Business is great here and we certainly have everything we need. But you still always know that you’re one positive NAT test away from your whole neighborhood being locked at home for 2 weeks and you cannot leave the border of China without significant financial and legal commitments. In 2020 this was fine but as the western world is opening up full blast it’s much less fun.

This is key and oh so true. It's not how much money you have, it's how much the neighbors have.

I, for one, am feeling left out. Circumstances and lack of fortitude dictate that I can't accept China re-entry with a 3-week quarantine so I'm effectively stuck, until the point where I can't handle it anymore and leave until this whole mess is over. This is where current policy is driving to. The US (and Europe) were behind, but now China is falling behind.

It’s going to be very difficult for China to go from “Covid is the most deadly virus ever” to “we need to open up the borders for the economy despite the Covid risk potential”. They have kind of painted themselves into a corner in this regard. I’m curious to see the propaganda switch they’ll try and pull if they do decide to open the borders because opening the borders means allowing in some Covid.

To be precise, being in China does not impact on your ability to return to the US (as you are a citizen). Nor does it impact on your ability to enter Macau/Japan, in fact whether you are travelling from China or the US, you cannot enter Macau or Japan. For South Korea, it doesn't matter whether you are coming from the US or China, in either case you are allowed in based on your nationality alone.

I take issue with your statement that the western world as a whole is opening up full blast, at least as far as their national borders are concerned. For example, the US still hasn't lifted the Presidential Proclamations banning all Europeans including those from the UK from entering. On the other hand, if anything the UK has strengthened its border controls compared to 2020 (not that it has done any good in terms of stopping Delta).

Yes the EU is experiencing a purple patch right now in terms of virus control so they are thinking of relaxing border controls, but give it a month and they'll be up to where the UK is at the moment.

This is just a bit nitpicky. Assuming one’s primary residence is in China “returning” to the US also implies coming back to China at some point, which is the hard part.


I agree but for a different reason - as long as each of these individual countries has annoying entry requirements, the feasibility of going there short term is low. The re entry policy to China just makes the feasibility go from low to zero, but it’s almost a minor factor.

An American living in the US can fly to many places in Europe or south/Central America with the only hindrance being a covid test. And there’s no fear of having domestic lockdowns at any point, because even liberal constituents are mentally done with covid.

If you live in China, you are indirectly trapped here because getting back will at a minimum be super costly + painful (2 week quarantine and loads of testing) and that’s assuming you even get permission to come back. I was quoted a business class round trip airfare at $21k USD for august. Most people who don’t have the weight of a corporation or successful business behind them won’t be able to execute that logistically.

I don’t see why it’s hard to contrast with the western world, especially the US. I’m not sure why you take issue with it.

Economy isn't horrible on an empty plane

I think you’re a little behind on that one. I flew back to SFO from shanghai in November 2020 and it was indeed very empty in business, but it looked somewhat crowded in economy, maybe 60%.

Now, based on the seat map inventory and pricing, these flights are pretty full. The China southern flight for Aug 5 is already sold out.

I love China but my exit strategy is now a daily thought.

This is an interesting way of looking at it: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/c...ience-ranking/

Bloomberg is creating their own index of "what is the best place to be when the world reopens". When they added metrics on how easy it is to move in/out* and how much air travel has recovered, the US is now #1 on the list.

* Yes, obviously, it is much easier to enter the US as a US citizen right now. 87 pages of https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coro...gen-uk-87.html is much ado about nothing.

The article is behind a paywall so here is a picture of the current rankings.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...af484b77a3.png

I'm angling to get my return green code from the NYC consulate (starting from BOS) so I can fly back via DFW...that flight does NOT sell out.

You can't do that (from what I read). if your green code is from NYC, your flight has to orginate from NYC. This pretty much ruled out most of the non-direct flights.

You need to get the code from the DC embassy if flying from DFW. You also won’t be flying from Boston and connecting through DFW. You’ll need to be in Dallas at least 2 days before as the Covid test needs to be taken in the city of departure from the USA.

I know you want to go home this summer but you should probably brush up a bit more on how it all works before you make the trip.

Imagine that you're a German national on a work visa working in the USA. As it currently stands, if you travel back to Germany for the summer holidays you cannot return to the US, unless you first spend 14 days in some third country (where you might end up getting stuck should the situation there suddenly deteriorate).

So the US is hardly open when it comes to allowing people into the country.

Thanks. It appears that I still have a lot to learn. Why don't the Chinese understand the "network carrier" concept? My understanding is that a minority of passengers who use the DFW and DTW flights actually live in Dallas/Detroit.