Advice on good air program for travel US to China
 

Hi all,
I apologize if this is the wrong place, or answered somewhere else, please point me in the right direction if so.

I am getting set to go on an expat assignment from the US to China. For 2 years I expect to be flying back an forth between China and the US about 4 times per year (4 round trips). I will be flying with my wife and kids 2 of those times and by myself the other 2. I am most concerned about upgrades to higher classes on my flights. Any advice on how to best do this? Which airlines are good for this?

Also, I remember talking about something called a challenge I believe where you fly certain number of miles in a certain time frame and you could get a higher level in a shorter time. Is there something like that still available?

Thanks,
Mark

I would probably stick with the star-alliance. That would give you the option of flying UA, ANA, SQ, Asiana, Air China, and Thai. That would give you a pretty good selection of carriers that are all within the same alliance. Where will you be departing from? East coast, mid-west, or west coast? With the amount of flying you will be doing you may find it difficult to obtain upgrades. Good luck and welcome to FT.

Halothane

*A is definitely a great program, IMHO one of the best alliance programs. However, your "home base" and what you value really is what you need to consider, not what is the best program on paper.

If it's only 4 flights a year, you might not mind 2-stops to get to China depending on how well your kids travel. That gives you lots of options. Direct flights are still quite limited and many of the additional direct services recently approved have been delayed by the carriers.

You also want to consider the fare class you will usually pay for. If you're likely to fly coach for paid fares, look for carriers that have premium economy (coach plus, economy deluxe, etc...) cabins. Makes a world of difference having a few extra inches of pitch when flying TPAC. For example UA coach is almost unbearable on that long TPAC segment while E+ is actually quite comfortable (at least for your legs). I know NH has E+ also, not sure about others. Highly recommend you dig into that.

If you're thinking of free upgrades to biz or first class, AFAIK, that doesn't happen as a matter of procedure. You may get ops up if you're top tier elite in an oversold situation (fare basis counts also). Some carriers give their top elites SWUs after a certain number of miles flown (e.g. NW at 100K). Apart from that, I don't know of any carrier that provides free C/F upgrades as part of the program. A few offer that for domestic flights (US, NW, CO, DL, ...) but not international.

Your last question is known as a challenge or fastrack. First thing to do is pick the carrier that you want. Call them up and let them know you'll be doing a lot of flying and ask what they can do to fasttrack you to a higher tier membership. Most carriers offer some level of matching and challenge option if you're already elite with another program. It might be a little harder if you have absolutely no elite membership with other FF programs but it's worth trying. Just remember that status matches and challenges are generally a 1-time thing so don't use it unless you know you will make it.

Thank you Halothane.
I will be flying out of the phx AZ area to start. Thanks for your help.

Mark

Thanks crunchie,
Very helpful information indeed. I appreciate the help, a very friendly group.

Mark

As mentioned, you can upgrade to higher classes with SWU's (System Wide Upgrade) certificates that some airlines issue to their elite passengers. At four round trips a year, you may or may not fall into the tier necessary to earn these (others can comment on this).

The other way to do upgrades is with miles. There are two ways to do this:
A. Miles only, but from a specific, higher fare class (most US airlines) OR
B. Miles + cash co-pay (AA) I think this is from most fare classes, although they recently made updates to it.

Here's the thing about using the miles, though- you (in most cases) can only use them on the carrier you earned them on to upgrade. So alliances will not help in this situation. In that case, you do want to look at who flies in to where you're going (China is a big country- where are you posted?), what their earning/burning rates are, etc. In this case, you may even want to look at a non-US airline's program. (Others can advise you better on those than I can.)

You may have to connect at LAX or SFO to get to a flight to China (where in China?). Be careful with itineraries with connections in LAX or SFO -- LAX may be slow to get from an inbound domestic flight to an outbound international flight, while SFO frequently has inbound flight delays due to weather, so allow generous connection times at either airport to reduce the risk is misconnecting your transpacific segment.

Star Alliance should give you good PHX-{LAX,SFO} options, as PHX is a US hub and LAX and SFO are UA hubs. Star Alliance also has a good selection of airlines flying to Asia.

But you may want to put PHX and whatever place in China you will go to in a flight search to see what airlines come up as choices. You may want to sign up with the airline that you will fly most of the transpacific segments on (miles and status derived from miles tend to be most beneficial on that airline, compared to alliance partners).

I would stick with *A since you are PHX based.


Halothane

Star Alliance!!

Awesome,
Thanks all for the great advice I will be flying into Dalian China, presumably through Beijing. I really appreciate all of the friendly advice.

Thanks again,
Mark

Beijing-Dalian advise
 

Mark,

Some more reasons to join *A:

US Airways received DOT approval to launch a new route between Philadelphia and Beijing. However, they announced to postpone the launch to 2010 in March this year...

Also an advise on domestic travel in China:
Beijing and Dalian is best connected with China Southern and Air China. Air China is full member of Star Alliance (however, don't expect many perks). China Southern is Skyteam member. Just based on that I would rule out OneWorld from your choices.

Maybe useful once you arrived:
Domestic travel rates are regulated in China. Although you will be able to snap up discount tickets for Economy class, First class is always full fare. There is no Business Class for most domestic routes in China (there are some exceptions between the major domestic tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing).
If your company is paying domestic full fare economy for business related domestic travel (most do this to add flexibility in case of changes in schedules) the difference between Economy and First class between Beijing and Dalian is only approx. 300 RMB one way (that's approx 30 EUR/50 USD). If you plan to use Air China (I do) for domestic travel (the new T3 in Beijing has an excellent lounge for domestic business/first class travellers) you can also make it a criteria if your future *A milage program will give 100/125/150/200 or even 300% status milage bonus for F class flights on Air China.

Example:
F class on CA will give me 300% bonus on Lufthansa Miles&More.
F class on FM (Shanghai Airlines) will only give me 200% bonus.

Assuming you don't have any elite status today (and given the fact that China is a huge country) this could make a difference in your milage program decision making process as well.
If played smart you will obtain elite level much quicker...

One more thing:
Also have a look on the Air China Milage Program. I hear it is quite good/competitive and you have good chances to get domestic upgrades. You will be able to get milage for your *A US carrier flights (however, I'm not aware of the details on those routes as I usually fly westwards - on Chinese maps).

Oh! And plan your relocation well!
Although you will be able to get a lot of imported stuff in China these days, they might not have all the things you are used to from the US (especially outside the Tier 1 cities).
If you ship over your things in a sea container (usual method) ensure you take enough of your most loved food, personal things and medicine/drugs!
Ask your foreign colleagues in Dalian what is available and what not. Don't be surprised if they ask you to ship in things for them (great one time chip in the 'guanxi' game).
And obviously you will not find any reasonably priced cloth in your size while in China - unless you are of 'regular Chinese dimensions'.

Let me know (PM?) if you need further ideas on the topic.

Ham

As a matter of fact, OK (Czech Airlines) have unlimited complimentary upgrades for their elites on their metal. They are basically the only airline in the world to do that.

Hi Mark,

We just spent 3 years in Tokyo and are 6 months into a 2 year Shanghai assignment. UA (Star Alliance) has been great for us. DH flies business and E+ has been a life saver for me. If I don't get E+ I take a Lunesta or Ambien and 'skip' the flight ;)

Sign up for United's newsletter and watch for the bonus mile offers.

Now for some tips! Bring pharmacuitals to China! Your favorite pain killers, band aids, cold meds, make up, face masks, etc. It's hard to find the right thing here. One, you won't know what it's called, and two, the formulations will be different and possibly not to your liking.

Send a zillion books over in your sea container. English books cost a fortune here and are expensive to ship later. Bring your own arts and crafts materials. Who knows what's in the stuff they sell for kids here and if your wife is into a hobby she should bring supplies. I quilt and can't find needles, batting, etc. here.

Be prepared for an adventure! China is lovely, the people refreshing and the landscape breathtaking.

PS - Be sure to get a car and driver in your package! You don't want to drive here!!!

I am a dedicated AA/Oneworld flyer, so I'm going to advocate for Oneworld. You can earn EQM's on JAL and CX.

True, you get more options w/ *A, but I think status on AA is worth more than on other U.S. airlines.