Direct flights to China for Convenient China Travel from Canada and USA

Direct Flights from North America to China by Canadian and American Airlines

Air Canada announced Wednesday that it will open a direct flight linking Toronto and Shanghai from June 16 this year, in a bid to improve its flight structure in China.

The new Toronto-Shanghai flight will be three times a week, with every Wednesday, Friday and Sunday taking off from Toronto and every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday departing Shanghai. Expected to save three hours compared with flight stopover in Vancouver, the 284-seat carrier Airbus A340-300 will fly the new route. As the only airlines providing direct flight between Shanghai and Toronto, the Canadian airlines opened direct flights linking Toronto and Shanghai in June last year, and Vancouver-Beijing, Vancouver-Shanghai flights.

American to Fly Chicago-Shanghai in April

American Airlines will begin the new non-stop service to China on April 2, 2006. The 14-hour flight between Chicago and Shanghai will use Boeing 777 aircraft. American Airlines will provide seamless connections to many cities in eastern and central US.

Flight 289 leaves Chicago at 11:05am and arrive Shanghai next day at 2:15pm.
The return flight 288 leaves Shanghai at 4:25pm and arrive Chicago at 5:00pm.

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Air China and US Carriers Reduce Baggage Allowance

Air China, American Airlines, United Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Continetal Airlines reduced the free weight allowance for transpacific checked baggage for customers in Coach Class. The free weight allowance for checked baggage will be 50 pounds (23 kilograms) per piece, a total of 2 pieces are allowed. This change has been partially caused by the high fuel cost, according to the airlines.

According to China Eastern and China Southern Airlines, their free transpacific weight limit will still be 70 pounds for the time being. However, some code-share flights operated by US carriers are subject to 50 lbs per bag limits.

Continental Fly Newark-Beijing Non-Stop

Continental Airlines has begun service to Beijing, China from Newark Liberty International Airport.

Daily nonstop service began on June 15, 2005 and is operated by a 283-seat Boeing 777-200ER, 48 in BusinessFirst and 235 in coach.

Continental is the only U.S. carrier offering daily nonstop service from New York to China.

The 13-hour flight (CO 89) departs Newark at noon, arriving in Beijing at 1:50 p.m. the next day. The return flight (CO 88) leaves China at 3:50 p.m., arriving in the US 13 hrs. 25 minutes later at 5:15 p.m.

Continental Airlines is part of SkyTeam alliance, you can choose to earn and redeem Continental OnePass, Delta SkyMiles or Northwest WorldPerks mileages.

China No Longer Collect Airport Tax at Site

Beginning September 1, 2004, China's airports have stopped collecting airport construction fee at airports. Instead, the fee is added to air tickets as airport taxes. The airport taxes are 90 Yuan RMB (about US$11) for each international departure, and 50 Yuan RMB (about US$6) for each China domestic departure, respectively. Connecting flights are subject to the airport taxes as well. The change makes it easier for the travelers. In USA and many other countries, those taxes are being collected with air tickets. Since there are many taxes for each ticket, it is not unusual that a US-China ticket has a total tax amount of over $150. Tax amounts vary with destinations, routes and carriers.

United and Air China Alliance

United and Air China began code share and reciprocate on frequent flyer programs, on Oct 31, 2003. In total, the two airlines offer 26 nonstop code share flights a week between the US and China. The flights are: San Francisco-Shanghai, Chicago-Beijing, Los Angeles- Beijing, New York-Beijing and San Francisco-Beijing. You can earn United MileagePlus miles when you purchase an Air China code-share-flight ticket.

United also has code-share China domestic flights to Guangzhou, Shenyang, Xian, Fuzhou and Shenzhen. And Air China has code-share US domestic flights to Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington D.C.

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