With Northwest Airlines pulling out of Guangzhou in March 2009, there will no longer be an American-flag carrier serving the city all adopting families leave from. I have been conducting research and contacting airlines' press offices for comment and suggestions; over the next few weeks I'll discuss some of the other options available.Let's start with the Japanese carrier ANA - All Nippon Airways. Tokyo's Narita Airport is ANA's home base, which means no hassles regarding your new child's Chinese passport. ANA is a member of the Star Alliance, so earning miles on your United frequent flyer account is straightforward. And ANA serves a number of destinations in China, most importantly Guangzhou. ANA, not surprisingly for an Asian carrier, has a good reputation for service, and as an English-speaker, you will not have any problems.
When you look at the ANA timetable, however, connections out of Guangzhou back to America are slim. Only San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Honolulu can be hooked up. From these three cities, going to China, connections can be made to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing (except for L.A., which arrives too late to make the Beijing flight.) Click on the map below for an expanded view:
I ran airfares on a typical short-notice adoption routing: leaving San Francisco March 4 to Beijing, returning from Guangzhou on March 19. The total trip came to about $1600 per person. If you want to book a third seat coming back from China (which we highly recommend), expect to pay around $900 for the one-way. You'll have to call their reservations desk, as you cannot book a one-way ticket from China to the USA over their website.
The spokesman I've dealt with confirms that ANA does not offer special fares for adopting families. When you do get your placement date, you'll be paying the higher no-advance-notice fare. With the current economic crisis, even the short-notice fares aren't too bad, but these do tend to go up in the summer months. And when the economy does get stronger again, prices will get even steeper.
The limited connections available with this carrier also mean you will have to spend at least one more night inbound to China - while a Beijing stopover is a great idea to help you with jetlag, and to see the sights before Placement Day, if you are trying to economize by flying directly to your child's provincial capital, ANA is not going to be your first choice.
Contact information:
Phone: 1-800-2-FLY-ANA (US 50 and Canada)
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