We're flying one way from Beijing to Hong Kong on Dragon Air next month. My choices seemed to be limited to China Southern or Dragon Air. I ended up chosing Dragon Air after hearing some good stuff about them here on FT.

According to Dragon Air's web site, I can earn miles in Asiamiles for flights on Dragon Air. Asiamiles, as far as I know, doesn't do me a lot of good, as I don't travel around Asia on business and have no other Asia trips planned, however, their award schedule seems to include oneworld, but Dragon Air doesn't seem to be a oneworld member airline. Can Asia miles be transferred to AA or other US based mileage programs?

Does anybody know if there are other possibilities? I have UA, AA and DL frequent flyer accounts. I have status on UA only.

So, what should we do for this flight? I hate to see the 1547 miles for J class seats go up in smoke for the four of us if there's something I can do with them.

-David

also JAL's mile bank��which might be of use if you are in Hawaii.

Dragon Air is a nice airline with courteous flight attendants depite the name. If I recall they fly modern airbus equipment and the flight was short. Enjoy HK.

LIH Prem,

I believe Dragon Air is a subsidiary of Cathy Pacific. Although it participates in Asia Miles, its miles/points are not transferrable to AAdvantage miles. You might also try the Cathay Pacific forum for more Q/A.

Dragonair (KA) was a CX-subsidiary (or affiliate through Swire) but it's now about 71% owned by 2 PRC entities with CX/Swire holding about 25%. This ownership is reflected through the management team which is almost all local.

When the airline tried to start up in 1985, CX/Swire tried just about every trick to stop KA from operating. They managed to succeed so KA was sold to CX.

KA seems to recruit/develop local pilots instead of pricey expatriates. A son of some family friends is a pilot on the A330.

[This message has been edited by terenz (edited 02-28-2002).]

IMO Asiamiles are pretty much useless -- short Y-class trips are about the only awards that make any sense. Personally, I'm saving up (and have been since 1995) for a 60K CX upgrade award. Some day.....

BTW, KA is nothing special any more. I actually prefer flying Air China between PEK and HKG because they fly 744s, which occasionally run with extremely light loads.

[This message has been edited by moondog (edited 02-28-2002).]

Thanks everybody.

moondog .. I can probabaly exchange the tickets .. they are full fare J's. Is it that much better, or just the novelty of a near empty 744?

I was surprised that there weren't that many choices between PEK and HKG.

-David

There's never been too much competition and there may not be more in the future. The Chinese government issued an edict a few weeks back that only airlines based in certain keys cities can fly pairs between the key cities. These include Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Not sure if HKG was included.

I just like 747s and am not really one to be wooed by service on 3-hour flights. That said, KA offers better service than CA (especially in J).

thanks again everybody!

-David