StayingHomeIsBetter

In the spirit of full disclosure, I made mention of this in the China travel forum. It is not my intent to cross-post but, since this directly involves DL operations, I thought a more substantive mention was relevant here. I have not seen this discussed elsewhere in this forum. Mods... forgive me if I have erred.

After not being able to make a reservation on-line for a round trip from DTW to PVG, I called the Diamond line. After searching the matter, two different agents came back to tell me that DL has ceased operations into China for now. There was a mention that service might resume on a seasonal basis in August.

There is no announcement on the DL web site. An itinerary search results in a not terribly helpful error message stating that there is no flight available on one of the selected days (no matter what days are selected).

Perhaps this decision was implemented yesterday and the website designers have not caught up with current events. Otherwise, it is a bit surprising that DL has not proactively shared this information with the flying public.

MSPeconomist

I wonder why. Fares were high and the ICN turnaround seemed to be working.

UA apparently also does an immediate turnaround from ICN. It will be interesting to see whether the UA flights are suspended too.

lonelygod

Interesting. It is still showing on time for DL289 tonight SEA-ICN-PVG. D1 is $10k for purchase. Same for DL283 tomorrow DTW-ICN-PVG. Economy is $3530.

Remember that both DL283 and DL289 are only operated once a week now.

24left

And AC has been doing this since last year. Flight number is the same. Tech stop at ICN, crew change and AFAIK, short time on the ground in PVG. AC has a lot of cargo flights into ICN so I assume crews can DH if needed.

Perhaps DL does not have the pax load (or cargo below deck) to make it all work.

xliioper

SEA and DTW flights via ICN are loaded in the system through Sep. 6th. After that, the flights no longer showing in the schedule and it appears that DL is dropping all service to PVG. I'm assuming that's what OP is referring to.

flyerCO

I know DL, AA, UA have all raised issues over Chinese quarantine rules for aircrew being one-sided. Ie they don't apply to same extent to crew for MU, CZ, CA, etc...Curious if this is what is happening.

StayingHomeIsBetter

I was originally looking for an early August departure and mid-September return.

I have been searching for Friday departures (for DL 283) and Sunday returns (for DL 284).

Even when checking "My dates are flexible" and checking various date intervals, I get a seemingly random mix of messages stating that "flights were not available on at least one of your selected dates", "no returns were found for your search", or "there was a problem processing your request."

Looking at one-ways, I can find outbound flights through August and return flights on 8/6, 8/25, 8/27, 9/1 and 9/8... but nothing after. All other dates showing "not offered".

I have had two Diamond agents, after extended consultation with supervisors, tell me that there were unable to pull up any itineraries for September returns for sale and that they were told that DL was temporarily withdrawing from the market.

xliioper

EF timetable search is still showing flights loaded in the schedule (as does DL Flight Status search), but the fare buckets on flights are mostly zero'd out at this point as they appear to be preparing to cancel all remaining flights. They will likely be pulled from schedule this weekend.

rylan

Well thats an interesting decision... I guess the supposed business traveler market that some people were saying would come roaring back this summer/fall is not occurring.

Hard to travel international for biz when there are still piles of restrictions in many other countries.

travelinmanS

The only reliable way to get to Shanghai these days is via SFO. Unfortunately it’s not on DL but it seems that both UA and the Chinese government are making sure the Apple express runs unencumbered.

MSPeconomist

What happens to UA crew upon arrival in mainland China? Is UA flying nonstop? (I assume that the mainland Chinese airlines are doing nonstops.)

Weekend Away

UA flights also stop in ICN. Likely doing the same thing as DL with regard to the crew (swap in ICN and stay on board in PVG.) AA flights also stop in ICN.

Just checked AC, they're also stopping in ICN.

Looks like MU flies to JFK twice weekly until the end of July and then their flights fall off too. Doesn't look like they stop anywhere.

flyerCO

All US carriers are doing a stop somewhere . Passenger carriers, ICN, cargo ANC is preferred.

RealHJ

February 4, 2022 start of the Beijing Winter Olympics is not that far away. Will be really interesting to see how (and if) that goes on..

MSPeconomist

I'm a bit surprised so many carriers are stopping at ICN. I would have expected some to prefer NRT/HND, although perhaps ICN has lower landing fees, etc. Of course for DL, ICN makes sense due to the close partnership with KE.