Originally Posted by
moondog
As others have noted, Europe to China has been A LOT cheaper than US to China (and Transpacs in general) since COVID. MU would presumably prefer to send more planes to NYC instead of BUD, but the US government doesn't want that, and Canada isn't much friendlier in this respect.
There is no secret cache of $2400 business class fares that MU is holding back from the OP.
I certainly agree that Europe-China flights, particularly from some EU countries, are generally a lot cheaper than US-China flights due to supply. However, I noticed that nonstop flights from some Western European countries (Spain seems to be an exception, probably because of excess supply?) to China on Chinese airlines are actually more expensive than comparable flights on major European airlines, presumably because the Chinese airlines don't have to avoid Russian airspace, making the trip, especially to northern China, shorter by a few hours.