We are looking at flying to the West Coast of the USA this summer for our holidays and were wondering what airlines people have flown and their thoughts on them. Anyone flown Air China?
Does anyone know if Korean Air is any good and whether they go through Hawaii?
We are travelling with our two small sons so onboard entertainment, individual screens is vital to our sanity!!

United - But only SFO to Shanghai. Haven't gone the other way yet. Planes are old but service is halfway decent. I would recommend you consider making the hop to HK and taking Cathay Pacific...I've heard from pretty horrifying stories about Chinese airlines.

Yeah, Cathay is not bad for me. I don't go that direction but I take cathay pacific within China and dragon flight at HK to other countries. No individual screen in Cathay Pacific when I flighted with it last time while International flight can be different. Check airplane on the web or call the information centre.

A co-worker has taken KAL several times thru Seoul to LA. He said it was cheaper and the service was pretty good.

travelinjack3 wrote:A co-worker has taken KAL several times thru Seoul to LA. He said it was cheaper and the service was pretty good.

I took Korean Airline once. Very nice but no individual screen available there.

No individual screen on the United flight to LA either the last time I went that way.

ANA All Nippon Airways, i highly recommend them. Star Alliance airlines for mileage collectors, great service, new planes, WAY better than NWA, United, American, Continental, Air CHina, Air Canada, China Eastern as a carrier to Shanghai from SFO. Not sure if they fly from LAX, but they have individual screens with video games and movie selections for everyone. I fly them whenever i can.

Don't go with United, they charge you 5$ for one beer.

Booze is still free on United's Asia flights. They also have that economy plus thing going too. They do fly those old 747s to the west coast but I was told that they are all going to be retrofitted very soon.

Ed - major props to ANA. I try to fly them to Japan whenever I am headed that direction. You are correct. Great service, nice new planes, video games, foot rest even in coach, top notch.

i fly united direct to chicago and it's always the new 777 with individual screens. good luck!

Thanks for the feedback.
Looks like we'll be flying United to San Francisco as it's a direct flight. Can anyone tell me if it's right that the planes need to be 777 to have individual screens?

Before you decide which seats to pick, look at these links

http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/United ... 47-400.php

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthre ... 47+seating.

As suggested, see if you can get access to Economy Plus on United as that gives you extra leg room.

Only the 777s have individual screens and PVG - SFO is a really old 747. Best option would be to carry personal dvd players for kids with few extra batteries.

i was looking up flights to nyc on elong. a lot of them go via HK by Dragon Air. Has anyone flown Dragon Air? Is it any good?
from my experience, never take China Eastern, it's the worst of the worst.

You can try this one:
Shanghai Golden Swallow Aviation Service Company
jinyanaviation@hotmail.com
Contact: MS. Stella Song
Phone: 62492683, 62492686

Experienced and professional on International Aviation and Travel Service, including Air Tickets and hotel reservation, Visa application, etc. Company client is also welcomed with contract guarantee.

LOVE ANA!! And on United it appears only 777 have individual screens. Dragon Air is good. And we do take portable DVD players for the kid to keep our sanity.

agree with everyone on ana. their video units also allow you to start, pause, ff and rw any of the movies unlike some units that just play the same movies in a loop.

ana can also mean "all day empty" in chinese. a friend was complaining of deceptive advertising.

my choice in trans pac in order would be:

ANA, Singapore (non-stop), JAL, Cathay (non-stop) then the others. i'd also rather layover in narita than anywhere else if one is required.

I think only Air China and United fly non-stop from Shanghai to San Fran.

Air China has much better leg room (34" vs 31" of United), which is way more important to me than anything else on the 10 to 12 hours flight. However, most of the passengers are Chinese, so you will end up some uncomfortable moments - for example, once my next-seat had a huge bag of ceremic plates and bowls in the overhead bin and I was pretty worried it would fall on my head if the bin opens by tubulence.

Your preference of the service depend on your taste. United is more western, professional. However, the ladies are old. The ones serving Air China are definitely younger and prettier. Of course, Air China shows Chinese movies and United shows American ones. Neither airlines provide enough food (for me). United would at least push the beverage cart around and ask if you want any. On Air China, you get up and go to the service area and get the beverage yourself.

For video entertainment, I convert movies to load on my cell phone (a TMobile SDA). Yes the screen is small, but at least the battery will last 12 hours.

If you do a layover at Narita, check out their shower room/resting room rental. It is just a few dollars, and you get to take a shower and maybe take a little nap. Thumbs way up for Narita and I haven't seen similar service in any other airport.