Originally Posted by
sweet-town
I heard that Delta will have a new non-stop flight from SEA-PEK (Seattle to BeiJing, China) starting June 4, 2010. Anybody know if there are any promotion for that new flight?
Last year NWA announced the same flight, but cancelled it later. Right now, Delta priced this new flight much higher than non-stop flight from SEA-PEK by Hainan Air. It just does not seem like they are trying to compete. I hope they don't cancel their plan again.
I booked on this flight (late July) a few weeks ago. From my city (DEN) the fare was competitive with Hainan (around $1100). The fare has since gone up.
Personally, I'm glad I didn't go with Hainan. I didn't like the sites you had to book on. I was about to book on one when the fare was around $1000 and then they pulled a "bait and switch" - quoted me $1500. I don't like these sites - prefer either the airline web sites (such as I did with Delta) or Expedia, Travelocity -what you see is what you get and not have to wait for reply from agent. Also with Hainan you couldn't do your seat assignment when booking. I've also heard of issues with Chinese airlines that they're more likely to cancel a flight in China if it's not full. Hainan didn't have daily service so this could be a problem.
That being said, I'm a bit concerned. I read about American canceling their new nonstop service from Chicago to Beijing because Chinese airport authorities didn't give them a good arrival departure time (it was something like 2 am). Right now Delta still does not have confirmation on their times (or so they were quoted saying in the Wall Street Journal). I did not know this when I booked my ticket. So I'm starting to get a bit nervous. We need to book a hotel (pay up front as that gets you cheaper room rate in China) and also book internal flights. Can't do any of that until I know what's happening with Delta. I'm keeping my fingers crossed - hoping that having China Eastern in Delta's alliance helps to get them the favorable times that they have requested.