Yet still at around 50% premium to the Chinese carriers. When you can routinely get $600 rt Y fares with MU, or $800 rt PE fares with partner CA via PEK you really question why you would go with NZ even at this "extraordinary" fare level. Granted J fares are comparable between NZ and the Chinese carriers, but that just means NZ is giving up margin / loss-leading where it actually matters.

This is usually consistent with my own observations all the times I had flown this route - a very full pointy-end and a largely half-empty back of the bus (unless it's during key dates such as school holidays). You really wonder how much commercial value there is left. QF is right to bite the bullet in my mind.

Re: connection to EU, PVG is a poor choice right now as the detour around Russian airspace is typically adding 2 hours to the flight time. Usually I see less than 5% of passengers headed to the transit counter at PVG, and that includes people like me who are going to TPE with BR, most are point-to-point.