China Addition
 

Any news from any carrier from mainland China joining the Star Alliance anytime soon? China Southern is joining Skyteam and the best bets was for Air China to join Star Alliance as cooperation with LH, UA, etc and China Eastern with AA but roles have inverted and China Eastern dropped AA and Cathay has an equity in CA. Really killing me to use the Chinese carriers' ffp.

well, if you use CX Asia miles you can earn miles with China Eastern as well Air China. And using LH M&M you can earn with Air China and on some routes even with Shanghai Airlines.

My bet is Air China will join *A as full member and Shanghai Airlines as regional member. This constellation gives *A immediately two most important hubs in China!

China Eastern sucks!

What is really killing me is having to use a Chinese airline (ffp or no ffp). The service, seating, and constant delays and cancellations are a real hastle.

Rather than saying China Eastern Sucks! I think its better to say all Chinese Airlines Suck! Keep in mind they all have the same big boss no matter what the logos on their planes say.

I disagree with these generalizations. For starters, privatization has swept over most formerly state-run sectors over the course of the past 25 years and the airline idustry no exception (the Sorros lead LBO at HNA is the most famous example). That said, I have had MU and CA flights merged on me many times when bookings are light (can't really imagine UA and AA doing the same on ORD-LAX).

But all that is academic; what matters is, IMO there are big service differences between Chinese airlines.

Of the airlines that serve the routes I fly most (don't get out west much so I can't comment on Sichuan Airlines etc), HU has earned the distinction of being my least favorite. Apparently in helping them become profitable, Mr. Sorros didn't have too much concern for the plight of passengers.

MU is my second least favorite because they have a tendency to cancel flights on whims and keep pax in the dark long for as long as possible (i.e. until they have another flight with open seats). Some of their planes are also torturous, though not nearly as bad as HU. On the bright side, I've found their cabin crews to be quite good, especially on the Japan flights.

I used to loathe CA, but have had some very good experiences of late, particularly on their new 777s (seat pitch is fine).

CZ is my second favorite airline. They have their own terminal in Beijing, which is better than the main terminal; plus, their front-line employees are much more knowledgable about ops than some of the jokers that the other airlines use (I think the problem is that airlines don't like to hire their own dedicated staffs; instead they rely on communal airport employees).

FM has been my #1 pick for a while now. They don't have a lot of airplanes, which is certainly not a good thing in cases of irregular ops, but they run a pretty tight ship on the whole and I like their flight attendents.


Regarding *A, as long as they steer clear of HU, I think I'll be reasonably happy. (I wouldn't be thrilled about MU either, but I think MU has room to improve, whereas HU has effectively painted itself in the no frills corner.)

Moondog, I think its all a matter of where you live that makes your favorite airline choices. My list would be almost the exact opposite of yours with CZ at the very bottom (although I do agree about HU, thanks to them I've had to wait a combined 8 hours in the Sanya airport for 2 separate flights!). MU and CA are at the top of my list, probably because I don't get to fly them much and when I do its from CAN-PEK or CAN-SHA and I try to get on the bigger planes which are better.

Living in CAN, lots of times I've got no choice but CZ and thats who I've had the most experience with, hence, the most problems so I think they are the worst...but I'm sure if I lived in Shanghai I'd think MU was the worst. The CZ terminal in Beijing in nice and the Baiyun airport is also nice but their planes are still always delayed. I have a friend who whenever he has to go to Beijing takes the train to HK and takes Dragonair just to avoid CZ, a little extreme but sometimes I think about doing the same!

As far as the privitization of Chinese companies, I don't believe for one minute that there is a truly private company on the mainland (free of any gov't involvement). Every company has two leaders the private investors and the gov't...heck even the private investors get their money from the gov't most of the time! Is it better than 25 years ago, yes; is it close to a liberal economy, not at all.

What Chinese airlines need is a system that would punish them for cancelling a flight on a whim or delaying a flight for 4 hours due to "air traffic delays" or "aircraft servicing". If the CAAC would fine the airlines or enforce compensation requirements then maybe things might change, maybe it'll be part of the 11th 5 year plan :D

Don't know if Dragonair count as a 'Chinese airline' being a Hong Kong operation, but they do serve a lot of Chinese destinations, and in my limited experience with them (two legs in Business) are excellent.

I believe that they are quite tight with CX though - codeshares, Asia Miles partner etc - so would guess its unlikely they would join *A.