Question for SZX experts
 

I am moving to Shenzhen from the UK; yes, my move is on hold until we have a clearer picture of the current situation, but will move once the dust settled.

I have a question for SZX expert. What is the best airline to park my miles (I'll likely to travel within China, SZX - UK, SZX - South East Asia). I am currently BA Silver, but oneworld does not have presence in China.

Thanks in advance.

Hkg is not that far. Cathay for international flight And whatever cheapest and most convenient for domestic flight. Or you can travel to HKG to fly Cathay.

I suggest BA as the main FFP.

It is rumored that CZ will be a partner of BA （In the near future）, so that you can earn Avios from CZ , （For domestic flights）

CX/KA can be your major carrier if you travel from Shenzhen Fuyong pier to HKG airport without going through HKG border. （and departure tax refund more importantly ）

I don't know your which city in UK are you living. for the 4 segments of BA, can be HKG LHR MAN with BA, and vice versa


indeed, Chinese carrier's FFP is not good in terms of credit card earnings and mileage expiry.
Asia miles programme have soft expiry, however, if you are not living in Hong Kong, it is not that attractive, then go back to BA is better.
Hainan Fortune Wing's club, I am not a fan of it, although the requirement of the status are relatively easy compared to CZ MU and CA

Shenzhen Airlines is a very solid airline and I enjoy flying them (holding *G card)
I assume they treat their own elites even better (And it's already great as "generic" StarGold)

VIP bus on departure/arrival, lounges (King Lounges, very decent product for a domestic lounge, most are new)

They'll most probably add more international destinations, and besides that plenty of connections available. With the HKG situation, I'd try to avoid flying through/from there as much as possible. Plenty of connection points are reachable from Shenzhen within the star alliance network. BKK, SIN, PEK to name the three major ones in the region.

I'd concentrate on becoming StarGold within Shenzhen Airlines - with a reasonable amount of domestic and international travel, this should be fairly easy to reach. Once you got the status, travel will become much more smooth.

Depends if you are willing to do 1-stop for an international long haul as Shenzhen Airlines is still mostly a domestic/regional carrier. You should be able to readily connect in PEK or PVG for international long-haul but subject to a lot of stress from the typical surprises when flying in China. Alternatively, just pop across the border to HKG and have that predictability and peace of mind.

Don't bet on using avios to redeem CX these days. CX has 0'ed out availability to BA for near departures. At least with Asiamiles you can waitlist but they are practically useless for domestic China as oneworld has a pitiful presence in Asia vs. Star Alliance.

I did fly ZH quite often when I was based in SZX, but always credited to UA because miles have hard expiry dates in most Chinese FFPs. I used HKIA for almost all longhaul and even PEK/SHA because from Shekou, HKIA isn't much less convenient than SZX. This allowed me to keep BA Silver, and sometimes Gold.