Delta sometimes makes decent business class award space available to Europe, generally when prices are at their lowest for paid tickets. Getting to Asia on Delta can be much harder without paying exorbitant mileage costs (e.g. 200,000-plus miles per person in each direction).

However Delta’s partners, especially their Chinese partners China Southern and China Eastern, offer good availability from West Coast gateways.

Here’s a search for four passengers, Los Angeles to Guangzhou non-stop in business class.

There’s also space on partners, one way to see myriad options is to search to Shanghai which will bring up flights on China Eastern (non-stop from LAX as well as connections through San Francisco) and Korean Air (via Seoul) as well. You are unlikely to find options on Delta.

The lowest taxes and fees ($30s) represent travel on Korean Air. Pricing in the $100s means China Southern. In the $200s means China Eastern.

Delta adds fuel surcharges to awards on its Chinese partners. They own a piece of China Eastern, and China Southern has broadly been expected to leave SkyTeam (it’s own in very small part now by American).

Delta is an instant transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards. These same seats should be bookable via Korean Air (Chase partner) and Air France KLM Flying Blue (Chase, American Express, Citi).

Looking for four business class saver awards is always a challenge. And you won’t find it on Delta. But working across their partners you can find it quite often currently. Between connections in Seoul, Shanghai, and Guangzhou you can get all over Asia. The challenge can be getting an award to the West Coast gateway city (since saver availability on Delta can be questionable). So sometimes you may need to buy a domestic ticket to start and end your journey. Poor domestic award space is the new carrier-imposed fuel surcharge.