Originally Posted by
mlin32
Going to bump this old thread. Haven't flown to the mainland in 15 years, so dont know what's changed.
Thinking of taking a trip at year-end to the mainland China, looking at MU versus CA in paid Y. I don't have yet necessarily a preference to go to Shanghai or Pékin; will probably visit other cities domestically anyway.
However, looking at fares ex-EU in Y, MU is consistently 600-800 EUR more expensive for a round-trip ticket than CA. Despite my inclination to fly Skyteam (thus MU), that's not really worth the extra baggage allowance, Skypriority, and lounge access I would be entitled to.
Is there something I'm missing that somewhat justifies such a large price differential for MU ? Or what makes CA so much less expensive ?
I would argue that MU is definitely better than CA now even though this definitely wasn't the case 20 years ago. Their widebody planes are downright nice and the narrow-body fleet is decent enough. Food is fine and free wifi (that doesn't always work). Shanghai Airlines (their subsidiary) isn't so good now, though, and it's easy to mistakenly book FM flights because most, if not all, also have MU flight numbers. 9C (Spring) and HO (Juneyao) also both operate flights from PVG and SHA. Many people dislike 9C because the seats don't recline, but I personally like them them (very friendly staff and their fares are often dirt cheap).
That having said,, I certainly would not pay an extra 600 euros for MU over CA. Odds are that fares will drop on both of them as more flights are added so maybe wait into closer to your travel dates to book. They've already come down a lot so far this year.