MightyTravels

- various destinations from JFK

- books into I for the overwater and J for the intra-Asia flights

- around 18k miles flown

- earns 175%/200% on Delta --> under 5 CPM!

https://www.kayak.com/flights/JFK-SI...03-15/business

https://www.kayak.com/flights/JFK-SG...03-15/business

Orwaid

Hi -

Same fare JFK- SIN. Almost 20,000 route miles RT.

Also around $2200 from west coast gateways

Wow -- at 225PM EDT, the fares all went up $200.

18sas

Thanks for sharing this! I was able to get JFK-PVG-NRT/HND-SHA/PVG-JFK with a <24 hour overnight in Shanghai on the return for $2280 all-in. This is for late March-early April. Every date seems to be wide open and the fare is good through Apr 30.

For some reason fares to NRT seem to be a good bit cheaper than HND. If I had chosen NRT on the return, then it would have been under $2200.

Best fares were found at Priceline.
Fares on Priceline were $100 less than on Expedia.
And fares on Expedia were $100 less than at chinaeastern.com

Itinerary did not ticket immediately after booking and I got a ticket number about 2 hours later.

I took the ticket number at Priceline and used the validate ticket feature at us.ceair.com. Only the final leg was on that ticket. So I subtracted 1 from the ticket number and found the other 3 legs.

Priceline showed seat assignments for the first two legs, but none for the return.

I was able to choose seats for the 3rd leg but none of the others at us.ceair.com.

MightyTravels

Thanks for the detailed report! Glad it worked out!

salsa

In my experience, you will probably be disappointed with China Eastern business class.

https://salsaworldtraveler.com/2017/...hai-china-pvg/

https://salsaworldtraveler.com/2017/...-thailand-bkk/

jbeans

MU is not known to offer a luxurious experience in J or F, and for this bargain basement price I wouldn't be expecting any. It's all about your budget and expectations.

jiaogulan

Agreed. And at least they have a great hard product.

I personally would like to hear if more people have experienced smoking on these flights. While I do not doubt that it has occurred, I have a hard time believing it is a common occurrence at this point in time.

That said, I would probably pick Xiamen over them (still get SkyTeam), or possibly Hainan if I didn't care about SkyTeam earnings.

jbeans

100% with you -- with a decent hardware at this super low price, the smoking issue would be the only deal breaker here, and I'd also like to hear more DP on that. I'd agree that Hainan/Xiamen would probably be better, but flying out of JFK a non-stop would tip the scale a bit for me.

jiaogulan

Yes, I can position easily, but if I was East Coast then MU is a no brainer.

I cannot stand cigarette smoke, but I think it is a low risk on these flights. Certainly a risk I would be willing to run at this price combined with the Delta earnings.

It reminds me of business travelers from the West thrust into China who have no awareness of what China is really like, or the ones who straight up do not like it at all. While I do not condone smoking on flights as much as the next person, China really is not a good place for someone who is unwilling to deal with a risk of something going sideways or "weird".

salsa

There will be people on the flight who pay a lot more than a bargain basement price unfortunately. They will get the same service. Having low expectations is a good idea, and $2,000 is a good price.

Communications is the biggest issue. For safety's sake, if nothing else, flights should have more than one FA who speaks english. And on the flight from PVG to BKK some announcements, like the long flight delay, were not translated into english or thai.

MegatopLover

Check the current threads in the "Other Asian airlines" forum. I'm among those reporting smoking in flight this year. Two round trips BKK-PVG-JFK-vv between January and May. Found pilots smoking on seven out of eight flights. Only exception was when seated far back in Business on 77W. The smell woke me up a few times. Gross.

I was skeptical that it would be an issue, until I experienced it myself.

I've decided I'm willing to pay more to fly on another airline, despite the great DL earning.

FlytheTail

When flying J/F, I've experienced it on about 1/3 of flights I've taken on several Chinese carriers, but primarily only on narrow-body aircraft (intra-Asia flights), presumably because of the proximity of the front cabin to the cockpit.

Other than that, I've had mediocre experiences on China Eastern. Good hard product, average soft product, variable service (better on short hauls than long hauls) and decent amenities (such as separate bus to/from gate and airport when at a bus gate).

jiaogulan

Thanks for sharing. So what happens when you and others detect this? Do complaints fall on deaf ears?! I've read Lucky's review on OMAAT and I seem to remember he called them on it but they played dumb and said it was from heating up the food or some non-sense...

It makes me think of how if a passenger is caught smoking on an airline the crew will flip out (rightfully so).

MegatopLover

Yes, I complained on one JFK-PVG. FA's acted like they didn't know what I was talking about. Smoke persisted to the point where it woke me up again and I complained again. Same result: nothing.