CX and QF vs. CA and SQ
 

I have a booked itinerary for travel this weekend on Air China to Beijing and from there connecting to Singapore Airlines through Singapore to Christchurch, New Zealand.

Just checked availability on aa.com for the same destination and put an award on hold for travel on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong and connecting in Sydney to Qantas to get to New Zealand.

Now, both awards are for travel in Business but if I go with OW carriers CX and QF, I get to spend 60,000 miles as opposed to sticking with *A and CA and SQ and the 75,000 miles required. The fees are pretty much identical, so given all of that I'd like to go ahead and travel on CX and QF and save myself some miles but since I never have, I need your advice.

I've heard great things about SQ but never flown. CX is very good based on what I read and QF apparently not what it used to be. I'd like to hear from people that have flown them and share their experiences. I went with Business because it's a 2-day journey from Europe to New Zealand and I want to be in a lie-flat seat.

Thanks to all who respond!

CX and QF vs. CA and SQ
 

On my AUS/NZ trip I flew Cathay from JFK and then Qantas in business. I thought the Cathay product four across was good as was IFE, service and food. Qantas reminded me of a US airline service/product at the time. I paid cash for coach flights between Sydney and Auckland and Dunedin on Air NZ which were good. No experience w/Singapore but my corporate travelers really like their product. have a great trip to two of my favorite countries

A lot depends on the aircraft you're flying --- there's huge variation in the hard product on SQ, CX and QF. What is your exact itinerary (i.e. flight numbers and scheduled equipment)?

Depending on your paid ticket flying patterns, I find that Oneworld miles are much harder to accumulate than Star Alliance miles (using Aadvantage and Mileage Plus as benchmarks), so in that case your 60k OW miles may be worth more than your 75k *A miles.

Having said that, the choice for me would vary much on the equipment on the routes you're looking at:

For your *A option, SQ has a couple of different configurations for PEK-SIN and also for SIN-AKL. Both legs can be on the 77W which would be a treat but require an overnight as the 77W flight from PEK comes in after the 77W flight to AKL leaves. CA also depends heavily on the route, if it's a 77W route then business class is quite ok, but CX would still be better.

For your OW option, I think you can't go wrong, equipment seems to be good on the longer flights but SYD-AKL will be nothing special as most are on a 738 with a 'domestic first' type business class.

Itineraries
 

Thanks all for the feedback! I do value my United miles more than my AA miles because it's easier to redeem on UA (in my opinion) and I have close to 200,000 miles on AA that I'm trying to use up. With that said, here are both itineraries:

Depart:
14:20
Sat., 29 Dec., 2012
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Arrive:
07:00 +1 Day
Sun., 30 Dec., 2012
Beijing, People's Republic of China (PEK - Capital)
Flight Time:
9 hr 40 mn
Flight: CA966
Operated by Air China.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300
Fare Class: Business (I)

Change Planes. Connect time in Beijing, People's Republic of China (PEK - Capital) is 1 hr 45 mn.

Depart:
08:45
Sun., 30 Dec., 2012
Beijing, People's Republic of China (PEK - Capital)
Arrive:
15:25
Sun., 30 Dec., 2012
Singapore, Singapore (SIN)
Flight Time:
6 hr 40 mn
Flight: SQ805
Operated by Singapore Airlines.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Fare Class: Business (I)

Change Planes. Connect time in Singapore, Singapore (SIN) is 4 hr 20 mn.

Depart:
19:45
Sun., 30 Dec., 2012
Singapore, Singapore (SIN)
Arrive:
10:35 +1 Day
Mon., 31 Dec., 2012
Christchurch NZ (CHC)
Flight Time:
9 hr 50 mn
Flight: SQ297
Operated by Singapore Airlines.
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200
Fare Class: Business (I)

I'm concerned by the less than 2 hours layover in Beijing - according to reports I've read that may not be sufficient to transfer and I may miss my connection, which would be terrible as the SIN-CHC flight is only once a day and if I miss it, I'll have to fly on New Year's eve and that would defeat the point of me going there.

Here's the OW itinerary:

Flight CX 250
Operated by Cathay Pacific Departure: London (Heathrow)
Terminal 3
Date: Sat 29 Dec 12
Time: 18:05
Arrival: Hong Kong
Terminal 1
Date: Sun 30 Dec 12
Time: 13:45
Meal: Dinner / Breakfast
Total duration: 11h 40m
Aircraft type: Boeing 777-300ER

Flight CX 111
Operated by Cathay Pacific Departure: Hong Kong
Terminal 1
Date: Sun 30 Dec 12
Time: 19:00
Arrival: Sydney
Terminal 1
Date: Mon 31 Dec 12
Time: 07:15
Meal: Dinner / Breakfast
Total duration: 9h 15m
Aircraft type: Airbus Industrie A330-300

QF 47
Operated by Qantas
Sydney (SYD)
December 31, 2012 09:30 AM
Travel Time : 3 h 10 m
Cabin Class : Business
Wellington (WLG)
December 31, 2012 02:40 PM
Booking Code : U
Plane Type : 73H

If I've missed something, let me know!

I would try to spend as large a percentage of your trip on CX as possible. SQ is also nice, but the only reason you're able to see biz inventory with non-SQ miles is because all of your proposed segments happen to be on their worst plane. Plus, the OW routing will permit you to avoid connecting in Beijing (great city, lousy airport).

What is your actual destination city? Are you going to be having to race from Wellington to Christ Church on New Years Eve?

And are you currently located closer to London Heathrow or Frankfurt?

The CX flights look more desireable to me, but I don't envy a 5+ hour stop in Hong Kong. It's really not enough time to safely get downtown, and yet it's at least 2+ hours too long in the lounges. If you use that itinerary, be sure to get your boarding pass stamped when entering the first CX lounge so that you can wander around and try them all.....

I have flights before and after that I'm not too concerned about - in the OW itinerary, have a flight on Jetstar on the morning of the 1st to CHC, so no issue there and the other flights are LH to FRA or BA to LHR, which I've flown many times, so I don't need any advice on those - I know what to expect already. I don't plan on visiting HKG during this 5-hour layover. That would be on another visit. Just sitting in a lounge somewhere until the next flight. I have the same long layover on the *A itinerary - over 4 hours in SIN, so either way I'd have to endure a longer than usual stop but one cannot time all flights perfectly and I'll be flying business, so expect to be well rested that this won't be an issue.

your first itinerary is just weird - its all zig zag and mostly on not so good airlines-except SQ

go with cathay.

OW vs. *A
 

I agree - don't see the point in going all the way to China to traverse back to Singapore but unfortunately, for the dates I'm looking for, it appears to be the only option. I'm leaning towards OW but my CX segments keep canceling out - apparently, so close to departure, they only allow you to book but not hold. So, I may end up with *A if the availability goes away.

then, book!

I would avoid Air China and especially the tight connection in PEK.

As others have said, look carefully at the aircraft. Personally, I strongly object to business class configurations of 2-3-2 or even 2-4-2; 2-2-2 is (barely now) acceptable and 1-2-1 is preferred. Also, are you willing to accept angled lie-flat seats or do you want true flat beds?

I personally fly CA a lot and have no problem with them. Short connections in PEK have never been an issue for me and even with as little as a 1 hour connection I always still have time to stop in the lounge and grab a beer before the next flight. If you have or can get your next boarding pass (Intentional Transfer desk), PEK has a separate line for International Transfer immigration that dumps you back into the terminal pretty quickly. Rarely more than 3-4 people in line and if for some odd reason it's long and your connection is tight, just ask people in front of you to cut in, I've had people do it before when I was waiting and it didn't bother me at all. Now, if you can't get SQ boarding passes before immigration that's a problem and you'll have to go through the full process and into the departures hall of the main terminal, in that case 1h45 would concern me but not be a deal killer, I'm pretty confident I could make it myself.

Post #2 in this thread is pretty informative:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/china...ansit-pek.html

I'm not so excited about the SQ 772s, as another poster mentioned above, though it does let you fly directly to CHC and avoid Jetstar which is an airline I avoid at all costs.

Your OW itin with CX is nice, but the cross straight flight on the QF 738 and especially the Jetstar flight following it would make me think twice.

I would say much of a muchness.
CX111 is nice but SQ lets you go straight to CHC.

If you were AA ExPlat (*W Emerald) then I would say CX/QF due to the ability to go to both HKG and SYD First Lounges, but not so good as a AA Plat

On the OW flights you're spending more time on a superior airline, and flying a more direct route.

SQ and CX are pretty equal but with the * routing you've a long CA flight before you reach SQ. The QF flight on the other hand is only a short hop (although their 737s are truly horrible aircraft).