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In recent years, Asia has become a popular travel destination for North Americans. With significant competition for desirable flights, finding award flights availability can be challenging.
For travelers planning to use American AAdvantage miles for flights between the United States and Asia, there are options for flying on American Airlines or on partner airlines, which include Oneworld members and non-alliance airlines. Partner airlines currently offering nonstop service between Asia and the U.S. include Cathay Pacific, China Southern Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines (future flights might be operated by Alaska Airlines with the Alaska and Hawaiian combination) and Japan Airlines (JAL).
How to Obtain American AAdvantage Miles
You can earn AAdvantage miles through flights, other partners and credit card welcome bonuses and spending. Opportunities to earn AAdvantage miles through multiple activities exist through online shopping, dining, hotel partners, car rental partners, cruises, vacation packages and experiences.
Up until September 2025, Barclays and Citi issued co-branded American Airline credit cards, but Citi is now the sole issuer. Several Citi credit cards earn AAdvantage miles through spending and welcome bonuses:
- American Airlines AAdvantage® MileUp® Card
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard®
- Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ World Elite Mastercard®
As of September 2025, there are two options for transferring flexible rewards program points to American AAdvantage:
- Citi ThankYou® Rewards points can be transferred at a 1:1 ratio for premium credit cards and at a 1:0.7 ratio for $0 annual fee cards that earn ThankYou Points. At these transfer rates, every 1,000 ThankYou Points become 1,000 or 700 AAdvantage miles.
- Marriott Bonvoy points can be transferred to American AAdvantage at a 3:1 ratio. This means that every 3,000 Marriott points become 1,000 AAdvantage miles.
Award Redemption Basics
The AAdvantage program uses different approaches for American and partner awards. Region-based award charts with fixed rates apply to partner flights, but award rates for American flights are dynamic. If a single award contains both American flights and partner flights, it’s considered a partner award.
For partner awards, there are two regions within Asia with different award rates. Asia Region 1 awards apply only to Japan and Korea and require fewer miles. Asia Region 2 includes Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Partner award rates are available on American’s partner award page, and you can choose desired origin and destination regions for full details.
The following table summarizes rates for travel between North America and Asia and travel within Asia. The labels “Region A” and “Region B” are used in place of “from” and “to” because award rates are the same regardless of direction flown.
| Flights Between | Class of Service | ||||
| Region A | Region B | Main | Premium economy | Business / first** | First*** |
| 48 U.S. States and Canada | Asia Region 1 | 35,000 | 50,000 | 60,000 | 80,000 |
| 48 U.S. States and Canada | Asia Region 2 | 37,500 | 50,000 | 70,000 | 110,000 |
| Hawaii | Asia Region 1 | 32,500 | 42,500 | 52,500 | 75,000 |
| Hawaii | Asia Region 2 | 35,000 | 45,000 | 55,000 | 80,000 |
| Asia Region 1 (Japan only) | Asia Region 1 (Japan only) | 7,500 | N/A | 15,000 | 20,000 |
| Asia Region 1 | Asia Region 1 | 12,500 | 17,500 | 20,000 | 30,000 |
| Asia Region 1 | Asia Region 2 | 20,000 | 25,000 | 30,000 | 40,000 |
| Asia Region 2 | Asia Region 2 | 17,500 | 20,000 | 22,500 | 32,500 |
It’s also important to understand American routing rules for award travel to Asia. These rules apply to all bookings using AAdvantage miles.
- One of the most significant rules is that you can’t travel between North America and Asia with connections in any of the following regions: Europe, Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, Africa or South Pacific on a single award. Essentially, this means that travel must be on transpacific flights without connecting in the South Pacific.
- Routing rules allow travel to Asia Region 2 through Asia Region 1 on a single award. For example, you can fly from Los Angeles to Singapore with a connection in Tokyo.
- American doesn’t allow stopovers—connections of 24 hours or more—on an international award ticket. This applies whether booking one-way or round-trip tickets.
- Other routing rules won’t apply to most itineraries but can impact certain routes. Two more advanced rules are that the overwater carrier must have a published fare between the origin and destination, and the distance of the award route can’t exceed 125% of the published Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM) for the origin and destination.
How to Search for Awards
The primary way to search for AAdvantage awards is through American’s channels, but third-party search tools may be useful in some cases. Our article about redeeming American miles for international travel discusses how third-party search tools can help travelers who have significant flexibility with travel dates and locations find award availability at reasonable rates more quickly.
To begin an award search on American’s website, select “Book flights” under “Plan travel” and enter parameters on the search page. Steps include:
- Select the type of search (round-trip, one-way or multi-city) from the dropdown.
- Enter the origin and destination airports and desired travel date.
- Check the box for “Redeem miles.”
- Enter the number of passengers.
The default option searches all airlines and all classes of service, but you can choose to restrict results to American flights only and/or choose to limit results to business class only. We didn’t change the default options for the following example.
Here are the search parameters for a search we’ll discuss later for travel from Dallas (DFW) to Seoul, South Korea (ICN), a route with American nonstop service.
The results for the search date show good award rates—the lowest values for the month—for main cabin and premium economy, but high award rates for business class.
If you have some flexibility with travel dates, American has a calendar view that can be used to find award availability over a range of dates quickly. To view a month of award availability, select “Calendar” from a specific date’s search results. In the calendar view, dates displayed in green are the lowest award rates for the month.
Unless you selected American and/or business-class-only options previously, the award rates displayed for each date are the lowest rates for flights on all airlines, with any number of stops and in all classes of service.
You can use filters to refine results by number of stops and class of service. In the example below, we’re limiting results to nonstop flights in business class. Several dates, including March 3, had a business-class award rate of 119,000 miles, which is less than one-third of the rate on March 1.
If your flexibility extends beyond one month, you can use the arrows on the sides of the calendar to see availability over many months.
Analysis Approach and Considerations
Following a similar approach used to examine opportunities for redeeming AAdvantage miles for travel to Europe, we’ll look at award availability on sample routes to Asia with flights operated by American and partner airlines.
The general approach involves looking at award availability on specific routes for the entire booking window. There are some differences in the approach used for analyzing award availability on American flights and partner flights. This is primarily due to American having variable award rates on its own flights.
Although our objective is to use an analytical approach that provides context around observed award availability and rates, the scope is too limited to apply findings broadly to award availability. Your award searches won’t mirror our findings because every search is unique. Some caveats and limitations to consider include:
- A few sample routes aren’t necessarily representative of availability across all routes. Differences are expected based on specific routes and operating airlines.
- Award availability patterns and dynamic award rates can change over time. Given high travel demand, we’ve seen less award availability and higher dynamic award rates recently. If economic conditions or demand for travel to specific destinations change, there could be significant changes in award availability and rates.
- Looking at a full year of award availability at one point in time isn’t representative of doing the same analysis at a different point in time. For example, searching just before a major holiday, close-in availability might be lower than usual. Additionally, if the end of the booking window is a more (or less) desirable time to visit a particular destination, award availability and/or rates might be worse (or better). Availability also might be different when a new route is added.
American Airlines Flights
As of September 2025, American operates or has plans for nonstop flights on the following routes:
- Seoul (ICN) to Dallas (DFW), with plans to add service to / from Las Vegas (LAS) in January 2026
- Shanghai (PVG) to Dallas (DFW)
- Tokyo (HND) to Los Angeles (LAX), Dallas (DFW) or New York (JFK)
- Tokyo (NRT) to Dallas (DFW), with plans to add service to / from Las Vegas (LAS) in January 2026
Planes utilized on most American long-haul international routes have three classes of service—main, premium economy and business—so the analysis will examine each option.
Because award rates on American flights are dynamic, we’re going to look at a few routes and share the range of award rates observed for the entire American booking window. Our searches were done in July 2025 and cover 331 days from the search date, until early June 2026.
Beyond providing the range of award rates, it’s important to understand how frequently “reasonable” award rates are available. Defining reasonable rates is subjective and depends on partner award rates, competitors’ award rates and other factors. We’ll note the award rate threshold used in each example. Some points to keep in mind when considering dynamic award rates are:
- AAdvantage partner award rates for flights between the U.S. and Asia reflect rates that many points and miles enthusiasts consider excellent rates. Before the AAdvantage program implemented dynamic award pricing on American flights, the lowest (called SAAver) award rates for American flights were the same as partner award rates.
- If paying for the flight in cash or using flexible rewards points through a bank portal is an option, another way to evaluate if the award rate is acceptable involves calculating the redemption value and comparing it to your personal valuation of AAdvantage miles. International cash tickets are often more expensive for two one-way tickets compared to one round-trip ticket, so you may want to compare round-trip rates.
- It’s important to recognize and account for differences in options. For example, many travelers prefer a nonstop flight compared to a route with one or more connections. Some travelers are willing to pay more for the convenience of a quicker trip. Also, taxes and fees can vary significantly, so a flight requiring slightly more miles but significantly lower taxes and fees might provide better overall value.
- Lack of flexibility in travel plans often has a cost. Individuals who need to travel on a specific date during a popular travel period often will face higher award rates with dynamic pricing.
- In some cases, lower award prices are available when booking flights far in advance or close to travel dates. American allows booking 331 days before travel, and lower award rates sometimes are available when travel dates first become available for booking. Other times, close-in award rates—typically for travel within a few weeks or even a few days of booking—are lower. Our searches found examples of low award rates within 21 days of travel.
Dallas to Seoul Awards
As discussed above, American operates nonstop flights between these two cities. We looked at rates for the entire booking window from July 2025 to June 2026.
July has the lowest and the highest award rates for premium economy and business awards for the booking window, as shown below.
A single flight with the lowest award rates in all classes of service is July 29, about three weeks after the search date.
The maximum number of miles considered reasonable for one-way awards were 45,000 miles for main cabin, 75,000 for premium economy and 120,000 for business.
- Main: The award rate range was 35,000 miles to 105,000 miles. The majority of days had award availability at 35,000 miles, which is the partner award rate for main cabin awards between the U.S. and Asia Region 1. For the 331-day booking window, 214 days (64.7%) had award rates of 45,000 or fewer miles.
- Premium economy: The award rate range was 45,000 miles to 140,000 miles, and many days had awards at 45,000 miles, which is the partner award rate for premium economy between these regions. Overall, 82 days (24.8%) had award rates up to 75,000 miles.
- Business: The award rate range was 95,000 miles to 450,000 miles. The only dates with award rates of 95,000 miles were in July, within three weeks of the search date. In other months, the lowest rates were 119,000 miles. A total of 84 days (25.4%) had rates up to 120,000 miles.
Dallas to Shanghai Awards
American operates nonstop flights between these two cities. We looked at rates for the entire booking window from July 2025 to June 2026.
The thresholds considered reasonable were up to 50,000 miles for main cabin, 100,000 for premium economy and 130,000 for business. These thresholds are higher than rates used for Seoul, because Shanghai is in Asia Region 2, which has higher partner rates than Asia Region 1. In addition, supply and demand dynamics typically result in higher award rates to China.
- Main: The award rate range was 35,000 miles to 194,500 miles. For the 331-day booking window, 173 days (52.3%) had award rates of 50,000 or fewer miles.
- Premium economy: The award rate range was 45,000 miles to 350,000 miles. In many months, the lowest rates were 91,000 miles. For the entire booking window, 66 days (19.9%) had award rates of 100,000 or fewer miles.
- Business: The award rate range was 95,000 miles to 450,000 miles. The only date with award rates of 95,000 miles was July 23, which was 12 days after the search date. In other months, the lowest rates were 113,500 miles. A total of 26 days (7.9%) had rates of 130,000 or fewer miles.
July 23 is the date with the lowest award rates for all classes of service. These rates are the same as the lowest observed rates for the Dallas to Seoul route.
Dallas to Tokyo Awards
Unlike American’s other routes to Asia, American and JAL both have nonstop flights between a few American’s gateways (Los Angeles, Dallas and New York) and Tokyo. We examined award availability for American flights only from Dallas to Tokyo and applied the same thresholds for reasonable award rates as used for Seoul.
- Main: The award rate range was 35,000 miles to 105,000 miles. The majority of days had award availability at 35,000 miles, which is the partner award rate for main cabin awards between the U.S. and Asia Region 1. For the 331-day booking window, 214 days (64.7%) had award rates of 45,000 or fewer miles.
- Premium economy: The award rate range was 45,000 miles to 140,000 miles, and many days had awards at 45,000 miles, which is the partner award rate for premium economy between these regions. Overall, 66 days (19.9%) had award rates up to 75,000 miles.
- Business: The award rate range was 95,000 miles to 450,000 miles, all exceeding the partner award rate of 60,000 miles. The only dates with award rates of 95,000 miles were in July, and most of the dates with lower award rates were in July or August. A total of 32 days (9.7%) had rates up to 120,000 miles.
Partner Awards
Partners that fly between North America and Asia are Cathay Pacific, China Southern Airlines, Alaska Airlines / Hawaiian Airlines and JAL. As of September 2025, partner airlines operate the following nonstop routes:
- Cathay Pacific flies between Hong Kong (HKG) and Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Dallas (DFW), Chicago (ORD), Boston (BOS) or New York (JFK) in the U.S. and Vancouver (YVR) or Toronto (YYZ) in Canada. Service to and from Seattle (SEA) is planned to begin March 30, 2026.
- China Southern flies between Guangzhou, China (CAN), and Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Vancouver (YVR), New York (JFK) or Toronto (YYZ). The carrier also flies between Shenzhen, China (SZX), and Tijuana, Mexico (TIJ), or Mexico City (MEX).
- Combined Alaska and Hawaiian routes include flights between Seattle (SEA) and Seoul (ICN) or Tokyo (NRT) and routes between Hawaii and Asia. Asian routes to and from Honolulu (HNL) include Seoul (ICN); Tokyo (NRT); Fukuoka, Japan (FUK); and Osaka, Japan (KIX). Service between Honolulu and Seoul or Fukuoka ends in November 2025.
- Japan Airlines operates nonstop routes to both Tokyo airports and Osaka. Routes include:
- Tokyo (HND) to / from Honolulu (HNL), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Dallas (DFW), Chicago (ORD) and New York (JFK)
- Tokyo (NRT) to / from Honolulu (HNL), San Diego (SAN), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Seattle (SEA), Chicago (ORD) and BOS (Boston) and Vancouver (YVR)
- Osaka (KIX) to / from Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles (LAX)
These partners and Malaysia Airlines also provide service within Asia. Since AAdvantage partner awards allow multiple carriers on a single award, connecting flights within Asia could be on a different airline than the transpacific flight. AAdvantage miles also can be used to book separate flights within Asia, such as flying between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Malaysia Airlines.
Award availability and rates on partner flights work differently than on American flights. For partner airlines, award seats are available or not available. When available, rates are fixed based on the partner award chart. The result is that the overall percentage of partner award availability typically is lower compared to American award availability.
With the exception of economy class, award rates on partner flights between the U.S. and Asia usually are lower compared to rates on American flights.
For example, the range of business-class award rates observed on the three American flights discussed above was 95,000 to 450,000 miles. Partner business class award rates are 60,000 to Japan and South Korea and 70,000 to Asia Region 2.
Given low rates for partner premium cabin awards, high demand and other factors, it’s challenging to secure partner business- and first-class awards to Asia.
Another significant factor contributing to the difficulty of using AAdvantage miles for booking partner awards is that JAL and Cathay Pacific open their booking windows earlier than American does. That allows travelers using points and miles from these airlines’ own programs and other programs that open booking earlier to be able to book awards about 20 to 30 days before it’s possible to book with AAdvantage miles.
Because partner award rates are fixed, the analysis approach is different. We’re identifying the number and percentage of dates with partner award availability on routes examined.
Alaska / Hawaiian Flights
We encountered some situations when checking award availability on these routes initially in July 2025 that changed as Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines integration continued. Details are provided below.
Seattle to Seoul on Hawaiian Airlines
During July 2025 searches, American didn’t show any award availability for nonstop flights in any class of service for the entire booking window.
In early October 2025 searches, some dates had economy award availability on this route. With flights operating five times per week, we saw 96 days with awards available through late August 2026. Award rates were 35,000 miles, as shown below.
Seattle to Tokyo on Hawaiian Airlines
Award availability patterns from Seattle to Tokyo were similar to Seattle to Seoul. July searches didn’t seem to show any award availability for Hawaiian’s nonstop flights from Seattle to Tokyo (NRT), but October searches found some availability in economy only. JAL also operates nonstop flights on this route, so we didn’t check every date to determine if awards were on Hawaiian flights or JAL flights.
Flights to Asia from Hawaii
For Hawaiian nonstop flights between Honolulu (HNL) and Tokyo (HND) or Seoul (ICN), observed award rates were fixed but higher than American’s published partner award rates of 32,500 miles for main cabin and 52,500 miles for business class. Hawaiian doesn’t offer premium economy awards on these routes.
Before the planned termination of the Honolulu to Seoul route was announced, we found award availability on Nov. 30, 2025, for 37,500 miles (main) and 65,000 miles (business).
On the Honolulu (HNL) to Tokyo (HND) route, our searches didn’t reveal any business-class awards on Hawaiian flights. Economy award rates were going for 37,500 miles.
Economy awards were available throughout the year, but we didn’t calculate the number and percentage of dates with availability on Hawaiian flights because JAL also operates flights between Honolulu and Tokyo.
Cathay Pacific Flights
Since Cathay Pacific resumed flights to North America after the pandemic, awards bookable through American AAdvantage—particularly in premium cabins—have been almost nonexistent.
We looked at Cathay Pacific’s nonstop route from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Despite there being daily nonstop flights—some days have two or three flights—there wasn’t any award availability in premium economy or business on any dates in the booking window.
Main cabin awards were available on 226 days (68.2%) within the booking window, and award rates of 37,500 miles were consistent with published AAdvantage partner award rates between the mainland U.S. and Asia Region 2.
Shortly after a new route between Seattle and Hong Kong—with flights five times per week beginning March 30, 2026—was announced, we checked award availability for 101 dates with flights until the end of the booking window (Aug. 19, 2026). Award availability from Seattle (SEA) to Hong Kong (HKG) was:
- 69 days (68.3%) in main
- 62 days (61.4%) in premium economy
- 0 days (0%) in business
It’s likely that the high rate of award availability in premium economy won’t last, given the lack of premium economy availability on other Cathay Pacific routes.
Here’s an example of a date with award availability for main cabin and premium economy.
In some cases, award availability is better from Canada than from the U.S. We checked for availability in premium economy and business on Cathay Pacific’s Canadian routes—Vancouver (YVR) or Toronto (YYZ) to Hong Kong (HKG)—and didn’t find any award availability for premium economy or business class.
We also used the Seat.aero “Explore” function to look at 60 days of American award availability for additional routes to Hong Kong. The search criteria and a few results—by including “HKG” in the search box, results only include flights to Hong Kong—are shown below.
Cathay Pacific flights are the only nonstop flights to Hong Kong bookable with AAdvantage miles. Seats.aero shows direct (including nonstop) flights shaded green. Options shaded blue have connections, and flights would be on American and other partners.
The search revealed 265 date and route combinations with Cathay Pacific economy availability, but there wasn’t any availability for premium economy, business or first class.
China Southern Flights
For most travelers, there are significant obstacles for finding and booking China Southern flights using AAdvantage miles. China Southern award space isn’t searchable or bookable on AA.com. The suggested approach to find and book awards is to use the paid tool ExpertFlyer to search for awards and then call American reservations to book. Since we couldn’t follow the approach used for other airlines, we aren’t addressing China Southern award availability in this analysis.
Japan Airlines Flights
JAL typically provides the best opportunity to redeem AAdvantage miles for premium economy, business or first class at low rates between the U.S. and Japan and beyond within Asia. This is true because of the poor availability with other partners and usually higher rates on American flights.
Patience and flexibility is important to find premium cabin awards on JAL flights. There are several ways you can increase your chances of finding awards on JAL including:
- Search from your home airport and other Japan Airlines gateway cities: One reason to search from JAL gateways is to reduce the chance of finding unbookable “phantom” awards, which are more common on connecting routes containing a domestic American flight and an international JAL flight. A second reason to search for the JAL nonstop flight is so you don’t miss long-haul award space due to unavailability of a domestic flight in the required fare class for a partner award. Many travelers book international award flights and book separate positioning flights with miles or cash to get to the international gateway.
- Search periodically and set alerts: We recommend beginning searches as early as possible and monitoring for additional award availability during the booking window. Some third-party search tools allow you to set alerts.
- Follow points and miles resources that report when premium cabin award space is released and book quickly if you see viable options: JAL has been releasing additional award space at random times during the booking window.
- Be flexible about travel dates: Sometimes small adjustments in travel dates might be the difference between finding awards or not.
- Be flexible about where you begin or end your trip: Award availability sometimes is better from one U.S. airport than another. Similarly, routes between Canada or Hawaii and Japan may have better award availability than U.S. mainland routes.
- Consider routings with a connection that start or end in outside Tokyo: JAL sometimes uses married segment logic to control award space. For example, there might not be award availability on the San Diego to Tokyo nonstop flight alone but there’s award space on that flight if you’re booking San Diego to Tokyo to Osaka. There also might be married segments with an intra-Asia connecting flight, such as San Diego to Tokyo to Bangkok.
- Consider booking a lower class of service as a back-up option: If you want to try to secure close-in premium cabin awards, but aren’t comfortable waiting until a few days or weeks before your trip to book flights, book economy (or premium economy) flights earlier if available through programs that allow cancellation with low or no fees.
- Check for additional award space close to planned travel dates: JAL often releases additional award space within a few days or few weeks of travel, so searching for last-minute award space often is useful for booking these flights.
Vancouver to Osaka Awards
We discussed mainland U.S. to Tokyo award availability using AAdvantage miles in other articles, so let’s look at a less common route. We searched for business class with a maximum of one stop from Vancouver to Osaka.
Here is the July calendar view for close-in business-class awards.
For comparison, we looked at JAL nonstop flights from Vancouver to Tokyo. Two dates with business-class awards when continuing to Osaka didn’t show awards for the same flights ending in Tokyo.
Over the entire booking window for connecting (one-stop) JAL flights from Vancouver to Osaka via Tokyo, we saw the following availability:
- Main: A total of 40 days (12.1%) had award availability for 35,000 miles, but approximately 70% of available dates were in January 2026 or February 2026. There was little availability outside those two months and July 2025.
- Premium economy: Four days (1.2%) had award availability for 45,000 miles one way.
- Business: A total of 12 days (3.6%) had award availability for 60,000 miles per direction, but 11 days were in July.
Intra-Asia Flights
If you’re traveling to multiple destinations in Asia, it’s worth looking at the possibility of using AAdvantage miles to book flights between destinations. Considerations for deciding between using cash or other points for flights within Asia include:
- Routing and schedule: There are multiple low-cost carriers and other Asia-based airlines providing service within Asia. Cash rates often are low, and other carriers offer more convenient options for intra-Asia flights that don’t start or end at partner hub airports.
- Flight duration: Some flights—particularly within Asia Region 1 or Asia Region 2—are relatively short, while flights from Tokyo to many destinations in Asia Region 2 are much longer.
- Class of service: On longer routes where business class provides a bigger benefit, AAdvantage awards might be a good option. The difference in award rates between Tokyo and Asia Region 2 for business class (30,000 miles per direction) is 5,000 miles more than premium economy and 10,000 miles more than economy. Many longer intra-Asia flights, particularly on JAL and Cathay Pacific, are on planes featuring lie-flat seats and premium food and service in business class.
- Award taxes and fees: On some carriers and routes, award taxes and fees are significant, so it’s important to compare the value of miles used plus award taxes and fees to cash rates.
Some brief thoughts about when and how you may want to utilize specific partners for travel within Asia follow.
- Cathay Pacific’s hub is in Hong Kong, and the airline has a strong route network in Asia.
- China Southern is based in Guangzhou, China, and the carrier has an extensive route network within China and to other Asian countries. China Southern might be useful for travelers flying to Shanghai on American Airlines.
- JAL offers flights within Japan and to many destinations in Asia. Its international route network separates Asia into Southeast / South and East Asia.
- Malaysia Airlines’ hub is in Kuala Lumpur, and it’s the most useful airline for flights within Malaysia. The carrier also might be useful for international flights between Kuala Lumpur and other destinations.
Final Thoughts
Using points and miles for flights between the U.S. and Asia can be challenging, but AAdvantage miles sometimes unlock good to excellent award options. The primary issues with premium cabin awards are that award availability for partner flights is limited, and award rates on American flights have variable rates that often are much higher.
In our sample searches, the observed range for one-way award rates on American flights was:
- Main: 35,000 miles to 105,000 miles (Asia Region 1) or 194,500 miles (Asia Region 2)
- Premium economy: 45,000 miles to 140,000 miles (Asia Region 1) or 350,000 miles (Asia Region 2)
- Business: 95,000 miles to 450,000 miles
Considering the criteria discussed above for the sample routes, the average percentage of days during the booking window with reasonable rates was 60.6% for main cabin, 21.5% for premium economy and 14.3% for business class.
Partner award availability varied significantly by carrier and class of service. Across routes analyzed, the percentage of days with award availability was:
- Main: 12.1% to 77.1%
- Premium economy: 0% to 1.3% (excluding the announced new Cathay Pacific service to Seattle)
- Business: 0% to 9.3%
If you want to use AAdvantage miles for travel between the U.S. and Asia—especially in premium economy or business class—a combination of flexibility, luck and persistence are important to find partner awards or reasonably priced American awards. Factors such as booking timeframe, class of service, specific routes and specific carriers have significant impacts on award availability and rates.