Airline partners in China?
 

Has anyone used their airline miles on a Chinese airline?

I am trying to fly from Guangzhou (CAN) to MDG in China. So far, I found out that China Southern airline which is a partner with Delta however they have no mileage seat at all at any time.

Does anyone know which Chinese airline in China has a partner with another airline that has award seats?

So far I have checked Air China who is a partner with US and UA/CO but they don't fly that route.

AA doesn't have any Chinese airline partners.

I would like to be able to use an award seat since the cash price is about $US900 round trip.

Any help would be appreciated.

I'd like to know this as well. My wife has to pay CZ when I use AA rewards to get to Shanghai or Peking. As you stated CO only has a partner. I'm thinking about signing up for CZ reward program.

According to milez.biz, the only alliance that offers a redemption on that route is SkyTeam. So it looks like you are out of luck.

Yep, China is really SkyTeam stronghold- MU, CI, CZ, FM and soon to be MF...

1.I just checked China Southern airline‘s offical website,the price is about $US530 round trip include tax and fees.And I can see they have 2 economy and 2 fiirst award seats every flight from CAN to MDG.China Southern airline is a skyteam member.
2.You can book an Air China award seat from CAN to PEK,use your co/ua miles.but you have to buy tickets for PEK to MDG,it's about $US340 round trip include tax and fees.

Check ctrip.com for cheaper prices. Also think about flying into Haerbin.

+1

Also, check out elong.com, as well. Both sites are similar and offer discounted airfare.

When booking through Ctrip or Elong, will you be able to enter your FF # to get miles if the airline is a member?

Yes for ctrip.com You can also call them (and I think Skype) in English.

Booking travel using a third party country to where you are traveling to/from can sometimes be several times more expensive.

And of course, with any paid tix, you can always call the airline and add your FF number after the booking, as long as it was not a "wholesale" consolidator tix.

by train

Not everywhere has high-speed rail yet. For some places, if time is an issue, then the best way is still by air.

Even on ctrip, sometimes the English site is a lot more expensive than the Chinese site. Search on the Chinese site, and then call to make the booking in English - they can access the fares on the Chinese site.

For distances of 1000 miles/2000 Km or less, I prefer overnight trains as well.

The beds are a bit narrow, but not too bad, and unless you are trying to travel during a "golden" week, not too hard to get a ticket.

You gotta sleep somewhere and sometime, so why not on the train. That said, if you suffer from motion sickness or are a light sleeper, this might not be a good option. I normally don't care if I am in a "soft" or "hard" sleeper, as the beds seem the same for me, but the "soft" is 4 pax per private cabin (lockable door) and "hard" is 6 pax per semi-private (curtain) cabin, with a middle bunk, not just a top and bottom. If I have a lot of luggage, I try to get a slightly more costly bottom bunk, as I am less embarrassed using the floor space under the lower bunk if that is where I am seating.

I should add another warning about big cities (and some not so big cities) that as trains are very popular in China, they often will have more than one train station, so be sure before you leave your hotel you are heading to the correct train station. The names are often not very creative (but descriptive), for example Beijing, Beijing East, Beijing West, Beijing South Railway stations.

In big cities, esp. if you don't speak Chinese, train stations can seem chaotic, but they will require a lot less time than dealing with airport security. If you show your train ticket to enough people to help nudge you to the right waiting room and platform, you won't have troubles catching your train.

Yes, I was surprised by this when I looked into domestic China travel this past month.

Apart from Air China (which by the way, serves terrible food on their flights) in Star Alliance, it does seem like SkyTeam (and therefore Delta + SkyPesos for U.S. residents) is the only game in town.

It gets worse. Even with ST partners in China, unless you a non-discounted Y or better ticket, you will only get 50% (if anything) for readmable and elite miles when you fly inside China and have it credited to DL.