moondog

This topic comes up often here and I am usually quick to chime in. Recently, I've been doing a lot of PEK-SHA travel (sometimes twice a week) so I'm getting better and better at gaming the system (no funny stuff; just shorter door-to-door times) so I'd like to post my insights here:

-I still take the train whenever my schedule permits because I like it and it's a good value. For more info, search "z train"
-Sadly, I have no FF allegiences to speak of, but this may be a good thing because my objective is to "get there" and being tied a particular carrier would present a conflict of interest. Plus, I've tried 10x this year to get CA flights credited to MP and my success rate is zero.
-The northbound fare disparity is less of an issue now. I usually pay around y670 to go north and y340-670 to go south. I always check ctrip for fares and book with them unless I happen to be in the presence of a physical TA. When I have time, I call 2 or 3 TAs in addition to ctrip to see if there are any special discounts on offer.
-I don't care a whole lot about specific airlines, but I've found that HU and MU are worse than FM and CA. I'm not talking about onboard service, but rather the likelihood that your plane will leave on time or at all. HU is bad because it's a terrible airline. MU's problem is that it routinely consolidates flights during rush hour due to weak loads.
-The good news is that if your flight gets canceled or delayed (any delay at all), you can walk over to another airline and a new boarding pass.
-Since the last point is relevant very often, when checking in, I always try to find out if my flight has any problems. IME MU check-in agents are less informed in this regard than others, perhaps because they like to cancel flights in order to save money. FM, by contrast, is the best; they might not be able to fly you to BJ, but are generally up-front about it, which is really nice (i.e. holding an FM ticket is a good thing).
-After ascertaining that my flight is delayed, I follow the advice of the check-in people to the letter. This often involves standing in multiple lines, but it rarely takes more than 20 minutes to get reaccomodated. Here's a real life example: On Saturday night, my friend and I showed up at our gate at 730p for our 8p CA flight. We found a lot of people (A330), but no airplane. So I asked the GA what was up and he told me to go counter 256 first and area Q second. We were airborne (on MU) by 805p.
-While persistant delays and cancelations might make some of you want to get to the airport extra early, please don't do this. ~50 minutes is more than enough time to get reaccomadating. Plus, you probably won't be able to take an earlier flight without buying up to Y.
-Getting a taxi at SHA is challenging, but I'm increasingly adept at making that happen. I used to wait in the short-hual queue and switch destinations after getting in the cab, but this is a bad strategy now because the short-hual queue doesn't get many taxis now. So I think I'll try my luck at departures or past McDonalds from now on.

The bottom line is all of those threads about best service and ff earning power are pointless because "getting there" has to be your #1 objective (~400 UA miles are pretty much worthless anyway, on the off chance that they post). What's more, ground ops should be a much more important consideration than the onboard stuff. With respect to this, I try to avoid ticketing with MU at all costs. If they fly me there in the end, that's fine (their FAs are swell), but I don't like being jerked around.

HU has some of the worst onboard service imaginable and they also like to cancel flights (even more than MU, I think). However, I have found that, in addition to being cheap, they are pretty honest in situations where they don't have airplanes on hand to fulfill their end of the contract.

I have no problem with CA or FM. FM is always my top pick because they seem to be closer to "getting it" than the other 3.

Well, good luck in your travels. And, feel free to PM me if you have an upcoming trip. I'm always happy to provide cell phone support to potentially delayed FTers. My door-to-door average is 3.5 hours and yours should be too.

moondog

I am replying to my own post because this is a key point. The Chinese guy we were traveling with was stuck with the CA flight because he was on an E ticket (bad idea that I forgot to mention) and he arrived 1 hour later than us.

Our MU flight was empty and we self upgraded (because my friend liked one of the F FAs). We were the only 2 pax on the CA flight that switched to the MU flight; we were home before those guys even landed.

mosburger

Cheers,

Will be based in the Shanghai area for the next few months with frequent trips all over China, Hongkong and Korea/Japan. Re-reading your informative posts very carefully right now.

anacapamalibu

I have heard that there are some new private airlines using small jets and or prop planes to fly in China. I don't no any specifics but heard their fares are very low?

tofuboy

Thanks for the great information...especially about the E ticket issue! Will be doing more SHA-PEK flights so will try out the McD's taxi stratgey next time. ^

anacapamalibu

Checked and found there are two private airlines now in China. But don't
know their service coverage.

see this link



http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0306/314100.html