Originally Posted by
Admiral Ackbar
Another reason is that the number of seats between North America and China is nowhere near the level that it was before COVID so people are connecting via Japan, SIN, BKK, etc which drives up demand for the same supply. Paid CAN$7K for a direct AC YUL-NRT last year, flying this October and prices have not come down. Used to be able to find 3.5K P fares out of ORD on ANA which seem to have dissapeared as well (would love to be wrong on this)
Yeah so it's basically what you're saying. I'm an ICN based flyer, and the last time I entered Korea was last week and barely anybody went to immigration, everyone was transiting. A flight had just landed from LA and nearly the entire A380 was walking straight to the transit screening area. I think the number of direct flights US->China went from 160 daily to 24 daily or something like that. Fares are absolutely insane, and Premium economy is outrageous. I have a flight first week of October that is $3100 for Premium Economy to the west coast, thankfully my company is paying but still, outrageous.
But random aside, I had a tracker that had a flight including ANA The Room GMP>HND>SFO for $3600. If I didn't have to expense through my company I would have just bought that direct, instead of PE + MUA to upgrade. Usually I can find flights all day long for $4k to the US and that includes KE and OZ. UA is more like $5.5k. If you're willing to connect it drops to like $3.2k-$3.8k depending on the day and you can fly Eva Air, sometimes ANA, and AC also has good deals.