Oh, and speaking of JAL, the government of Japan has
threatened to suspend JAL's operations due to safety concerns.

So let's review our OneWorld options between North America and Asia:

• AA: One daily ORD-PVG (coming soon), but timed so that half of the country cannot connect with it
• JAL: Government threatening to suspend their operations
• China Eastern: See comments earlier in this thread.
• Cathay: The one savior. Seems expensive the few times I've priced itineraries on them. And almost impossible to redeem AAdvantage awards on them. OTOH, a fantastic airline by all accounts.

Doesn't look very pretty to me compared to Star Alliance (UA metal all over Asia, ANA, Asiana, Singapore, Thai).