Cathay Biz class. Did it this summer.

Not really. I fly to Asia all the time and unless its F and nothing else available I avoid US based airlines. They don't come anywhere near Cathay, JAL, ANA, Singapore or Thai. He/she is right 100%.

In my firm, when you beat down a plan without offering an alternative, we call it "bullsh**" and your point of view "worthless". As is the case here.

The obvious alternative (in light of your stated location) is to fly DL nonstop and shave 8+ x 2 hours off of your trip. While I realize that DL charges a hefty premium for the nonstops, many firms that value their employees time are willing to pony up.

I have been flying US<->PEK twice or more per year for the last 10+ years, however my experience is limited to Y so I'll post some tips should you choose to go that way.

If you choose to stick with flying economy I haven't found the experience to be substantially different between all the available options - in this case, I would fly whoever offers the best routing (assuming you have no status). Your one-stop options from FL will probably be limited to US and Chinese carriers: UA (via ORD, IAD, SFO), DL (via DTW, SEA), AA (via ORD), CA (via IAH, LAX, SFO, JFK), HU (via BOS, SEA).

UA and AA often fly older equipment to PEK that have limited entertainment options in the back (UA's 747s have wifi-based movie streaming but no power on most planes, 777s now have AVOD; AA's planes only have non-on demand entertainment). CA tends to fly newer or newly-refurbished aircraft to the US which have a decent economy product onboard.

I don't think the OP has told us where he is originating from yet.

He said "FL", which means that he's looking at at least one connection, no matter how he plays it. Chances are, the logical single connection options will be UA, AA, DL, and UA-CA... maybe AC as well.

Personally, I double connect in this case in order to go via HK on CX, but I always make sure to justify the HK stop with business related stuff, because it's a serious detour otherwise.

For a business class flight without FFP considerations I would take the cheapest 1-stop itinerary with a connection time less than ten hours. oneworld operators BA and QR will take you from MIA to PEK with only one stop. QR come in from just under USD 6k each.

B6/hu can be done for around 3500 in j... Much faster than flying east.