Excellent Business Class Award Space Open to Taiwan
If you're looking to burn miles for a premium cabin from the US to Asia, now's a great time to book as there are currently plenty of business seats available on both EVA Air (Star Alliance) and China Airlines (SkyTeam) to Taipei, Taiwan (TPE).
You can easily find the China Airlines space by searching with Delta's award calendar. China Airlines flies nonstop from San Francisco (SFO) and there are four business award seats open on many dates right now.
Return space from Taipei back to San Francisco is also excellent for four business class passengers...
You'll pay 80,000 Delta SkyMiles each way per passenger in business class to and from Asia, but you should be able to tack on a domestic leg to San Francisco for no additional miles if you can find the domestic low-level award space. Unfortunately that might be easier said than done depending on where you're originating, but if you can't find the extra space, you could also just buy a separate cheap positioning flight with cash or miles to get to and from San Francisco. You might also consider booking this award with Air France Flying Blue for 100,000 miles each way or Korean Air SkyPass miles at a price of 155,000 miles round-trip.
China Airlines flies a brand new A350-900 XWB on its San Francisco-Taipei route, an aircraft it just took delivery of this past September. The airline's 777-300ER have gotten great reviews and business class on the A350 looks very similar.
Over in the Star Alliance, there's a decent amount of business class space on EVA Air from multiple US cities, including New York (JFK), Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Chicago (ORD) and others. As an example, here's award space from Houston (IAH) to Taipei in May and June for two passengers (dotted lines on the calendar indicate premium class space, though note not all of this space is nonstop on Eva Air)...
And here's a sample return from Taipei to New York (JFK), again for two passengers...
EVA Air flights to Asia can be booked via Star Alliance partners such as United MileagePlus for 80,000 miles each way, or Air Canada's Aeroplan for 75,000 miles each way. Either option has minimal fuel surcharges.
Even if Taiwan isn't your preferred destination in Asia, it's an easy jump from Taipei to Hong Kong, which is a little more than 90 minutes away. While Tokyo would be a pretty substantial backtrack, you could make it to Shanghai in just two hours or fly further west to Bangkok in less than four.
H/T: Windbag Miles via View From The Wing
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