Originally Posted by
johnathome
Also, UA has a decent arrival schedule into PVG. I've flown via SFO, ORD and EWR to PVG and they get you in the middle of the afternoon. I've thought about routing to LA to get the 787 but that adds so many hours to the flight that even in J, it isn't worth it to me.
When I booked last month, UA was running 747s ORD-PVG. They weren't a serious contender for my business in any case, but the 747 took that option completely off the table. I ended up going with AA, which exceeded my (very low) expectations across the board. I'm doing the reverse trip right after Thanksgiving. While I can't say that I'm looking forward to the experience, it's not something I'm dreading either (there are worse ways to spend 14 hours).
If I were the OP, I'd select flights based on a combination of price and convenience. I would never go out of my way to use a better airline at a substantially higher price point or less convenient routing if traveling Y. On a semi-related note, all transfers via NRT and some via ICN entail both an early morning departure and arrival eastbound (this gives me far worse jetlag than afternoon/evening departures/arrivals).