British Airways and China Southern Airlines Launch Joint Venture
Dec 19, 2019, 11:06 pm
#46
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Hong Kong, France
Programs: FB , BA Gold
Posts: 15,542
The late booking issue, guessed to be frzud relzted, is a very different issue.
Dec 19, 2019, 11:17 pm
#47
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: Confirmed
Posts: 1,091
Two visas = two fees = two sets of docs = two personal visits for biometrics. Just check data.
first of call is usually Paris.
Dec 19, 2019, 11:18 pm
#48
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: Confirmed
Posts: 1,091
Nice post and just to add, another reason China Eastern did not join (and there had been a central government statement that they wanted a Chinese airline in each alliance) was that the Chairman of China Southern (Liu Shaoyong?) who took CZ into SkyTeam then became Chairman of China Eastern and promptly took MU into SkyTeam as well. I do enjoy that irony
Dec 20, 2019, 12:05 am
#49
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Programs: DL, OZ, AC, AS, AA, BA, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, IHG
Posts: 19,882
Where is this thread? I'm assuming that this affects availability of CX fares into HKG from the US as well? If so, that might explain why I don't see any availability at all.
Dec 20, 2019, 12:31 am
#50
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,499
interestingly, i suspect that the visa issue you mention is precisely an aggravating reason for the uk’s poor place here (more tourists are simply interested in France, Italy, and Spain than the U.K. anyway but germany is less obvious). If you were a Chinese tourist on your trip of the lifetime to Europe, and you had a choice between a U.K. visa letting you visit the U.K. or a Schengen visa opening you the doors of France to Germany, Sweden to Greece and Spain to the Netherlands, which one do you think you’d be more likely to apply for?
Dec 20, 2019, 1:41 am
#51
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: Confirmed
Posts: 1,091
Define « many » I guess. In 2018, the five main European destinations for Chinese tourists were (in that order): France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. The U.K. lagged badly behind the first ones of those (though Russia probably benefited from a football effect).
interestingly, i suspect that the visa issue you mention is precisely an aggravating reason for the uk’s poor place here (more tourists are simply interested in France, Italy, and Spain than the U.K. anyway but germany is less obvious). If you were a Chinese tourist on your trip of the lifetime to Europe, and you had a choice between a U.K. visa letting you visit the U.K. or a Schengen visa opening you the doors of France to Germany, Sweden to Greece and Spain to the Netherlands, which one do you think you’d be more likely to apply for?
interestingly, i suspect that the visa issue you mention is precisely an aggravating reason for the uk’s poor place here (more tourists are simply interested in France, Italy, and Spain than the U.K. anyway but germany is less obvious). If you were a Chinese tourist on your trip of the lifetime to Europe, and you had a choice between a U.K. visa letting you visit the U.K. or a Schengen visa opening you the doors of France to Germany, Sweden to Greece and Spain to the Netherlands, which one do you think you’d be more likely to apply for?
UK visa is very very costly. You can use it to visit UK and Ireland, that’s it. A Schengen includes a lot of European countries and the ordinary people would select Paris and Rome instead of London and Dublin.
The direct airside transit visa requirement - which means a chinese passport holder requires to have a a visa to fly PVG-LHR-CDG stops BA from selling European tickets. Full stop.
Dec 20, 2019, 1:44 am
#52
Join Date: Apr 2008
Programs: Confirmed
Posts: 1,091
Define « many » I guess. In 2018, the five main European destinations for Chinese tourists were (in that order): France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Russia. The U.K. lagged badly behind the first ones of those (though Russia probably benefited from a football effect).
interestingly, i suspect that the visa issue you mention is precisely an aggravating reason for the uk’s poor place here (more tourists are simply interested in France, Italy, and Spain than the U.K. anyway but germany is less obvious). If you were a Chinese tourist on your trip of the lifetime to Europe, and you had a choice between a U.K. visa letting you visit the U.K. or a Schengen visa opening you the doors of France to Germany, Sweden to Greece and Spain to the Netherlands, which one do you think you’d be more likely to apply for?
interestingly, i suspect that the visa issue you mention is precisely an aggravating reason for the uk’s poor place here (more tourists are simply interested in France, Italy, and Spain than the U.K. anyway but germany is less obvious). If you were a Chinese tourist on your trip of the lifetime to Europe, and you had a choice between a U.K. visa letting you visit the U.K. or a Schengen visa opening you the doors of France to Germany, Sweden to Greece and Spain to the Netherlands, which one do you think you’d be more likely to apply for?
Dec 22, 2019, 6:30 am
#54
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Falkirk, Scotland,VS Red, BA Gold, HH Diamond,UK Amex Plat
Programs: Master of the Privy Purse des Muccis
Posts: 17,895
Jan 1, 2020, 9:41 am
#56
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Unio Europaea
Programs: BA GGL, AS, Hertz Cirque Présidentielle
Posts: 1,445
Obviously a little bit too much time spent in the bubble of the UK and BA. CZ has no reason to go for any alliance partnership as it now stands. Now that they have quite a lot of muscle, they can very well go the route of EK, EY and AS, which they've in fact now done. Besides having signed in 2019 agreements with AA and BA, they also have in place new mutual agremeents with most of their old SkyTeam partners (AF, KL, SV etc.). There's really not a lot to gain for them, taken how the JV route seems to work for them. They have more room for movement now.
Indeed. If the UK would've opted to joint the Schengen agreement and not be the usual, grumpy island fortress, I would've been willing to bet that airports like EDI and CWL would've seen in the past decade that ended, Chinese carriers try to get international route permits to such destinations. If even KEF seems to be big and exotic enough for HO to start PVG-HEL-KEF in 2020, then why not even LBA or NCL... 
HO will start MAN and DUB this year, so the visa issue isn't apparently all too big, but I do assume it does limit how small airports in the CTA interest the Chinese airlines.
HO will start MAN and DUB this year, so the visa issue isn't apparently all too big, but I do assume it does limit how small airports in the CTA interest the Chinese airlines.
Jan 1, 2020, 1:01 pm
#57
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 41,988
