Flights to China

[yellowgecko]

Not really a holiday but am after advice from seasoned travellers regarding flights to China.

Have got a work trip in April and have never been before. Need to fly into Beijing and back out from Shanghai.

Flight options seem very limited for direct flights. Any advice on the best place to connect?
Was hoping to fly BA, but maybe that's why there's not many direct?

TIA!

Most flights are with Chinese airlines as they can still fly over Russia, so other airlines can't compete. BA still have some direct from Heathrow both to SH and BJ. I often connect either via Amsterdam or Helsinki to break up the journey.

BA pulled out of Beijing a few months ago, (unless they have restarted). China Southern still fly direct, I think.
Qatar are a good bet, change in Doha, very quick and efficient transfer usually. This breaks the flight up into 2x 7 hours rather than one very long flight.
i think BA still fly direct to Shanghai and Hong Kong.
If you’re flying business, I’d suggest Qatar, preferably a flight with the Q-suites available.
As PP said, many western airlines no longer fly through Russian airspace, hence much longer BA flight compared to others.

When we lived there we flew either Lufthansa, (Frankfurt) finnair (Helsinki) or Cathay via Hong Kong. Air China is fine, but I wouldn’t fly long haul with China eastern or China southern.

Agreed, the sanctions means airlines out of Europe are at a significant disadvantage operating to/from China when it comes to non-stop services. I think Virgin has pretty much pulled out of the Far East altogether until the situation improves.

For info (and maybe a bit of an health warning for the unwary) BA are still selling LHR-PEK non-stop on ba.com but it’s a code share, the flights themselves are actually operated by China Southern.

Air china or china eastern from Heathrow between £600-800 return.

One slight issue with choosing at airline that is overflying Russia ATM is that as always there’s a very low risk of a diversion whilst en-route and ending up in Moscow, Irkutsk or somewhere in between.

The airline involved might be excellent at supporting their passengers in such circumstances but in any event if the OP is a Uk passport holder then it might be worth them looking at the current FCO advice for Russia before making a final choice of route and carrier.

Thank you so much - hadn't even thought about flights going over Russia, definitely want to avoid that!! Yes UK passport holder.

I saw a few options for Qatar flights, maybe that's the way to go and change at Doha. Trying to wangle business as it's such a long way to go.

Very glad I posted. Thank you!

Last time I flew to shanghai, I went via Paris with air france