Other Asian, Australian and South Pacific Frequent Flyer Programs - use UA miles to book award on AirChina?

Can we use UA miles to book award directly on Air China website? anyone has experience before?

I am fairly certain the answer is no.

Can we use UA miles to book award directly on Air China website? anyone has experience before?

No. You use UA miles on the UA website to book award tickets on CA.

If using miles/points from any FF program on a partner airline, you must book on your FF program's website or call a res agent. Easy to book CA flights on the UA/MP site. Lots of flight available in all COS.

Yes you must book any award ticket using UA miles with UA rather than the operating carrier, and if you mean the Taiwan based carrier, it is part of SkyTeam so you probably cannot pay with UA miles for an award ticket. If you mean the mainland Chinese carrier known as CAAC, IIRC it is part of *A, but you should check reports on their service.

Yes you must book any award ticket using UA miles with UA rather than the operating carrier, and if you mean the Taiwan based carrier, it is part of SkyTeam so you probably cannot pay with UA miles for an award ticket. If you mean the mainland Chinese carrier known as CAAC, IIRC it is part of *A, but you should check reports on their service.

ok, this might sounds dumb, but Taiwan based carrier is China Airlines, and PEK based carrier is Air China, right? I'm always confused by the two.

So you are saying the service on PEK based carrier is good?

I wouldn't waste UA miles on CA. The product is just terrible and the fares are really cheap because they want to "compete" with the other airlines now. They really want to brand themselves as a global airline but they're light years away from that. Most of their FAs are trained along with the CX FAs now so we'll see if their service gets better (CA owns part of CX and vice versa).

I wouldn't waste UA miles on CA. The product is just terrible and the fares are really cheap because they want to "compete" with the other airlines now. They really want to brand themselves as a global airline but they're light years away from that. Most of their FAs are trained along with the CX FAs now so we'll see if their service gets better (CA owns part of CX and vice versa).

It really depends on the route and class of service. It probably does not make sense to use miles on mainland doemstic flights as they are cheap. Some (maybe most) would argue the service in Y is better than UA Y. C/F is certainly not as fancy as other airlines in the Star Alliance (ANA, Asiana, Thai, Singapore).

My sample size is small but did 2 flights on them last year and was quite satisfied. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1244622-tr-air-china-sha-tsa.html

ok, this might sounds dumb, but Taiwan based carrier is China Airlines, and PEK based carrier is Air China, right? I'm always confused by the two.

So you are saying the service on PEK based carrier is good?
I get them confused too and have to check all the time. I've avoided both of these airlines because their service is reputed to be bad, especially when things go wrong (as opposed to having polite FAs on board, which might be OK). Some of the newer mainland carriers such as CZ have better reputations for customer service, although long haul coach seating is reportedly tight.

ADDED: There was a strange story of a CAAC domestic flight that diverted to a (relatively) small provincial airport and stranded its passengers there. No one was rebooked or otherwise helped and the plane and its crew later just flew away or something.

thanks for all the helpful info so far. but unfortunately from LAX to PEK there aren't that many airlines to choose from. So i guess i will have to go with CA, but maybe instead of using miles I will pay up if the fare is really 'competitive' and rack up some miles to my UA account.

cheers~

ADDED: There was a strange story of a CAAC domestic flight that diverted to a (relatively) small provincial airport and stranded its passengers there. No one was rebooked or otherwise helped and the plane and its crew later just flew away or something.

Got a link? This would be terrible.

wonder what happened to the passengers. Do they have to arrange their own transportation to their destination?? I'll be outraged if it happens to me.

Now I'm really not sure should I stick to the non-stop principles...

Yes you must book any award ticket using UA miles with UA rather than the operating carrier, and if you mean the Taiwan based carrier, it is part of SkyTeam so you probably cannot pay with UA miles for an award ticket. If you mean the mainland Chinese carrier known as CAAC, IIRC it is part of *A, but you should check reports on their service.

I believe "CAAC" refers to all state owned Chinese airlines as a collective, especially when they were all basically the same animal... pre ~1990. Now, it's common to refer to them by their individual names (e.g. Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, etc.)... and there are slight differences between each.

@username: I don't find intra-China flights to be especially cheap any more. Let's take my main route, PEK-SHA, for example: Juneyao Airlines is usually quite cheap, and CA/MU tend to match their fares in the early morning late evening (when they fly), but more desirable flights typically cost close to $200 each way. While close to $50 of that is in the form of YQ and taxes (i.e. unlikely to recover on a "free" ticket), the rest comes close to our magical 1.5 cpm threshold in many cases.

That having been said, I've never redeemed miles on PEK-SHA (TYP sometimes, though) because I happen to like the train and full fare flights often don't have mileage seats on offer.

On the other hand, miles often provide a decent rerturn on longer flights. Let's take HIJ to Kashi for example, using DL miles: secondary market in Japan connection to tertiary market in China, close to 3,000 miles in the air, $700 no matter how you game it in each direction... 12.5k miles, and you can return to a completely different place. What's more, you can fold this into transpac awards.

I get them confused too and have to check all the time. I've avoided both of these airlines because their service is reputed to be bad, especially when things go wrong (as opposed to having polite FAs on board, which might be OK). Some of the newer mainland carriers such as CZ have better reputations for customer service, although long haul coach seating is reportedly tight.


I wouldn't refer CZ as a "newer mainland carrier", it is roughly same age as CA, after being split from the CAAC.

The OP should be aware that many of CA's discount fares earn 50% or 0% for MP.

CAAC stands for Civil Aviation Administration Of China.It is the aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents.[1] As the aviation authority responsible for China, it concluded civil aviation agreements with other aviation authorities, including those of the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China which are categorized as "special domestic". Similar to the US FAA.

I fly with CA all the time domestically within China and find no major problems with them. I was on CA 1225, PEK-XIY, yesterday and found it to be a pleasant flight.

CAAC stands for Civil Aviation Administration Of China.It is the aviation authority under the Ministry of Transport of the People's Republic of China. It oversees civil aviation and investigates aviation accidents and incidents.[1] As the aviation authority responsible for China, it concluded civil aviation agreements with other aviation authorities, including those of the Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China which are categorized as "special domestic". Similar to the US FAA.

I fly with CA all the time domestically within China and find no major problems with them. I was on CA 1225, PEK-XIY, yesterday and found it to be a pleasant flight.
Thanks for the clarification, but IIRC i've seen CAAC painted on planes in China which seem to belong to AirChina.

Thanks for the clarification, but IIRC i've seen CAAC painted on planes in China which seem to belong to AirChina.

IIRC, CAAC used to be the Chinese national airline, similar to the way Aeroflot was set up in the USSR. Its airline operations were broken up to form the airlines that re-coalesced to become today's CA, CZ and MU.

I wouldn't waste UA miles on CA. The product is just terrible and the fares are really cheap because they want to "compete" with the other airlines now. They really want to brand themselves as a global airline but they're light years away from that. Most of their FAs are trained along with the CX FAs now so we'll see if their service gets better (CA owns part of CX and vice versa).

1. CA is the airline in the world that makes the most money.

2. CA is rated 4-star. UA is rated 3-star.

3. Depending on the reservation, it may be best to book award (Once a time, when I tried to book in revenue on CA, I was almost forced to buy a B fare due to fare rule. I ended up with award instead.)

4. Last but not the least - CA will not charge you money for this and that...

Thanks for the clarification, but IIRC i've seen CAAC painted on planes in China which seem to belong to AirChina.

I thought when they broke up CAAC, they repainted the planes to Air China (Chinese means China International Airlines). Maybe they have not finished the paint jobs (but this has been quite a few years)?

thanks for all the helpful info so far. but unfortunately from LAX to PEK there aren't that many airlines to choose from. So i guess i will have to go with CA, but maybe instead of using miles I will pay up if the fare is really 'competitive' and rack up some miles to my UA account.

cheers~

Knowing the route helps - "but unfortunately" we did not have this information until now. If it is oneway, then use the miles - to get cheap fares, you will need to buy roundtrip (or buy roundtrip and throw out the return). Summer fares are higher so using miles is even better.

If you want nonstop LAX-PEK, then I think CA is the only game in town. UA can go onestop through SFO and you can also use other *A carriers (through NRT, ICN) to get to PEK.

Fortunately, LAX-PEK is operated by CA's latest 777-300ER with personal TVs in Y.

[UOTE=username;18620566]I thought when they broke up CAAC, they repainted the planes to Air China (Chinese means China International Airlines). Maybe they have not finished the paint jobs (but this has been quite a few years)?[/QUOTE]

I'd like to clear up some confusion here:

1) as one poster posted, "CAAC" is currently the Chinese equivalent of the "FAA" in the US
2) pre ~1990, the same term also referred to ALL Chinese airlines; basically, the government ran the entire show... spanning regulations to operations, and everywhere in between

I'm not sure why some CA, MU, and CZ planes still feature "CAAC" in their liveries, but I'm fairly certain that this is not because they have not been repainted during the course of the past 20 years. In fact, I'd dare say that less than 2% of the planes currently flying in China existed that long ago (and, those that have certainly don't frequent the routes that we use on a regular basis... i.e. give me a show of hands for those of you whose weekly commute is Wulumuqi-Almaty).

Getting back on topic, for UA staple routes, assuming you have E+, I still think UA is better than CA... because the system (in the US) works really well.

But, that's an apples to oranges comparison because China is not the US.

That having been said, cases like LAX-PEK are completely different; CA has two flights per day on its best planes, whereas nobody else has any flights at all. Having flown UA PEK-SFO-LAX on several occasions (in all classes of service), there is no way I would willingly choose this over CA in 2012. I don't care about the food.

In closing, I'd like to impart two thoughts upon you CA naysayers:

1) within China, you don't have the luxury of choosing UA, DL, or AA; you're stuck with Chinese airlines... which, really are quite similar to each other (same planes, same food, same people)
2) on international routes (in which it uses 773s or 330s), CA is on par or better than most of its direct competitors (e.g. AF/KL, BA, DL, LH, UA, etc.)
-you just need to remember to self cater