jsloan

The article is complaining about Chinese students trying to get home from the US. A 6-hour schedule change that still got them home? Compared to examples being posted in the thread -- one person buying four tickets on four airlines to go TATL? I don't think that's anywhere near a bait-and-switch.

Is UA being optimistic in its China scheduling? It seems that way. Does it mean that they know with "almost certainty" that they're not going to operate the flight? I doubt it; they've said for at least three weeks that they really think they may be able to start the China traffic back up.

travelinmanS

I have almost certainty that they won’t start up by July. If UA doesn’t have this certainty they should hire me as an advisor in China :-) Until China announces an opening of the border they are ripping people off.

kb1992

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/23/us-accuses-china-of-blocking-american-flights-and-demands-action.html

The U.S. government late on Friday accused the Chinese government of making it impossible for U.S. airlines to resume service to China.

MSPeconomist

I suspect part of the problem the Chinese students are having is due to their tendency to purchase tickets through an OLTA.

OTOH, when I compare the number of Chinese students in the USA to the number of flights, it's scary. Student visas are expiring, housing may be an issue (and we don't want them packing into apartments of friends as they wait for flights to become available), and in some cases, they can't afford the additional expense of staying in the USA for an extended period of unknown duration. Also, if they return home now as a continuing student, who knows when they can next return to the USA for classes or even obtain a visa to do so.

Incoming students are also in an uncertain position, although it appears that they're won't be able to get to the USA for the fall term unless they're already abroad and can get a student visa without returning to China. For graduate students, this means that their funding can also be uncertain.

All of the Chinese students will be forced into a strict fourteen day quarantine when they land in mainland China, so it's hard to imagine that six hours makes a big difference providing that it doesn't create a hardship in getting to the airport for their first flight. Yeah, a long connection isn't fun and they might not easily have the funds to pay for a hotel if a new overnight connection is required (unlikely with six hours, but possible depending on circumstances) and some might be too young or not have a credit card to check into a hotel, but like some of the other extreme repatriation stories, getting home within six hours of the expected time or leaving within six hours of the expected time seems like a minor inconvenience to me.

ADDED: For those who are graduating this spring, student visas (unless they're able to get the STEM training program, but AFAIK that needed to be organized far in advance and the current job situation makes me suspect that some of these positions are being rescinded) will be expiring very soon. What are the Chinese students supposed to do if they cannot get flights home or cannot afford the high fare to do so?

WineCountryUA

While the situation some international students may be having to travel restrictions is difficult, we are getting far off-topic for this forum. This is UA forum and let's stick to the UA related issues.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

gokeeper

All SFO-PEK / SFO-PVG / EWR-PVG between June 4 ~ June 14 are gone during today's schedule filing. Do they really still believe they can resume flights to China from June 15?

blug

More than one flight per week, no. One flight per week, I don't see why not. Seems very possible.

In other news, yesterday DL started to sell tickets on SEA-ICN-PVG and DTW-ICN-PVG from 6/1 to 6/30. That's two flights a day to China for the entire June, which makes DL worse than UA in terms of selling "fake flights". Maybe move this thread to the DL forum?

MSPeconomist

These would be connections at ICN to a KE flight to mainland China. DL has no intraAsia flights now.

gokeeper

It did now, at least they plan to, 1 stop in ICN and change crew.

s0ssos

Very interesting. But it is only a scam if they don't refund people's money.
But actually the Delta flight doesn't show up on ITA matrix. Not sure why. They are selling it on their website though. Or, were. I guess someone snapped it up at $3k.

UA_Flyer

IIRC, there are no fifth freedom flights been granted out of ICN.
Interesting development. I have not seen fifth freedom right application from DL on the US Department of Transportation.

jsloan

They don't need fifth freedom rights to operate those flights unless they want to sell tickets between ICN and PVG.

UA_Flyer

Thanks for the clarification.
Is the one-stop for specific reasons, other than serving both Korea and China on on single flight due to reduced demand?

jsloan

I suspect that's exactly the reason.

blug

IIUC it is so that the same crew can fly ICN-PVG-ICN, without needing to quarantine for 14 days in China.
DL doesn't even seem to be selling the SEA/DTW-ICN segment by itself. You can only purchase DTW/SEA-ICN-PVG.