Business and first class reward availability wide open via China Eastern airline (Multicity search)

[Haplo]

This is big news, China Eastern classic reward seats (economy, business and first) fully loaded into Qantas. It looks like flight availability is there until at last June (for the Sydney to Shanghai leg and return)

The Sydney Shanghai leg has lots of seats in all class and Shanghai to the rest of the world is also very good availability. Someone at work have already booked flights and got their tickets issued within 2 hours by Qantas so these are real seats.

Tax are low and minimal carrier surcharge on these flight (at least for the Sydney Shanghai leg), and Qantas treats it as partner airline for pricing purposes.

Given where cash prices are even economy rewards would be good value these days.

 

[serfty]

How many points are the connections through to Europe/North America?

 

[sudoer]

How many points are the connections through to Europe/North America?

Unfortunately a PVG transit to most of Europe just tips into Zone 10 / 9600mi+. USA would also be Zone 10.

Example SYD-PVG-LHR in F below was 227.5k + $298 one way.

 

[Haplo]

It might cost more points but notice the tax / charges? Its almost unheard of for a Europe flight in F.

 

[sudoer]

Its almost unheard of for a Europe flight in F.

It's also worth calibrating expectations on MU F though. It's a long way below Qantas' other partners that offer F cabins to Europe.

 

[Mattg]

The reopening of China is potentially very good news in terms of award availability to/from Australia and airfares to Europe, Asia & North America in general. The capacity increase and additional competition is much needed.

 

[woodyren]

I was checking out some first class reward ticket and J options today. Also looking at a few reviews and all in all it's good availability and very low taxes.

The points required to Beijing are the same but it involves a connection from a flight arriving in PVG around 2000 and then an early morning connection from Hongqiao at around 0700.

Does anyone have any information on how China Eastern would deal with a first class passenger on the connection. Do they provide a hotel? A transfer? Are the bags checked through to PEK.

 

[CZ322]

I was checking out some first class reward ticket and J options today. Also looking at a few reviews and all in all it's good availability and very low taxes.

The points required to Beijing are the same but it involves a connection from a flight arriving in PVG around 2000 and then an early morning connection from Hongqiao at around 0700.

Does anyone have any information on how China Eastern would deal with a first class passenger on the connection. Do they provide a hotel? A transfer? Are the bags checked through to PEK.

They used to provide hotels for overnight connecting passages years ago, but not anymore.

Given is an international -> domestic flight you have to take your luggage through customs. Also, MU won't provide a transfer for you and your bags from PVG to SHA. Before COVID, the transfer counter located in the luggage hall used to provide a free shuttle bus ticket.

 

[jpp42]

The points required to Beijing are the same but it involves a connection from a flight arriving in PVG around 2000 and then an early morning connection from Hongqiao at around 0700.

Is the routing via SHA because of award availability or because you specifically must travel to PEK rather than PKX? How far away are these flights? As schedules may change significantly between now and then as China opens up. Right now the only late night PVG-BJS flights are to PKX but this could easily change.

 

[woodyren]

Is the routing via SHA because of award availability or because you specifically must travel to PEK rather than PKX? How far away are these flights? As schedules may change significantly between now and then as China opens up. Right now the only late night PVG-BJS flights are to PKX but this could easily change.

Any airport is fine. We just wish to fly to Beijing.

They were the only routing that came up. Whether you did a search direct SYD to Beijing in general or via Shanghai. We were just looking at options.

The bookings will be for December and like you I suspect a lot more routings will open up.

 

[CZ322]

Any airport is fine. We just wish to fly to Beijing.

They were the only routing that came up. Whether you did a search direct SYD to Beijing in general or via Shanghai. We were just looking at options.

The bookings will be for December and like you I suspect a lot more routings will open up.

MU might run PVG-PEK again once they have more international flights on schedule. I think they ran the last PVG-PEK on 30 May 2021 as MU6257 and scheduled to depart at 0705.

MU had to trade PVG and PKX slots with CA for a slot in PEK since the original plan was that MU and CZ will relocate to PKX only. So MU will definitely use the PEK slots for their popular hubs.

 

[ANstar]

YAY to the Chinese airlines being back to add capacity and thus lowering yields and opening up more redemption opportunities.

 

[Haplo]

Now lets see how long before QF129 and QF130 is back, can't imagine Qantas will sit much longer

 

[sudoer]

Now lets see how long before QF129 and QF130 is back, can't imagine Qantas will sit much longer

I don't think QF will rush back into China yet. Not only are they short on aircraft, but the Chinese government is still acting unpredictably in blocking short-term visas from countries which impose entry restrictions against travellers from China. But it's inevitable that countries impose these restrictions while the number of cases China reports doesn't match the scores of positive travellers arriving on flights.

I think many non-China based airlines will be waiting this one out for a little while until the situation settles. I can't imagine non-China based crews would be particularly keen on operating these flights either.

 

[ozflier]

Looks like a bit of hope on the horizon but little in the way of direct traffic to Brisbane reward or non reward .

 

[ChrisMars]

I am wondering if a few years of country locked down results, like it did in Australia, in a population stacked up with massive frequent flyers point balance and keen to revenge travel. If so, I am wondering what effect it might have on chineese and parners airline award availability.

 

[offshore171]

A hard no from me, but it's a positive development in the sense that it adds capacity and absorbs some redemption demand from those willing to travel via the PRC.

 

[drcam]

First class on MU would struggle against business class on any modern Western airline, notwithstanding you'd probably have to be masked up all the way to London. When something sounds too good to be true it generally is.

 

[asdf1234]

I flew MU once in Business class back in 2019 from Hangzhou to Melbourne.

The flight was on an A330, so the seats were more than 10 years old and was in a 2-2-2 configuration without lie-flat. Hard product was obviously poor (for that flight).

Food was borderline inedible. The rice was hard as brick and the beef was chewy as rubber. Wouldn't even feed it to my worse enemy. I've had much better meals in economy with other airlines. Granted, the flight did not originate from their hub (PVG) but rather a regional city instead.

I said never again, yet I have booked to fly with them again on NAR-PVG-SYD on First and Business class. Not looking forward to it.

This time, I did encounter some difficulty with pre-selecting the seats. Using the ticket number issued by Qantas (081), the MU website refused to load the seat selection website properly. I called MU's local office and they had to go to the backend and search the passenger's name to allocate a seat.