Hainan Airlines - American Airlines codeshare services: potential routes for Summer 2012

In December 2011 American Airlines and Hainan Airlines announced they would begin a transpacific codeshare arrangement. American would place its AA code on Hainan’s flights between Seattle and Beijing, and on domestic Chinese flights from Beijing. Hainan would place its HU code on American’s flights from Beijing to Chicago, and from Shanghai to Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as on connecting flights in North America on American.

(Click map below for expanded view of transpacific codeshare services:)

Each carrier’s rivals on either side of the Pacific had already created strong cooperative links (Air China and its subsidiary Shenzhen Airlines with Star Alliance partner United Airlines; China Southern and China Eastern with SkyTeam partner Delta), so travel industry observers figured a hookup between American and Hainan was likely as they were the last major carriers left unaffiliated.

Details of specific flight connections are still being worked out between the companies and are unlikely to be announced before Spring 2012. However, I’ve examined the current Winter 2012 timetables for each carrier to anticipate just what kinds of new connections are likely to be offered:

At Shanghai, neither carrier brings much to the relationship. The Chinese government allocates routes, fares, and frequencies among the various domestic carriers (much like how it was done in America pre-deregulation), picking who gets to dominate certain cities. The authorities have decided Hainan Airlines will have the slimmest presence in the country’s largest city – giving them only 7 daily flights from the international airport at Shanghai-Pudong, and just 5 daily flights from the downtown airport Shanghai-Hongqiao.

American’s arrival from Los Angeles gets in too late to connect to any HU departures at Pudong. The Chicago arrival comes in a bit earlier, allowing for connections to the major city Xi’an and resort center Haikou.  Heading eastbound, there is a possible daily connection from Haikou to the Los Angeles flight, and on the Chicago flight, travelers from Haikou, Xi’an, and Lanzhou could make connections.

With these meager connecting opportunities in the People’s Republic, the value of the codeshare agreement as far as Shanghai is concerned is to help Hainan’s local sales team book more corporate travel into the U.S.A.

(Click map below for two-way connections via PVG:)

At Beijing, Hainan Airlines has a much stronger presence, running a connecting hub with multiple banks of flights to dozens of domestic cities – as well as a growing number of overseas destinations. The HU flights to and from Seattle connect smoothly to many Chinese cities. Hainan’s operation is based out of the “old” side of the airport; mostly in Terminal 2, with a few flights from Terminal 1 just next door.

American Airlines has a daily run from Beijing to Chicago. AA flight #186 leaves PEK at 6:55 am on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and at 7:55 am on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. This flight arrives ORD before breakfast and delivers connecting passengers to their final destinations in the Midwest and East Coast by lunchtime. AA flight #187 arrives inbound from Chicago at 11:30 pm Beijing time.  American’s flights use the new Terminal 3 complex on the far side of the airport.

You may suspect that late-night arrivals and early-morning departures at Beijing don’t make for easy connections, and you would be correct. As it stands today, any connection heading into China or heading out to the U.S. would require an overnight stay in Beijing. (On the airport grounds are two full-service hotels: a Hilton and a Langham Place.)

The late-night-early-morning timing was not American Airlines’ choice; they had requested mid-day slots when the route was approved. The Beijing airport authority had other ideas. Perhaps now with a strong local advocate it might be possible to shift the timing of the Chicago run to allow for good connections on both ends so that AA and HU can both profit. (A separate question would be if American could move its flight to Terminal 2 to allow “walking” connections instead of requiring passengers to use shuttle buses.)

If we assume the timing for AA #186 and #187 stays as-is, early-morning departures from Beijing that American may want to put their code on could include:

• Chengdu
• Chongqing
• Dongying
• Fuzhou
• Guilin
• Hailar
• Harbin
• Kunming
• Lanzhou
• Manzhouli
• Mudanjiang
• Shanghai-Hongqiao
• Shanghai-Pudong
• Shenzhen
• Urumqi
• Wenzhou
• Xi'an
• Xiamen

Flights from these cities get into Beijing late at night, so may be potential code-share candidates:

• Changchun
• Changsha
• Changzhi
• Chengdu
• Chongqing
• Haikou
• Hailar
• Hangzhou
• Harbin
• Hohhot
• Jiamusi
• Jinjiang
• Kunming
• Mudanjiang
• Nanchang
• Nanning
• Ningbo
• Qiqihar
• Sanya
• Shanghai-Hongqiao
• Shenzhen
• Urumqi
• Wenzhou
• Wuhai
• Xi'an
• Xiamen
• Yinchuan

Cities that have both inbound and outbound potential codeshare are shown on this map (click for larger view):

To recap, while the Hainan-American partnership is important, at present there are few new service possibilities for U.S.-originating passengers looking to travel beyond Beijing. If American’s Chicago-Beijing flights can be rescheduled, however, a significant number of new connections may become possible. The HU-AA connections through Shanghai will be useful for only one or two cities, and are not likely to develop further.

We will keep watching developments in this association with great interest – follow @weninchina on Twitter and bookmark this blog for the latest news.

Book Review: Lost on Planet China by J. Maarten Troost

I originally read this book when it was released in hardcover back in 2008, but seeing the softcover version on a display last weekend at Barnes & Noble triggered me to go back and revisit it. I remember liking the book the first time through; how would it hold up?

Troost - who’s been published in the Atlantic Monthly and the Washington Post - doesn’t want to be called a “travel writer”, as his other books about exotic locales were written after living for extended periods among regular citizens in places like Vanuatu and Eastern Europe. While ‘ethnography’ might be a more-appropriate word for his other two books, here this books’ entire premise is Maarten traveling from place to place in China over several months, having wacky adventures, and writing a small essay about it. That’s a travelogue, and because he visited a different city each week he just doesn’t achieve the depth of cultural understanding found in his other works.

I’m not knocking the approach; if a publishing company wanted to make me an offer like that I’d jump immediately. (I even have an itinerary sketched out, and essay outlines for all the other parts of weninchina.com.) But then again I’m not trying to write a humor book or a picture of a people in transition.

Now, having read through the book again, I’ll still say it’s a fast-paced, fun, light read. There are 24 chapters, but the tone Troost uses is dry and conversational and one could finish the whole book in less than a week of evenings after the kids have gone to bed.

Looking over the notes I took, however, gives me the idea to make a Chinese Travel Channel Special Bingo - Troost hits all the obligatory observations and statements you’ve seen in every documentary and guidebook. Here are my entries for Chapters 2 and 3:

• Crazy driving / astonishing traffic
• Children peeing in inappropriate places in public areas
• Food made of animal bits we don’t eat in the West anymore
• The Cultural Revolution was really evil
• Blowing Noses
• Crossing the street is dangerous
• Chairman Mao
• Crazy ads on TV
• Luxury goods on ostentatious display
• June 4 is a mystery for Generation Y
• Smog in Beijing / dust storms

He circles all the way around the country, out through Shaanxi and Sichuan onto Tibet, then down through Yunnan to Guangzhou, up through the Yangtze Delta and finally into the northeast, ending with a boat ride along the Yalu River at the North Korean border, wishing to go back to the States.

I have to compare this book now to Kosher Chinese reviewed in an earlier entry. Both books are alternatingly funny and poignant, both are light reading, but Lost could have been Kosher if Troost had stayed put in one place for a couple months instead of taking the Grand Tour and hanging out with other Westerners. Take for instance how each author covers the gap between Han and non-Han ethnicities: Lost shows the absurd ‘surface’ of Han tourists in Yunnan having fun looking at Westerners interact with Bai people, whereas Kosher follows several young hill-tribe girls in Guiyang over two years, gets to know them and shows how the cards are stacked against them even though they keep trying. Both stories are true, but the latter one really helps you learn about what’s actually going on.

A book of just ‘surface’ observations can be fun, but too much at one place starts to feel like snarking, even though the author has only good intentions. Lost on Planet China is ultimately a highlight reel; a spice to add to your reading meal - entertaining in controlled doses, and with a balanced diet of other China media - but not a standalone dish.

For additional media and product reviews about China, its culture, and traveling around Asia, visit http://www.weninchina.com/Reviews/Reviews/Reviews.html

Now things start getting interesting!

After years of waiting, we are now finally at the beginning of a major expansion of flying between the USA and China, and this is going to be great news for family travel!

American Airlines will be entering the Los Angeles - Shanghai market in April 2011, which will help keep a lid on fares.

The bigger news is a set of new routes Delta will be launching from April through July 2011:  Atlanta - Shanghai, Detroit - Beijing, and most importantly for adoptive families, the return of Tokyo - Guangzhou service!

The Guangzhou flight will be operated by a Boeing 767-300, which is a much larger airplane than the 757-200 that predecessor Northwest Airlines used up to 2009.  That should also make seats more available and likewise keep fares out of Guangzhou from getting out of control.

As schedules start to load, we'll be updating our Transpacific Flight Planning page with fresh details.

In Beijing, the airlines have the hots for slots

Whoa there buddy, don't get too confident about that start date...

Stuck in Chicago O'Hare for a month?

While US carriers are finally increasing nonstop service to China, the process this year hasn't gone all that smoothly.

American Airlines was due to start Chicago-Beijing flights on April 24, and had been selling tickets since November. Delta Air Lines has been advertising Seattle-Beijing service to begin June 4.

Even though both countries' governments have authorized the services (years ago, in fact), the airlines also need permission from the Chinese air traffic authority to land and take off at specific times at Beijing. 

In American's case, the takeoff and landing slots they requested would have put their flight into Beijing at 1:55 pm, and out at 4:50 pm - very convenient. American never received the OK to use those particular flight times. But, they kept planning as if they were going to get them - all the way up to the day of the inaugural flight. Which they had to cancel.

The slots that American was approved for had the aircraft landing in Beijing at 2:20 am, and taking off at 4:20 am. Not exactly what you'd want if you were doing business in Beijing - or for trying to get a hotel room on your arrival.

American ended up canceling the flight for an entire month; today (May 25) is supposed to be the new launch date. And they're stuck with the 2:20 / 4:20 slots.

You can't always get what you want, either.

In Delta's case, the times they'd requested would have their Seattle run leaving Sea-Tac at 3:30 pm, arriving Beijing at 6:05 pm, and the return flight leaving Beijing at 1 pm, getting into Sea-Tac at 9:30 pm.

These schedules would have allowed passengers arriving into China excellent same-day connections on Delta's SkyTeam partner, China Southern, to dozens of domestic cities. More importantly, the eastbound flight would have been perfect for same-day connecting traffic from domestic Chinese cities - and for adoptive families, would have given them the option to take either of the first two Guangzhou-Beijing departures on China Southern.

The 9:30 pm arrival in Seattle would have hooked up with the "red-eye" runs leaving there after midnight bound for Delta's other hubs at Minneapolis, Atlanta, Detroit, and Memphis, saving families the expense of a hotel room somewhere on the way home.

The requested slots were also a clever bit of engineering for Delta, in that they could use their aircraft coming in from Seattle to turn around to make a run to Tokyo, with the inbound Tokyo flight turning around to head for Seattle. Their airplanes would spend less time on the ground and more in the air, making money.

You shouldn't be surprised to read that Delta's plans didn't go how they wanted, either. Delta's slots were assigned just over a week ago. Instead of arriving in Beijing at 6 pm, the actual arrival will be 11:40 pm. And instead of leaving Beijing at 1 in the afternoon, the departure will be 8:55 in the morning.

Comparing the two airlines, Delta came out better than American; the eastbound arrival into Seattle will now be 5:30 am, so travelers can clear Customs and make all the morning flight banks to both coasts and all Delta's hubs. But Delta still doesn't have a chance of connecting to Chinese domestic flights inbound or outbound, and flyers going through Beijing are still stuck with an overnight stay in each direction.

And now once again I'll have to modify the weninchina.com Transpacific Flight Options page...

The Makings for Another Interesting Meal

Start with a good base of Szechuan-brand Bean Sauce; go for the HOT stuff!

Roast Eel Chili in the handy serving tin

Stock up on Sea Cucumber - right next to the squid.  Remember to look for the Forzen variety, not the frozen stuff.

First, the jokes.  Aren't they awfully small to try to extract from the poor fish?  Oh wait, that's not it. What, they take a melon baller to the fish meat?

Now, the reality. I've actually eaten these in Beijing. It's ground-up fish mixed in with flour to make kind of a tiny dumpling. They're a little smaller than marble-size; you have to chew them a bit and they have a stronger fishy taste than Westerners are used to. Good way to incorporate protein and use all the fish, I suppose, but it did make the teenage daughter of one of our fellow families barf. Oh, watch out for tiny fish bones.

Probably not something I'd put on the "must try" list...