It was strangely hard to find a current list of allowed China/USA flights. After trying a few search engines I got this from Baidu. Hope you can read Chinese.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...8cc54e755.jpeg

The MU flights seem to get axed a lot and so does DL's DTW. I'm feeling good about my AA choice because they are just now reentering the market so they should be able to bleed money for several months.

HK giving preferential treatment to vaccinated people, shorter quarantine (7 days), reduced social distancing

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...ys-2021-06-21/

That's Hong Kong (antibody tests), not PRC https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...l#post33344367
- Antibody testing is not even applicable to visitors to Hong Kong from PRC

I agree with the two above statements, and wondering if I should start exiting plan as an expat.

I think getting one of the two Chinese vaccines increases your chance of getting approval to return to China. It has happened to my friends and colleagues who were rejected previously (before leaving China), but received approval to return after taking the Chinese vaccines (before leaving for the US). They applied for approval to return to China at PRC consulate in SF (where UA operates its direct flight SFO-PVG) before leaving China to ensure they could return after home trips to the US.

Man that schedule is rough! I would hate to be booked on one of those once a week flights and miss it.

-One of our members in this forum booked MU to LAX, and they offered him JFK instead (that might have been cool if his destination wasn't Los Angeles).
-I put a DL ticket on hold via DTW (nice connection), and they switched me to SEA...with a 6 hour layover before a red eye to BOS...no thanks
-MU via JFK was actually my first choice, but they were coming in 2x as much as other options
-before AA relaunched DFW (I don't think it's actually started yet), they were coming in lowest on search engines via HKG, LAX, and DFW (with 12 hours in HKG)
-I considered UA 858, but it was a morning departure when I was looking, plus a long layover in SFO
-JL would have been nice (nonstop NRT-BOS), but when I searched, there were NO flights between SHA/PVG and NRT (I would have needed to go to DLC and FUK to pull that off)
-I looked at KE via ICN (also nonstop BOS flight), they weren't even selling that routing

I'm happy with my AA choice. I booked an afternoon flight the next day so I can enjoy a morning swim at the DFW GH, and have a decent lunch. I'll let you guys know how it pans out.

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...-19-quarantine

Well, we can dream that HK pushes the PRC government to accept people... :)

72.9% won't do it against the Delta variant.

The 72.9% number comes from here, I didn't make it up.
Obviously we all know the number is symbolically meaningless and they are going to do whatever they want to do. This is why I don't really bother with discussions of vaccine efficacy etc in China, there is also a better forum for that https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coronavirus-travel-773/

Only students are allowed to board the AA flight via DFW and this has been the case since the start of 2021.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...-refund-2.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/Chinavisa/c...n_code_issues/

I just booked a “flexible fare” AA from DFW to PVG. I hate the lack of layman transparency but it seems like this ticket can be cancelled and refunded to my original payment at any time.

$2865 for back of the bus economy is not bad for today’s clown world.

Two years ago I was booking round trip business class to Asia for not much more.

Well I guess I should cancel that flight.

I think moondog is flying PVG-USA, not the other way around. In that case he'll be fine.

Technically anyone can board the DFW-PVG flight provided they get the special QR code from the Chinese embassy but in practice it seems it's almost impossible to get unless you're a Chinese student. The QR code is basically used to filter out anyone they don't want traveling to China no matter visa status or citizenship. Extremely harsh and unfair for many, but they couldn't care less.

Yes of course. Going from PVG to DFW is not an issue. But I thought moondog is buying a return ticket, perhaps I'm misreading him.

I had trouble with getting green code from SFO but not out of LAX. The problem is the flight from LAX is about $8k for China southern to CAN and $3200 for Xiamen. I have never been to Xiamen but I guess I’ll be giving it a whirl in September.

I bought a oneway ticket because I don't have a fixed return date, and I'm hoping there will be more options when I decide to come back. For those put off by high prices, UA 857/858 has great award availability most days, but my gut tells me that prices will drop after the entry rules relax a little bit; it's surely costly for airlines to sell tickets on flights that they might not operate and/or to customers who might not be permitted to travel. Replacing the travel health code system with a simple PCR test doesn't seem to be too much to ask for.

I have a United award economy ticket for the SFO-PVG and it’s 225k. Most of the economy inventory is 250k.

Before covid you could buy a Polaris ticket for about 120k.

Getting out of China is simple but getting into China is expensive and physically/mentally painful.

Because getting out of China is so easy, I assumed the eastbound flights would be more fully booked. So, while I only searched PVG-SFO, I figured the reverse direction would be a cakewalk. Lots of people simply don't want to come here because of the quarantine and other hassles, but many of us do want to spend our summer in other countries.

Yeah the airfare rates suggest major operational costs or major demand to get into China, versus the highly restricted supply. LAX-CAN doesn’t have a single economy class seat available until October.

United economy is $6k+ one way.

Isn't CAN-LAX their flagship route? If it's sold out through October, perhaps they should consider running it more than 2 days per week.

That would require the Chinese government allowing it. Again we are talking about getting into China, which is LAX-CAN

On certain days, the United economy cabins are not even available or in the price range of close to $10K in economy. This is the SFO-PVG one-way fare, but the reverse seems a lot more reasonable.

You are vastly overestimating the number of people who want to leave China and vastly underestimating the number who want to enter China. Flights from China are empty, flights to China are 100% booked thanks to the government policy limiting flights. The situation will stay the same until the government policy changes.

I also think you are taking quite a risk by leaving and planning to come back in based on what I know about your current situation. It’s not as easy as you think it’s gonna be to get the QR code approved. I’d definitely try and apply for pre approval before you leave China.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-t...ar-11624361777

According to WSJ, there'll be no reopening until at least late 2022

China wants the 2022 Winter Olympics (February) and the 20th CCP Congress (October, where Xi is expected to seek a 3rd term as general secretary, the most of any leader since Mao) to conclude before risking further opening.

Also, this:

Given the mutual animosity between China and the West right now, I don't think there'll be much political appetite to risk Chinese deaths so Westerners can get in and out more easily.

Looks like another year of travel restriction until the second half of 2022:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/ea...er-year-report


I agree with the above advice just to be safe. I know people have multiple pre-approval rejected before leaving China. Once they had taken the vaccines in China, the pre-approval was secured, and they left for the US knowing they have permission to return.

Yep, and Macau and Hong Kong will be the next reopening priority.

Whatever the number is, China seems to be uniquely positioned to hit its target:
-enormous production capacity
-enough money to fund free production/distribution
-a government that can compel pretty much everyone to get vaxed

I normally oppose heavy handed policy initiatives, but I'm cool with a top down approach in this case (as long as they spare pregnant women and otherwise vulnerable people). Chinese would also appreciate a return to normal.

Maybe I'm joining moondog in the overly optimistic camp, but I don't see this as bad news. I assume this refers to general travel, not business travel, and I don't think anyone expected that to resume in the short term. Australia also said mid 2022. Some timeline is better than no timeline.
All we need to do is wait for quarantine-free channel to open up between Hong Kong and China and then we enter as business executives quarantine free ;)

If it’s anything like the Macau-China quarantine free corridor. Everyone will be allowed to utilize it except foreigners.

Taiwanese get to go to Macau and back.:)

Do you mean foreigners living in China cannot use the quarantine free corridor? I have not keep up to date with the Macau travel bubble.

I think travelinmanS is saying you can't utilise it unless you're already inside in Mainland China or Macau.

No. We actually can't use it yet but Taiwan and HK docs are okay.

OK, in HK's instance
- non-residents not eligible for the most relaxed Return2HK scheme (no quarantine) https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/r...hk-scheme.html
- however non-residents arriving from Mainland China still eligible for 7-days at-home quarantine (which is the next best thing in the HK grand scheme of things) https://www.coronavirus.gov.hk/eng/inbound-travel.html
--- even the next most privileged set of arrivals (Australian and New Zealand arrivals) have to do 7 days at a hotel

I wonder if Coyote qualifies as "at home".:D

Looks like I’ll be taking the CAN-LAX-CAN route for my august roundtrip back to the US. Now I just need to decide very quickly if I should get a Chinese vaccine before I leave.

It certainly won’t hurt in your quest for the green code!

Well getting a Taiwanese passport is not exactly easy.

Taibaozheng also works, but I certainly don't qualify for one of those either.