Pek-pvg-syd (ca)
 

Hi everyone,

I'm doing LHR-PEK-SYD next week on CA938 / CA175 - the latter flight has a stop at PVG for about 90 minutes. How does this work exactly, in terms of what happens during the stop? I'd like to buy some duty free spirits before I get to Australia, should I get them in PEK and am I able to keep hold of them through PVG? Or is there the chance to buy duty free in PVG?

I assume on the return trip SYD-PEK-LHR I can buy duty free at PEK and carry it to LHR without encountering any problems.

I don't have a seat reservation yet for either of the flights. Am I able to call up Air China and ask for one, or do I have to wait until online check in opens the day before? Sorry if these are basic questions but I'm completely new to all this.

Thanks for your help.

I advise you to get your spirits in London, even if it costs you twice as much because Sunrise (same company in BJ and SH) has a, less than stellar, rep.

Insofar as seats are concerned, you should get them at the airport because the best seats are typically held back for the airport people to assign. If you simply ask for a reclining exit row seat, you're likely to receive such.

moondog: Are you sure he will be okay to take the liquids through the immigration/ transfer customs line? I am fairly sure this would not be possible for a domestic transfer , but I am not sure about the case of an int-int transfer.

In any case you could consider also getting your duty free items at the arrivals shop at SYD (before passport control and customs). The only things that will be available in PEK and not SYD are bottles of Chinese baijiu - and if that is what you plan to buy you are beyond our (or any) help ... :)

Can't site any incidents of Sunrise Duty Free selling fake booze.
But do know Chinese have a higher perceived value of liquor
confirmed to be purchased outside of China.

I didn't think about the liquid issue, but I don't fully trust Sunrise; I bought my gf a carton of cigarettes there a few years back... super bad.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll get the liquor in Sydney. Bit more expensive but at least I know it's real. :)

As for seats, do you mean I should not check in online and instead wait until the counter opens? I saw a seat map on Expedia showing the remaining available seats, and all the best seats are not available to reserve - is this because they're already reserved, or because they're held back until airport check in?

I've never been able to get advanced seat reservations in China until about 1 year ago, and that is only on CZ. CZ allows internet check-in (Chinese only) at 24 hours. Every other airline (MU, CA, FM, Spring Airlines, Juneyao etc) never been able to do it until check-in.

Bingo.

I just checked and both of your flights are on A330s. This is VERY good news for you even if they stick you in last row (I'm hard pressed to think of any other economy class product that comes close in terms of seat comfort; the food is still terrible though, and you'll probably be delayed at least twice... it is still Air China, after all).

My favorite seats on the 330(in Y) are the inside bulkhead aisles; I don't think these get assigned in advance; in fact, I often poach them once on board. (I'm normally a window person, but infinite legroom trumps my desire to stare at the stars.)

Yes I was hoping for the inside bulkhead aisle seat. Extra legroom is good, especially when both flights are largely during the night. I guess that as long as I'm at the airport 2-3 hours before departure, I will get some input on seat allocation.

No worries, I'm expecting terrible food and delayed flights. I'd just rather be late and hungry in relative comfort. :)

(Fortunately?) I don't have much to compare with, as my last flight longer than 3 hours was PHL-CDG almost 10 years ago. This will be my first proper long haul trip, so we'll see what happens!

Unfortunately I have... bought a bottle of vodka (I'm pretty sure it was absolute...) at Sunrise PVG and put it in the freezer. It froze solid!! I switched to smirnoff after that and no problems.

I have managed seat assignment on CA for J sectors PVG-NRT, but it was not worth the effort. They mucked around claiming the cabin was full and only one aisle seat was available... got on board and the load was 5/42.

Oh dear! Well I think Sydney will be safest in that case. If I have some RMB spare on the return trip I might pick up a bottle of something out of curiosity.

Is the seat assignment situation specific to Chinese carriers? My friends have flown with other Asian airlines and been able to select seats months out.

to be honest 99% of the cigarettes and alcohol I have bout in china has been perfectly good, it was just that one bottle. it is very cheap there.. about AUD17 for a litre bottle (GBP12). I wouldnt be too concerned about it. if you are coming to meet someone in Australia who smokes then cigarettes are also much much cheaper there, again about AUD17 a carton, compared to AUD88 a carton on arrival in Australia (and much better cigarettes). normal retail price for cigarettes in Australia is now about $125 a carton, so if you want to be really popular ask you friends if they or anyone they know smoke!

a way to ensure you miss fake alcohol is to go for something a little less popular... so for example, smirnoff black label should be ok. the more popular the brand (for example absolute) makes it more of a target to copy.

I wish I could share your 99% assessment/experience. Regarding unpopular, I've had pretty good luck with Japanese whiskeys, some of which aren't bad.

One bottle i know for sure was off (the frozen one). Another one I wasn't too sure about. Done maybe 40 entries to China in the last three years... buying 2 bottles and 2 cartons a time... so that's two suspect out of 160 items.

Still not a good ratio as it should be 100% quality...

I'd bet my bottom dollar that other suspect products were slipped into the mix.