bigenna

This is my first post here, I have no air miles or points, and at my age can't handle Economy long haul flights anymore! I really want, more than anything to have a full flat seat/bed to get a comfortable sleep on that long flight.
So that means my husband and I will be paying for our flights from Vancouver to Bangkok and the return from Singapore to Vancouver with our own hard earned cash.
Using various search engines, the cheapest business class fares are either with China Eastern, China Southern, or a combination.
I don't see either of these airlines discussed here but I am hoping that someone has flown either or both and will share their opinion.
thanks in advance for any guidance you can give me.

AAMillionaire

Try here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-airlines-470/

Yoshi212

Start here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-airlines-470/

Comparison: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ess-class.html

CZ experience here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...ess-first.html


You'll find reports with a lot of details here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports-177/

bigenna

Thanks AA Millionaire and Yoshi212.
Still trying to navigate my way around this site.

Yoshi212

You'll get used to it. Lots of important out there and in a lot of different places.

bigenna

We found a price and schedule on Air China that suits us so booked it last night. The prices on the others that I had been watching just for a couple of weeks had really increased a lot.
My next dilemma: which mileage plan to associate with this long haul business class flight. At this point I have virtually a blank slate, but want to make sure I will get the best value for future awards so want to pick the right program.
Air China is part of Star Alliance and Phoenix Miles if I read correctly. So do I join that program? Or associate it with Aeroplan?
I am unlikely to use most of the Star Alliance carriers in the future other than Air Canada, so would Aeroplan be the way to go?
I really appreciate any insight from you.

Yoshi212

WWW.wheretocredit.com will give you a guide of which programs your flights fare classes will earn in different programs. That is not the only nor best consideration. Will you be flying AC enough to earn status or just enough to eventually get an award ticket? Do you have any banking/credit card relationships currently or available to you that will help in earning miles in a program such as Aeroplan? Or do your banking/credit card options work better with another program.
Also consider that Aeroplan is going away in 2-3 years as AC plans to start their own award program. Most of the details of how this will work are not public yet.

bigenna

At this point we do not have any travel related credit card although that is something we have thought about. Since we are not frequent fliers, Aeroplan seemed interesting as miles can be accumulated in ways other than flying.
We fly out of Vancouver, Canada and usually involves short hops to Edmonton or LAX or FLL.

lin821

As far as FFPs go, if you provide more details as outlined here, savvy FTers would be able to give you some pointers.

(underline mine)

Read up and/or join the other master thread before making any commitment though:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...zz-canada.html