In late October I'm headed to Beijing to see my uncle. Since I'm a little out of the loop when it comes to new routes, new planes, etc, I thought I ask you guys.

What I'm looking for is to get from MSP to PEK with 1 or 2 stops along the way in the most comfortable seat I can find while spending around 1K to get there. (I have FF miles on Northwest btw)

I know my main option is MSP - NRT - PEK on Northwest (747-400).

Other options -
There is a direct Continental flight from EWR on a 777
There is a direct United flight from ORD on a 747-400
There is a direct flight on Air China from ORD or SFO on a 747-400

Concerns -
1) EWR + Continental = bad past experiences.
2) Air China reliability and dirty seats (reading posts)
3) I don't want to be a sardine for 14 hours
4) I'd love to use my NWA FF miles to upgrade me to a better seat, but they appear to be "sold out" September, October, and November for those seats
5) NWA going belly up


ideas?

Thanks!

Rich

welcome to flyertalk!

it's nice to see someone who lays out a clear thought pattern rather than a too-general question

1. why fly anywhere else than ex-MSP? if you look on a globe, NRT is just up-and-over. going to EWR or even ORD or SFO is actually out-of-the-way. and, given the hazards of connections or delays, i believe you are just much better flying out of your home city on your local carrier

2. the NRT/PEK leg may be on a A330 (search for more info) but will not be a through flite on your original 747

the on-line connection times in NRT can be very fast-like an hour

3. on Mon, Fri, Sat (i believe) there is a second flight-NW3, just ten minutes after the daily NW19. so, you have a better chance of an upgrade clearing on that flight

4. but, oct 15-30 are the dates of the canton fair. most flights to china (i.e. even the lift via NRT) are full/overbooked, even a week before and after. so, you may wish to adjust your flight dates to a less busy time.

good luck!

Coach seat is a coach seat. They're all cramped. CO's 777 have personal video screens on all seats, while NW's and UA's 744 don't in coach. Legroom are all tight, around 31", unless you can get the "E+" seats on UA (if you have status, or lucky).

CO's flight from EWR departs at 11:10am, so you probably can't get a same-day connection. Earliest MSP-EWR arrives 10:40am, I believe, which is too tight.

Timewise, NW and UA are comparable. About 17 hour outbound, 16 inbound. Since you probably treasure NW miles more than UA, I'll stick with NW, unless UA is significantly cheaper.

The only "premium economy" that you may consider is ANA from New York to Tokyo. But that means 2 connections and flying east to JFK. Not worth the trouble, IMHO.

Yes. I agree that CA has old & dirty seats. But considering how poor aviation safety has been with Mainland carriers in the past, CA is among the safest of all of them partly due to the fact that some of Beijing's high ranking official mostly fly with them.

If you are thinking 1 or 2 stops, I might look at taking NW MSP-SFO/PDX/SEA-NRT-PEK. You would break it up into a 31/2, 9, and 3 hour flights, and your West Coast to NRT flight would be on the A332 with great AVOD (by US carrier standards). That is if AVOD is a big issue to you. But, if you are in MSP, and have WorldPerks miles, I wouldn't think UA would be a good option, but CO out of EWR isn't bad.

Oh, and you don't have to worry about NW going belly up. Even if they declared bankruptcy, you would still fly, and the service would be the same. Look at UA!

Good Luck, and have fun in PEK!

Wow, you guys are great!

At the moment I'm leaning towards United direct from Chicago for about $100 more. It appears that I can come back on a 777 there.

The idea to schedule on the weekend where there is a second flight is fantastic. I check into that some more.

Thanks for the heads-up on the 15-30th, even though we intend on going out on the 22nd (back on the 5th).

Rich

if you can swing a status comp, go with ua. e+ is great and mp is a lot better than wp. ac via yyz might also be an option (not sure); i would not fly ac via yvr cuz those 763s are miserable.