travelinmanS

China blocked the border to all foreigners because of COVID. Any foreigner who wishes to enter needs to apply for a new visa at the consulate. Generally you’ll only get one if you have a current residence permit in China and working for a big company or you offer something they really need like an expertise in vaccine development. Your 10 year visa won’t be valid until they lift these restrictions likely when a vaccine comes.

UA_Flyer

As other has stated, new visa required if your existing visa was obtained before March 28. The process is not simple. One needs to secure invitation letter issued by the local government where your sponsored organization is based. Certain local governments are swamped with requests (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen etc).

China just announced today that invitation letter and visa application fee are waived for Singapore Citizen currently holding unexpired visa and resident permits issued before March 28, but new visa is still required to travel to China. This only applies to Singapore citizens who are applying through the Chinese embassy in Singapore. The announcement used "Singapore citizen", so I guess permanent residents and long-term stay foreigners in Singapore are not entitled to the waiver.

moondog

Word on Wechat/Weibo is that if you have a valid residence permit, you can get a visa without a letter. In theory, the RP is supposed to be cancelled when you get the new visa, but one FTer reports that his was not.

UA_Flyer

Unfortunately or fortunately pending whether one keeps the RP, there are inconsistencies. Two people in my organization had valid RP, but one had to apply for new one and the second kept hers.

On having RP without needing the invitation letter to apply for visa, another inconsistency. Listened to a number foreign chambers of commerce calls, and many voiced a long backlog on the issuance of invitation letterS. The fact that Chinese embassy in Singapore today just issued a statement that starting tomorrow on waiving invitation letter if Singaporeans have valid RPs, just showed you there have been inconsistencies in practice at Chinese embassies and consulates overseas.

moondog

1. the rules are constantly in flux
2. each consulate seems to interpret/implement them differently

I'm guessing that the vast majority of posters in this forum don't have RPs. As such, a government invitation letter (which is actually just a standard form) is essential for them. IMO, anyone who is sufficiently determined, has decent connections, and can craft a semi-compelling story can score one, but this might cost a bit of money (i.e. "tipping" the guy who puts his neck on the line).

I also want to reiterate that, while the visa is attainable, the quarantine is going to happen (now you only need to do 7 days in a hotel if you have a private residence option for the other 7 days), and air fares -- no longer completely obnoxious -- are still at least 2x 2019 fares.

Lurker

Speaking of not knowing the fares, neither did I having not flown for 6 months. So I did a few searches and stumbled on this SFO-PVG.



Good to know that there's no change fees!!! And that 230+ people have been looking at it!!!


What am I missing here???

Lurker

jsloan

I suspect that the demand is still astronomical, as Chinese nationals continue to try to return home.

VWang1111

Looks like uncapped dynamic award pricing is definitely in effect. But 2.2+ cents a mile is really not bad at all.

moondog

I predicted demand would have softened by now (i.e. the eastbound fares have already dropped significantly...2019 levels even, if you are willing to endure 30 hour trips), but it hasn't.

However, the supply of Chinese nationals stranded abroad is finite. Most that have waited this long probably aren't inclined to jump at 13k USD fares either, but their numbers will surely drop over the next month or two, and few are likely to be repeat customers.

jsloan

Oh, I agree completely, and I assume that the fares will drop commensurately. The thing is, based on the inventory numbers that are being posted, some people are actually paying these fares.

I'm not usually one to complain about charging what the market will bear, but in this particular case, I think UA is embarrassing themselves here. My rationale is simple: I don't particularly mind that they've restricted inventory to J/O/Y if they're able to sell those seats, but what bothers me is that the O and Y prices for one-way travel are double what they would have been for the same seats, on the same flight (Sept. 27, in this case), if they had bought the ticket in January. And not because of advance purchase restrictions -- there aren't any on the O or Y fares. It's a virus-related cash grab by UA, and I think it's in poor taste. (The J fares appear to be mostly unchanged, at least at first glance).

WineCountryUA

What are the return flights like? Fairly empty, so much of the revenue is just from returning China residents?
Cargo is probably the main load on the return to USA.

UA_Flyer

I am surprised to see the west bound fare this high, but looking at the September 27 date as show, I figure it must has something to do with the Chinese National Day golden week of holidays.

I guess I was extremely lucky to get on the inaugural July 8th flight for just $2,000+ and cleared upgrade.

UA vs NW

I have been watching UA's SFO-PVG fare in early December for a while. Over the weekend, UA has removed the second SFO-PVG flight (UA891) from the system until year end, which resulted in very limited availability on UA857 for the date when the flight has been confirmed to fly (Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun), and the fare is around $4700 one-way in economy. The availability is good on Thursdays with the same fare, but apparently there is a good chance that Thursday's UA857 might not fly, and if it happens, UA will not be willing to put the passengers on UA857 nearby (probably no availability anyway). It will not be easy to go to China for a while.

moondog

I've only been searching for PVG-JAX and vv. It's now possible to book the outbound on AA for under $500 (DL is $700; UA is $1300), and the inbound on UA+AC for $600 on many dates from Mid October onward (all other options are at least double).

sincx

I found this a few weeks ago:

(to buy the ticket would have been $3k in economy)