Originally Posted by
jux1982
Hi thanks for your input. Yes, CA economy via Google research does APPEAR terrible. Is there a glimmer of hope that CA isn't as bad as people say it is?
The upgrade is 3k which is 2x the tour cost itself. If I had a budget of 4.5K pp for a party of greater than 4, I definitely would not go the tour route. Alas, economics play a part in this decision.
If there isn't even one bit of positive news about CA, I may have to reconsider.
If this is your only way to see China, will it really matter? Yes, it's a 13 hour trip. It's a long time. But you will survive. Bring a camping pillow for your seat to make it more comfortable, bring some trail mix or favorite treats and try the suggestions in the Travel Products and technology fora. I made a 14 hour total time trip in Y on US and that was horrible but I survived because I was heading for Venice and that was the only way I was going to make it there.
CA is cheap, especially for tours, so there is no way else you're really going to make it for anywhere near what the cost of the tour is unless you have miles to burn on a better airline.
China is fantastic, the people are wonderful and you will have a great time, no matter how you get there. On the way home, you may be complaining but chances are you'll be so exhausted you'll sleep most of the way.
Originally Posted by
ORDnHKG
OP is flying long haul, not short haul. There are already a big difference between meals and aircraft type. From the trip reports for long haul I look in CA Y, it doesn't even come close to UA.
Btw, isn't CA so cheap has to lease NX airbus to fly on HKG-PEK ? I have always seen NX airbus 321 in HKG, then one day (last december he went HKG-PEK on CA, he took the photo he was boarding NX) From what I heard and saw, CA only serve cold cuts when it is not meal times for a 4 hours flight.
I do suggest you to reconsider, as I chinese myself, I wouldn't even want to fly on CA.
As I said I flew J from SFO to PEK, but I also flew from Xi'an to Shanghai in Coach and found it to be fine. There was some kind of hot sandwich which was edible but lousy. The seating was cramped but I found it no worse and no better than any domestic US airline today. Most American airlines don't serve food at all whether it's meal time or not, so I would be happy with cold cuts.
To me, the planes were clean, the FAs friendly and helpful. Maybe it was a unique situation, but that's really what matters to me. If this was my weekly routine, maybe I would have trouble with it but for the OP, this is a one-off and I don't know that it's worth it to shell out a lot more money for this trip.