This may be the wrong forum for this (you may want to post in "other Asia and African programs" but in Guangzhou, the dominant carrier is CZ (China Southern). Heck, they fly (flew?) A380s between Guangzhou and Beijing! However, because they left Skyteam in 2020, I'm not sure what the best choice for you is. Probably best to ask in the other forum.

imackie should credit CZ to CZ if he flies a lot or AA if he doesn't. The "other" forum receives even less action than this one.

Has anyone been following the current guidelines as far as vaccines required for re entry to China? Just noticing that some countries require “up to date” meaning a booster within 6-9 months. If you’ve gotten a local vaccine should you be getting a booster before you leave, to have the vaccine documents?

I have never heard any chatter about China requiring vaccinations as a condition for entry.

They don't care if you've had the vaccines or not. They only care that you aren't carrying the lethal Covid virus.

As a follow up, no problem adding the UA number at Air China check in counter.

Hong Kong to end mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals from Monday

Unfortunately, it will have no effect on the change of policy in China. :( :(
So, Hong Kong beats Japan, who is yet to announce the new entry requirements.

Seems the place where it all began will be the last to emerge from Covid 19. Congratulations to Chairman Xi and team for destroying your economy, the mental health of hundreds of millions and the image of China in the world. 习主席万岁！

What's this post doing in this thread?

-cough-
:(

Ending hotel quarantine in HK makes entry into the mainland that much easier. Seemed an obvious fit.

Can you elaborate why it will be easier? Traveling to Mainland from HK still highly restricted.

You didn't ask me, and I'm not sure if it's possible to immediately leave HK upon arrival (or if you need to spend the 3 days there to get PCR tests), but if it is, I can't imagine that it's a substantially more challenging gateway than Korea. Flights from both places to China do exist at semi-reasonable prices; you just can't be too picky about where in China. HK has the added benefit of land borders. I realize the quotas are quite low, but if you know the right people, maybe it's possible to score a slot.

As I've mentioned in this thread and/or one of its counterparts, I'm still intrigued by the Macau option because they let you select your own quarantine hotel, and some of them are actually nice, but I don't know anyone who has actually tried the new system. It could also be a little expensive (e.g. maybe $1500 for the hotel and PCR tests, compared with about half that on the mainland, but if the hotels are nice, it might be worth it).

In any event, Korea still remains my first choice for January. The calculus may well change significantly between now and then.

For HK you still have to wait until your code turns blue on the morning of your third day, but in the meantime you aren't confined to a quarantine hotel which is a vast improvement. The pre-flight test for the flight into HK can now be a rapid antigen test instead of a PCR, which is cheaper as well.

Macau is a viable option because once you finish your quarantine you can travel to the mainland as normal, no extra isolation required. So having a choice of hotel makes the 7-day quarantine and 3-day monitoring period more comfortable. There are only two quarantine hotels available (Lisboeta, Regency Art Hotel), and both comparable in cost at a minimum 100-120 USD per night including meals. The Broadway Hotel will be the only option for yellow code holders after Oct 31, and runs about $50/night without meals.

​​​​​​​Less time spent in HK if you're only there to transit, less total quarantine time, lower cost since you can choose any hotel for your three amber code days.

But isn't it up to the hotel whether they take amber-code guests?