angeles/Chicago and Shanghai Pudong, including popular summer dates!
Without further ado: the dates highlighted in blue below are dates where you can find two one-way nonstop business class tickets on LAX-PVG, including peak travel months like June and July:
Below are the nonstop dates for PVG-LAX, including the very popular August return-to-the-U.S. peak season. This search is also for two passengers. Availability is a bit more limited, but still pretty good:
These dates are great for students heading back to China during summer break. There is also a lot of PVG-LAX-PVG space in the reverse direction, which could work well for parents visiting the U.S. AA operates its Los Angeles–Shanghai flights with the newest Boeing 787-8. The business class cabin features reverse herringbone fully lie-flat seats. The photos below are from AA’s official website:
At the same time, the Chicago–Shanghai route has also released plenty of business class space. Below are the dates with two business class award seats on ORD-PVG:
Below are the return dates in August for PVG-ORD with two business class seats:
AA’s Chicago–Shanghai flights use the 777-200. The current business class cabin is configured 2-3-2, is fairly dated, and does not offer lie-flat seats. However, AA is in the process of retrofitting the 777-200 business class cabin. The new cabin should be similar to the 787’s business class, with 1-2-1 reverse herringbone fully lie-flat seats. Whether the full retrofit will be completed by summer remains to be seen, but if you get the new cabin, AA’s nonstop Chicago–Shanghai business class product would be quite solid from a hard-product perspective.
So how do you search and book these awards? chanye previously wrote a very good introductory guide on this topic: American Airlines Miles Guide (2) - Redeeming Miles (Beginner Version)
Because AA miles will be devalued starting March 22, the one-way U.S.–China business class price will increase from 55,000 to 70,000 miles. So if you need these flights, remember to redeem before the devaluation. If you live in the Yangtze River Delta but your base is not in Los Angeles or Chicago, you can also search directly for awards from your base city to Shanghai. Since AA tends to release award space in waves, if you miss this round, the next opportunity may come only after the devaluation. If your travel plans are not yet firm, you can choose to place the ticket on Hold first and issue it later. The Hold button looks like this:
You can also call AA customer service to request a hold. Whether you place the hold online or by phone, you can hold it for 5 days, and no miles or fees will be charged during that time.