Originally Posted by
moondog
Hmmm. I didn't know that. I had a business guest come over from ATL recently, and he really wanted the SEA flight because he was under the impression that he wouldn't need to get off the plane. He ended up doing the NRT thing instead because there was only one biz class seat open on the SEA flight, and he didn't want to abandon his wife (or, more likely, himself) in coach.
Yes, there is a change in SEA even though the flight number is the same, and a schlep through security on the return leg so with delays from PEK it is actually possible to miss the connection despite the flight # being the same. I took this route last August and the PEK-SEA leg was on a 764 or 777 (I can't remember which, but it was a 1-2-1 lie-flat) but perhaps this is seasonal? Or the A/C changes from day to day?
The DTW-PEK flight is nice, too, on a 1-2-1 lie-flat. I've also gone ATL-PVG and taken an internal flight to PEK, which was ok, but in general I hate having that short leg at the end of the long one, so I'd recommend the JAX-ATL, ATL-DET, DET-PEK to avoid this (if the JAX-DET is not available).