I'm flying from Dunhuang to Beijing on Air China the day before my cruise leaves from Tianjin. How reliable is Air China? What is the likelihood that the flight might be cancelled? I don't mind late, but cancelled would be disastrous.

Yes, I get nervous and anxious when I travel.

Good Luck .....China Domestic travel is like playing Russian Roulette

It's a limited data set, but it all worked well for me last month on a number of domestic flights - Air China, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, etc.

Well, CA domestic is as reliable as USA or European domestic flights--generally OK or a little late. But no guarantees. Depending on when you are traveling, could be weather, or mechanical delay, etc. Chinese domestic airlines are known to cancel flights due to low loads, and reschedule passengers onto another flight. This could present a risk to you, as I thought Air China only has one flight a day DNH-PEK, and if it is cancelled for any reason, you could have a problem. In your shoes, I would try to leave Dunhuang a day earlier to allow a cushion. But if the flight and cruise schedule days are fixed and immoveable, I would have one or more backup plans in case things head into the weeds:

1) Get a full fare Air China ticket that can be endorsed to another airline. Sometimes the deep discounted ones are only good for the issuing airline. There aren't many others serving DNH, and they may not fly to Beijing, but certainly to Xi'an, Lanzhou, and I think even a Tianjin flight. The point being: GET EAST so you have more flight options, even if they require a connection and getting to Beijing/Tianjin late at night. Come to think of it, you might want to go ahead and purchase backup (refundable tickets) on alternate airline and flights to make sure you are covered.
2) Do some advance research on train schedules, esp overnight from Lanzhou or Xi'an, in case your "backup flight" can only get you part of the way. If weather delay grounds all flights all day in DNH, you are screwed, as train from Dunhuang-Beijing/Tianjin is just too far to make in time you have.
3) The morning of your departure from DNH, try to get some info on whether flight is going or not (this is easier said than done in China). If flight is reasonably full and weather is OK, you should be OK. Otherwise, put Plan B into action without hesitation, before others on your flight do same. Chinese airlines are notorious for non-communication and stringing people along with promises of short delays, only to have them turn into hours-long delays and finally cancellations.
4) If all else fails and you can't get to Tianjin to make your cruise, find out where it is going next and figure out how to meet them at next port of call (I'm assuming this is in China or other NE Asia!). Do the prep work in advance. This is likely to be an expensive "salvage operation".

If you have an extra 2-3 days to work with, you might consider taking an overnight train from Dunhuang to Turpan (and spending a day there), then flying back from Wulumuqi (lots of flights, so usually cheaper).

Yes, I forgot about this backup plan option--going west in order to go east. Even if you don't have the extra time to take the train to Wulumuqi (Urumqi), it's possible to fly Dunhuang-Urumqi and then Urumqi-Beijing, of which there are indeed many more flight choices. But...I don't know how the flight connection schedules are, so a little research on your part is in order.

Thanks! I'll take a look at the schedule and see what's available. There are a couple of flights out that connect that are doable. The cruise is going to South Korea next and I think we could catch up with it there. I'll have to check on airline schedules.

We get into Dunhuang in the morning on the train and all I want to see are the Buddha caves, and I think they are open in the afternoon, so I think I'm going to see if we can leave the next morning rather than stay another day in Dunhuang. At least I'll feel more comfortable doing that. And if I get to Dunhuang without seeing the caves, well, that's travel.

There are also two other flights out of Dunhuang (one leaving before the one we are on is scheduled to leave, but only 45 minutes). So, we might be OK anyway.

I also can get an evening flight from Beijing that gets to our next stop the following morning at 10 am. Then we'd have to arrange transport across the island to the port before the boat leaves at 2 pm. (It's Cheju or Jeju and the island is small so that may be doable.) If we missed the boat by hours, we could take the late flight and have a day in Cheju. If we got in a day late, then that might be tight.

I thought having a day cushion would be enough, but I'm an anxious traveler.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

We get into Dunhuang in the morning on the train and all I want to see are the Buddha caves, and I think they are open in the afternoon, so I think I'm going to see if we can leave the next morning rather than stay another day in Dunhuang. At least I'll feel more comfortable doing that. And if I get to Dunhuang without seeing the caves, well, that's travel.

There are also two other flights out of Dunhuang (one leaving before the one we are on is scheduled to leave, but only 45 minutes). So, we might be OK anyway.

I also can get an evening flight from Beijing that gets to our next stop the following morning at 10 am. Then we'd have to arrange transport across the island to the port before the boat leaves at 2 pm. (It's Cheju or Jeju and the island is small so that may be doable.) If we missed the boat by hours, we could take the late flight and have a day in Cheju. If we got in a day late, then that might be tight.

I thought having a day cushion would be enough, but I'm an anxious traveler.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Can you tell us a bit more about your overall itinerary (e.g. where else you're going and how much time you have)? In the absence of further information, I'd advise you to think about flying into Dunhuang and departing by train.

Air China (and to a lesser degree Shanghai Airlines) is still your best bet for domestic flights. Stay away from the more exotic airlines like Grand China Express, China United and the many other small airlines if you are on a schedule.

Grand China = HU, but mostly newer planes, including some spiffy 330s on the PEK-SEA route. While I always loathed HU, I've heard positive things recently.

I've only tried China United once (TAO-NAY when all of the flights to PEK were sold out). The service was bear bones, but my flight was on time and I enjoyed getting a chance to check out NAY.

The caves are definitely open in the afternoon. The problem there is that if you want an English tour, they will wait until enough English speakers show up before sending out a group. Still, on that, the odds are strongly in your favor that you should have no problem.

Bear in mind that the caves are not anywhere near town or anything else so you might want to arrange round trip transport from Dunhuang.

You really do want to see the caves, IMO, they are very impressive.

I went with a Chinese tour and the info provided was far less useful than what I had gleaned from my art history class (10 years prior, but still reasonably fresh in my mind). For that matter, even my LP's two-sentence descriptions of the individual caves were more informative than the official script.

I was actually underwhelmed by the caves, perhaps in part to large number of temples I was subjected to during my formative years, but the dunes were a lot of fun!

Lastly, based on my memory, neither the caves nor the dunes were all that difficult to reach from Dunhuang City. I'm thinking 20 minutes and very cheap; we passed the airport en route to each of the aforementioned destinations.