Guangzhou flight from Knoxville
 

Hello new friends. I have always wondered if there was a web site like this existing. I found you by accident when searching for flights from Knoxville to Guangzhou tonight.

I fly a lot to Guangzhou China and I really should apply for some kind of Milage credit card. Whats the best one?

I am about to buy a ticket for $1,089 round trip on NWA. I wish soo bad that I could find a way to sit in first class one day because that trip sucks in the cheap seats. Does anyone have any ideas that I could find a cheap first class fare? I have about 60,000 miles built up so far on my delta skymiles by the way.

I usually stay at the China Hotel when I go there because it is right beside the subway. For those that have been to Guangzhou do you have any other good ideas for hotels during the Canton Fair?

I look forward to reading your responces and searching through this site to learn. This site is gold Jerry, Gold!

There is no way to get there without connecting twice. However, if you don't mind HK, you do a single connect in ORD.

If you keep flying NW, I suggest you get used to the back of the bus because upgrades are tough to come by and require the purchase of a Y or B fare, which is much more expensive than $1000. In fact, I would go so far as to say that you could fly business class on CZ (from LAX) for less money.

But, as long as $1000 is your budget, I think you should look into UA because MP is a great frequent flyer program. If you fly 100k miles per year, you get 6 systemwide upgrades and a bunch of domestic upgrades. If you don't have any use for the latter, you can trade them on Coupon Connection here (once you reach 100 posts, you can check it out for yourself) for extra SWUs (so that you almost never have to fly economy).

AA is also worthy of consideration because they fly ORD-PVG and codeshare with MU on PVG-CAN (I think). Like UA, they also hand out upgrades fairly liberaly to their top flyers. Unfortunately, I'm not quite as knowledgable about AA because they don't serve China from the West Coast, but that's not an issue for you.

Guangzhou Hotels
 

I live in Guangzhou and would recommend the Garden Hotel over the China Hotel although both are extremely expensive during the trade fair.

The Garden is a better area as far as nightlife, restaurants, ect. and they have an airport bus that goes directly to the hotel from Baiyun Airport. The only bad part about the Garden is that the subway is not that close but there are tons of busses and taxis cost about 2 bucks to drive from the Garden to the trade fair area.

If you come from Hong Kong and take the train I'd recommend the Tianlun Hotel near the East Train Station which is in the "newer" area of Guangzhou.

Hey thanks for the reply's. I will have to learn what all those abbreviations mean before I can fully understand this website. Everyone uses them but they are greek to me. I just tried CZ's website for business class quotes but the site will be down for a few days it says. That's weird.

I only go to China about twice a year sometimes 3. I have 3 trips to China earned on my Delta skymiles and I actually only have about 30,000 miles earned. I just checked the balance. I have to fly NWA because they fly from Knoxville and connect in Detroit and then fly direct to CAN (Guangzhou). Should I pick a particular fare class to earn more miles or what?

I have heard about the Garden Hotel. I have heard that it is nice too. I hate the prices go up as much as they doo during the Canton Fair. I will only stay at a nice hotel though because I don't want my laptop stolen. China hotel is really expensive though. I will be there the 15th - 23rd of Oct. I did some research and the hotels are not allowed by the goverment to mark up there rooms that much but they do anyway. Do locals get a discount on rooms there? If I have someone call and speak in Chinese will they go lower on the room rate? Thanks in advance.

Whos watching some college football this wekend?

Like others have said, you have to change plane twice. NW's DTW-NRT-CAN service is basically a connection, where you need to get off at NRT, go through security and then board another plane.

So, there's really no advantage in using NW compared to other airlines, when it comes to connection.

I really don't mind connections. It gives me a good opportunity to walk around and stretch my legs.

Fine. Then why do you say you "have to" fly Northwest? Other posters have given you several other options.

I'm wanting to fly from Knoxville but if there is a way I can fly first class for not much more from a different airport or airline I will.
My main question was about flying first class and if you knew a way to sneek in to first class for a cheap rate from say nashville or atlanta or knoxville.
On nwa.com it gives an option for "search for fare class" under more search options. Does it matter which one I choose? Will one of them give me business or first class or more miles for the same price? If you are not familiar with it thats ok don't worry about it. I will probably buy them tomorrow. Thanks for your answers.

I'm in the same boat as you, though I generally commute between west coast points, which aren't on AA's radar (so UA is it for me). UA is cool because you can actually ride in C on those $1000 fares whenever you want to. If you don't have SWUs, you can trade for them here at 25-30K a piece.

NW simply doesn't facilitate such because they have a lower ratio of C:Y than UA and AA. They sell those seats to the odds of you snagging one are slim.

I can authoratatively state that UA would work well for you based on my own experiences. Furthermore, I have a hunch that AA would be good as well. Just don't bother with NW unless you are prepared to fork over 3k plus per ticket (assuming you want to upgrade).

Last Canton Fair I used a UA SWU to upgrade and enjoyed the upperdeck of
a 747 which was nice...then got op-upped from HKG to Narita.... The ticket cost was $950

Every hotel I stayed at in Guangzhou has been an overpriced dump. I think next time I would stay in Dongguan and take the train. Also seems like 80% of the vendors at Canton Fair are trading companies posing as factories and very flakey. Its a good place to find some new things then source them for better deals by going direct with the factories.

Look at getting a Delta hop down to Atlanta, then take a Delta/Korean Air code share from Atlanta to Seoul. You can use Delta points to upgrade. From Seoul you can get a China Southern flight to Guanzhou , or take the Korean Air flight into Shenzhen. Either will earn Delta points.

Since you asked about a credit card to earn points, if you are going to stick with Delta/SkyTeam, I suggest an Amex that accrues Membership Rewards points. Even if you don't spend a lot on the card, you can buy up 500,000 points a year, then use them to transfer to Delta for upgrades.

If you aren't tied to Delta/SkyTeam, check into United as others have said. You can get a discounted economy ticket from Chicago to Hong Kong and upgrade at the gate for about $500. You don't say if you have Medallion status on Delta, if you do United will probably match it. That will give you a boost on Mileage Plus earnings, but it won't help much with getting an OP/UP if you are flying to Asia out of a major UA hub, there are just too many UGS and 1Ks on those flights. I am 1 for 4 on trans-pacific OP/UPs on UA so far this year.

Good luck finding a cheap hotel room during the Canton Fair. If you don't mind commuting daily, you may find a reasonable rate at one of the better hotels in Shenzhen. Take a look at ctrip.com, it gives the rates for foreigners and Chinese. If you have a Chinese friend make the reservation for you it will save you a lot of money.

Wow, I came to the right place for info on travel. I am still learning. I don't have any status anywhere with any airline yet. I only know that I have been to China 3 times and I now have 30,000 miles with delta. I will definately take all your info and put it to good use. I wish I was closer to a UA hub.

For those of you (atldave, anacapamalibu, travelinmanS) that have been to the Fair, below is some info I found on the official canton fair web site.

[B][[I]I]According to the Price Control Administration of Guangzhou Municipality, the government has adopted guiding price policy on hotel rates during the period of the 100th Canton Fair.

Guiding prices of the standard double room are as that of the 99th Canton Fair:
5 stars hotel (guest house): 1730RMB (service charge not included)
4 stars hotel (guest house): 1331RMB (service charge not included)
3 stars hotel (guest house): 790RMB (service charge not included)
2 stars hotel (guest house): 439RMB (service charge not included)

Even with this govermental price control they still advertise $345 per night for a standard twin room at the China hotel. Just thought I'd share this with ya.

So what brings you all to the fair? I just recently started an import company in Tennessee. We import and sell furniture to furniture stores. Aaron

Of course the rates are sent by the Government for these days...but guess what? 2 times a year, when it happens to be trade fair time about 50 hotels in Guangzhou suddenly become 6 star hotels. As you will notice there are no price guidelines for 6 star hotels.

Just as magically they return to 4 or 5 star status come November 1 and May 1. Funny how they pick that time period isn't it? :D

I know of a Chinese person who imports wood from Europe for the furniture industry as China doesn't have enough available domestically. From what I heard China makes excellent furnture. I met a guy once on the way to China who would go to Europe and had some type of laser 3D machine and would pay
to scan highly valuable antique chairs , then the factory in China would reproduce these museum style pieces. He said they were so close to the original it was almost impossible to tell the difference.

Good luck with your business venture.

When you decide what airline to use to collect the most FF miles and to gain elite status, you need to learn about fare classes. Airlines post on their website what fares earn miles and elite-qualifying miles/points, and which don't, for their own flights and partners. You need to be very very clear about these things.

For example, I don't know what exactly happened to you for your previous flights, but if you check on delta.com, you will find that if you fly China Southern and want to do collect DL miles, "Mileage credit is applicable only on international flights booked in F, C, Y, W, and S class, including to/from Hong Kong".

It's a complicated game to play, but if you don't want to waste your miles, you just have to learn about these things.