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Status of UA's SFO-PVG operations, back to non-stop -- 30 Jan 2023

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Status of UA's SFO-PVG operations, back to non-stop -- 30 Jan 2023

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Old Jan 21, 2022, 5:59 pm
  #151  
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Originally Posted by Kmxu
35K XN fare is available in April (starting March 27)!!
hurry to book.
Yup.

I booked XN for my in-law, and will clear him to biz class.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 6:04 pm
  #152  
 
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Originally Posted by kb1992
Yup.

I booked XN for my in-law, and will clear him to biz class.
I think that UA has this fare available now but it will not last long.
XN to IN was not easy because some of Polaris seats were blocked for PVG-SFO. My friend barely got it after she talked to a gate agent. The computer generated upgrade standby list put her the dead last.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 6:25 pm
  #153  
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Originally Posted by Kmxu
I think that UA has this fare available now but it will not last long.
XN to IN was not easy because some of Polaris seats were blocked for PVG-SFO. My friend barely got it after she talked to a gate agent. The computer generated upgrade standby list put her the dead last.
IME, upgrade supported by my PP almost always ended up in top 3 or even top 1.

XN to PN is much easier than XN to IN.
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Old Jan 21, 2022, 6:33 pm
  #154  
 
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Originally Posted by kb1992
IME, upgrade supported by my PP almost always ended up in top 3 or even top 1.

XN to PN is much easier than XN to IN.
Naturally. Thanks to your GS instrument
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 5:41 am
  #155  
 
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Originally Posted by kb1992
In general, PVG-USA is lot less than SFO-PVG except in August when millions students come to USA for education. I paid $3,800 M fare for PVG-SFO-BOS last August.

New rule by Chinese Embassy is that you MUST stay at SFO for 7 days to do multiple testing before they issue a green code which is necessary to board UA 857.

A friend just bought $10,000 PE fare March 20 SFO-PVG. UA wanted $18,000 for J. She hesitated for few min, then $18,000 J fare was gone.

Oh well. I guess UA makes lot of money on China routes.

You don't have to fly direct flights out of China. HKG, NRT and ICN are some of the transit choices out of China. Cathay one way biz class PVG-HKG-BOS was selling at around 2K USD last month. You can still find these prices for March, April and May. I even saw JAL fares around 1800 USD PVG-NRT-BOS one way in biz.
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 5:46 am
  #156  
 
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Originally Posted by PsiFighter37
Are there any other flights between UA and China flying at this time? My wife's father has been in China for nearly 9 months, and I think the plan was for him to fly back to the U.S. in March. It feels like it will be much harder, and while I don't mind overpaying in RDM for a Polaris seat back, I have no interest in helping sponsor another $10k+ ticket, paid in cash...
You do not have to fly direct flights out of China. HKG, NRT and ICN all good transit points and are still allowing transit passengers out of China. Cathay and JAL are running some great fares (Covid Era) in both Econ and Biz.
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 5:55 am
  #157  
 
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Originally Posted by 350zrx330
You do not have to fly direct flights out of China. HKG, NRT and ICN all good transit points and are still allowing transit passengers out of China. Cathay and JAL are running some great fares (Covid Era) in both Econ and Biz.
OP bought a XN ticket (35K miles + taxes) and used PlusPoints for upgrade. There are plenty of PVG-USA XN tickets available between March 27 and June 30. This is really a good use of miles by premier members (5 cents per miles).
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 7:49 am
  #158  
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Originally Posted by 350zrx330
You don't have to fly direct flights out of China. HKG, NRT and ICN are some of the transit choices out of China. Cathay one way biz class PVG-HKG-BOS was selling at around 2K USD last month. You can still find these prices for March, April and May. I even saw JAL fares around 1800 USD PVG-NRT-BOS one way in biz.
Correct! There are some really good business fares flying out of China via HKG, NRT etc. I will definitely take advantage of that when I leave China.

The issue is flying to China from the US. China embassy/consulates won’t issue the green code for transit passengers.
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 1:14 pm
  #159  
 
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Originally Posted by UA_Flyer
Correct! There are some really good business fares flying out of China via HKG, NRT etc. I will definitely take advantage of that when I leave China.

The issue is flying to China from the US. China embassy/consulates won’t issue the green code for transit passengers.
Yep, going to China has to be direct flight if there is one available from your country of residency. My trip last year, I bought a one way from US to China, then bought a round trip ticket from China back to the US. it was really cheap fare coming out of China. Now I am trying to use the 2nd half of that ticket (AA) to go to China again for another few months of work. Already bought my one way ticket out of China on Cathay.
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Old Jan 24, 2022, 4:10 pm
  #160  
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Originally Posted by Kmxu
OP bought a XN ticket (35K miles + taxes) and used PlusPoints for upgrade. There are plenty of PVG-USA XN tickets available between March 27 and June 30. This is really a good use of miles by premier members (5 cents per miles).
Actually it's more like 4 cents per mile. My in-law's April PVG-SFO can be had for $1470.

Of course, if we add PP and clear XN to PN, then we are talking about $5,500-$10,000 biz class fare.

That's more than 15 cents per mile which I absolutely love
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Old Feb 6, 2022, 5:56 pm
  #161  
 
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Are the 'suspended' UA flights to China still flying?

I am trying to figure out what the recent/current Chinese suspensions actually mean for UA, i.e. what exactly is suspended; the flight itself, or 'only' the carrying of pax USA ---> China?

From looking at FlightAware, it seems as if UA857 (SFO-[ICN]-PVG) doesn't 'exist', but the return UA858 (PVG-[ICN]-SFO) does. From this I am presuming that the suspension is 'only' for the carrying of pax, and the flight is cargo & crew only going to China, and a regular flight with pax, flying as UA858 coming back to the USA.

Does this sound about right?
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Old Feb 6, 2022, 6:33 pm
  #162  
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Originally Posted by narvik
I am trying to figure out what the recent/current Chinese suspensions actually mean for UA, i.e. what exactly is suspended; the flight itself, or 'only' the carrying of pax USA ---> China?

From looking at FlightAware, it seems as if UA857 (SFO-[ICN]-PVG) doesn't 'exist', but the return UA858 (PVG-[ICN]-SFO) does. From this I am presuming that the suspension is 'only' for the carrying of pax, and the flight is cargo & crew only going to China, and a regular flight with pax, flying as UA858 coming back to the USA.

Does this sound about right?
UA might be allowed to fly empty planes to Shanghai, but I haven't seen them do so yet. As others have pointed out, you have many options when leaving.
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Old Feb 6, 2022, 8:31 pm
  #163  
 
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Originally Posted by moondog
UA might be allowed to fly empty planes to Shanghai, but I haven't seen them do so yet. As others have pointed out, you have many options when leaving.
Not empty; with CARGO, but no pax.

If you look at FlightAware UA857, SFO ---> PVG, there's no flights listed in a while.
But if you look at FlightAware US858, PVG ---> SFO, they're flying regularly, at the 'usual' schedule.
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Old Feb 6, 2022, 8:41 pm
  #164  
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Originally Posted by narvik
Not empty; with CARGO, but no pax....
Cargo only would be a 28xx / 27xx flight and labeled as such on unitedcargo.com



conflicting info on when UA857 is scheduled to resume unitedcargo has13 Feb 2022
EF has 12 Feb but availability is zeroed until mid-march
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Last edited by WineCountryUA; Feb 6, 2022 at 8:51 pm
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Old Feb 6, 2022, 9:02 pm
  #165  
 
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Well, it appears UA is flying SFO-[ICN]-PVG without passengers & with or without cargo (inconclusive, IMO), and flying back as UA858 PVG-[ICN]-SFO with passengers and cargo.
A suspension under these rules from China isn't a suspension of the airplane's flight itself, but merely a suspension of that aircraft carrying passengers.
A click on WHERE'S THIS AIRCRAFT COMING FROM yields an error message:

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