gehmni15

Dear community,

I'm from Germany and going to have a work and travel in New Zealand from August.
I've seen that Air China got an business class offering for flights to Ocenia within the travel period from March 1 to August 31. So I'm going to fly at the 15th of August and coming back one year later.
Now I'm thinking about booking the business offering of Air China (departure at the 15th of august and return at the 31 of august) and rebook the second flight for going back to Germany in 2018.
What I want to ask now is, if it would be expensive to rebook the flight for return, because it would be not anymore the price of the offering but the price of a normal business flight.
Maybe, there is any other possibility to get a cheap business class flight.

Thank you.

jabez

Welcome to FT!

Moving this to a more appropriate forum.

Transpacificflyer

My experience with Air China "business class" is that it is more like premium economy. Unbelievable that on a 5 hour flight there was no IFE. The B777 had no seat monitors in business class. The flagship lounge in PEK is a farce. No internet access without a hassle.
Maybe its different on your route, but on my international flights (HKG-PEK, BKK-PEK), the catering was disgusting, 1 red wine only, and incapable of giving a gin and tonic, or vodka & 7 UP or orange juice. Transiting PEK is a pain because of the requirement to go through a lengthy security check again. The shoving, coughing and all around bad manners of pax is annoying. PEK airport has a coating of grime and the ventilation is set at budget mode year round. If you like the smell of sewage ditch then the toilets will delight you. Air China ground staff are rude and unhelpful and the cabin staff speak the language of grunting. Air China is not a China Southern or Hainan. That's why the fares are low. The delays are long and if you have IROPs, good luck to you.

There are only 2 positive aspects of PEK: The airport Hilton, which I consider one of the best airport hotels in the world, and the Chinese police/immigration. Polite and professional.

My message to you, is to avoid the airline. It's cheap because IMO it is crap.
Have a look at a quality carrier like Hainan or China Southern or anyone other than Air China and the other lamentable carrier China Eastern.

moondog

I'm certainly not a CA cheerleader, but I rate them above HU. And, MU's new planes are the nicest of all PRC carriers IMO (I realize this is meaningless on A320 routes).

krispykrme

I think this is totally BS. Since you are probably flying on narrow body not 777. Since all 772 should have already been refurbished.

Ops will be on either 77W/748/A33x.

Both will be full 180 flat bed with full on demand AVOD.

Food on Air China has gotten a lot better. Flew them from HND-PEK-CDG and back. Had one of the best fish out of CDG.

Service has gotten better over the years as well. Attendant were very active through out the flight and much more courteous than before.

I would say it better than Lufthansa, AC, and United by far. While not as good as OZ, SQ, BR. Its actually decent.

The only downside is that there is no direct aisle access for all of the passenger since its 2x2x2.

Really shouldn't be commenting if you haven't flown in a long time.

TennisNoob

I agree CA has mediocre ground staff but that's an tradition of service in China.

You can't say premium economy when the seat was an traditional 2-2-2 lie flat seat. If you were getting barcoloungers like UA than you could say so.

All airlines within China still have broken planes that need to be replaced.
For example your premier airline CZ still has really banged up domestic aircraft on typical 4-6 hour domestic flights.

trooper

The problem the OP has I think is that he/she wants to change a very cheap J fare that has limited dates.

That could be very costly....

Mwenenzi

It all depends on the ticket conditions. We do not that know that. You need to ask your travel agent or study the change conditions very carefully. You may not be able to extend past the date of purchase plus 1 year. Or date of flight plus 1 year.
As post above, this could be $$$$. Cheap fares have many conditions and are usually not flexible.

I have seen people, including Germans, refused boarding/admission to NZ for not having a ticket out of NZ.

gpeso8

I'm sure it does happen, but I have had no issues with the cabin crews on any CA flight. I have flown then in J about two dozen times over the past three years. I find the crews to be very proactive and polite. My tea is always kept topped-up on CA which I cannot say the same in regards to BR. They also seem to enjoy my pathetic attempts at conversational mandarin which I appreciate.

cxfan1960

While they do not retrofit their planes on domestic routes that well, US airlines are not really much better.

4-6 hours domestic routes are to remote cities such as Urumqi. They are not doing to put their better equipment on those routes.

YuropFlyer

You shouldn't fly Lufthansa then. Or Swiss. Or most European airlines. Because there, for flights up to 5-6 hours, you get an Economy class seat. No IFE either.

Air China certainly isn't great, but their Business class product Ex-Germany is by now always the newest product they're running, which is perfectly fine. Yes, you might get a bit "weird" food for Western taste, just as much as Asians probably aren't very happy with what's served on western airlines.

In short, CA isn't even remotely as bad as you're trying to make them. They're not great, no way. But if they have a good offer in C I'm definitely picking them.

For the OPs question: You'll probably have to pay quite a premium when you try to change the return dates flight. While Air China is SOMEWHAT flexible for rebooking even on their low/lowest fares (a big plus when you choose them), they'll definitely upfare/reprice a cheap Business Special and you might pay quite a bit extra.

Also, you often can't move the return more than 330/360 days into the future of the flight out, so it might be that you can't even move it even if you pay for it.

I'd check one-way fares if you're planing to be +/- 1 year in NZ. Air China has good one-way fares as well.