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Best way in Star Alliance F from Halifax to Shanghai
My parents need to fly from Halifax, Canada (YHZ) to Shanghai, China. They need to fly Star Alliance, and I need to put them in F for this trip (C is ok only on two-class aircraft, and on short connecting flights). Would appreciate your routing suggestions please! Either transpacific or transatlantic is fine.
given the YHZ origin, probably best just to put them on Air Canada in C via YYZ.
Only one stop, full flat beds on the YYZ-PVG leg and no back tracking. Service not nearly as good as on Asian carriers but very comfortable and much much more convenient than any of the true F options which would all involve 2+ stops, immigration etc.
Any of the LX/LH F options from YYZ/YUL would take much longer, involve an additional stop and cost far more...
Paying. Best being, as you point out, subjective, I would say: fewer connections, lie-flat beds, good service.
The shortest flight with fewest connections would be AC ... YHZ-YYZ-PVG. About 20 hours total. No F, but lie-flat business on a 2 class aircraft.
If you wanted a solid F product, I guess the easiest would be a combinations of AC and LX, YHZ-BOS-ZRH-PVG. Somewhere around 27 hours and the YHZ-BOS leg is economy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FLLDL
Any of the LX/LH F options from YYZ/YUL would take much longer, involve an additional stop and cost far more...
I concur with the AC direct option, although another possibility is YHZ-LHR-FRA-PVG using AC C then LH C then LH F. I think it's a bit quicker than going through BOS.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gerbs
I concur with the AC direct option, although another possibility is YHZ-LHR-FRA-PVG using AC C then LH C then LH F. I think it's a bit quicker than going through BOS.
Could be a nice option, though LHR and especially FRA are not the most user-friendly airports to transit through if the parents aren't in great shape or are inexperienced flyers.
Beyond that, great advice for the OP re AC, but one question that might or might not matter to him and his folks: Is it possible to lower the high dividers between the C seats? They're great for solo passengers but if the dividers can't be lowered then not as good for couples.
One other though if SQ is not stopping the NYC-SIN non-stops by the time the parents fly and if the arriving and departing NYC airports are the same is YHZ-NYC-SIN-PVG in C. But I get back to the point that AC seems best.
Another two stop-option is YHZ-ORD-NRT/ICN-PVG. Only the transpacific component would be in F, but it would be NH or OZ F, and total trip time is a few hrs faster than TATL.
In that case it sounds like your options are somewhat limited. Good F on Star are SQ, NH and OZ, also LH and LX. It seems to be easy to get to BOS, YUL or YYZ from YHZ.
BOS-MUC-PVG on LH with a very long layover in MUC
BOS-FRA-PVG on LH with an even longer layover in FRA (but the FCT is nice)
BOS-ZRH-PVG with a very good connection in ZRH in both directions
Flights from YUL on LH have similar long connections, also the LX flights don't connect well. YYZ also has no better connections.
BOS-ZRH-PVG with a very good connection in ZRH in both directions
But connecting in BOS is terrible, one would have to exit security, take a shuttle bus from terminal B to E. It looks like going via BOS, ZRH would take 27 hours versus 19 hours via YYZ, and they would be stuck in Y for YHZ-BOS. I don't see how flying F over C is worth it given the extra 8 hours of traveling time and an extra connection.
