Hi all,

for the connecting flight of my United mileage award, I have the choice of flying PEK-SZX-PEK on Shenzhen in F on their 737-900 plane, which if F is configured the same as their 737-800 (their website says the A319 has much less legroom, only 38" pitch), has a generous 48" pitch for domestic aircraft.

I currently have PEK-CAN-PEK booked on Air China F, which is on their A330-200 plane with the international 80" pitch lie flat seat. PEK-SZX/CAN is only a 3.25hour flight so lie flat seating is nice but not essential.

Flying into SZX, I will only need to take a 1 hour car ride vs 2 hour car ride from CAN GZ airport and SZX will likely have shorter security/queues since it's much smaller than CAN.

Other then the fact Shenzhen Airlines is a subsidiary of Air China and they joined Star Alliance late 2012, I haven't been able to find any trip reports or much info so Shenzhen airlines is a unknown quality for me.

Unfortunately the Air China is not releasing any F space on any of their 9 PEK-SZX-PEK routes on the days I am traveling otherwise I would simply have gone with the known (abet hit or miss) quality of Air China F.

Both the CA and Shenzhen flights are timed to give me ~3 hours to connect from my LAX-PEK Air China F flight so that should be fine.

Do you think it's worth trying out Shenzhen airlines to save an hour+ off my airport travel time?