Reading the SimpleFlying story got my hopes up
"United Airlines Pushes Back Resumption Of Several China Routes"
Originally Posted by
Repooc17
How do you fly from US to China faster than to Europe? (unless we are comparing apples and oranges, nonstop vs. connections)
Anyway, you are not going to like the answer. No tickets are being sold between ORD and PVG through the end of March 2024 (along with multiple other routes between US and China). Even post March 2024, only expensive fare buckets are open for these suspended routes; personally, I would not risk putting down thousands in the hope things change, especially ex-ORD, IAD, or EWR.
I fly IND-ORD-PRG, and yes, the layovers are the main reasons. But flying IND-ORD- PVG, I have nice connections in ORD. Now my options to PVG is via SFO. I recall the flight from SFO-PVG is the same time as ORD-PVG. Plus I have a 4 hour flight to SFO and layover.