China Flight Choices. We have a 9 day trip scheduled for early Sept. City of entry could be either Beijing or Shanghai. Live in Washington D.C. area. Would appreciate recommendations as to best airline (non stop preferred). Any advantage in using Asian carrier? Thanks in advance. htr

continental has a great non-stop from newark to beijing which would be easy for you....time flew by when i took this flight...

There are no non-stops between Washington and China. Your one-stop choices include:

- CO EWR-PEK, as rhkkmk describes.
- UA ORD-PEK, ORD-PVG, SFO-PEK, SFO-PVG
- AA ORD-PVG
- NH IAD-NRT-China

Air China flies from various US cities to Beijing and China Eastern to Shanghai. But their products are spotty.

[PEK = Beijing, PVG = Shanghai Pudong, ORD = Chicago O'Hare. NH = ANA of Japan.]

If you want to fly in to Beijing and out of Shanghai or vice versa, it's easiest to use UA and/or NH. They are partner airlines. And since you live in Washington, you may also prefer UA Mileage Plus FF miles over other ones.

Just returned from 2 weeks in China. Flew United from DCA/National Airport to O'Hare/Chicago; transferred to fly non-stop to Shanghai. Flew home from Beijing; same route.
Used frequent flier miles for business class seat. Well worth it! Get to use 1st/business lounges in airports as well. No problems w/delays, connections, etc. As pleasant a flight as could be. I chose to go from Chicago rather than SF because it was a longer stretch of time to sleep without interruption.

Take note of the layover time (3 plus hours), and if the next flight is delayed (happened on UA's PVG-SF-EWR) the day dragged into 22 hours!

Also you have to move your checked luggage from the international to domestic, it didn't go all the way thru.