Although European airlines are struggling with their Asian routes because of the Russian airspace problem, Chinese airlines have been adding numerous European routes like never before and as a result great sale fares can be seen frequently – except the UK ones.
And the wait is finally over, thanks to Hainan Airlines:
- Route: London – Chengdu, with stop(s) at Brussels and / or Beijing
- London – Brussels is operated by Brussels Airlines, the remaining by Hainan
- One-way fare is around £750, roundtrip about £1,200
- Sporadic availability from April to October
- Stopovers are allowed
Use Google Flights and Skyscanner to find dates. If you don’t know, Chengdu is a large city in Southwest China famous for pandas and spicy food (with Sichuan pepper). Unfortunately UK is still not on China’s visa waiver program, but British Citizens are eligible for the transit-without-visa program as long as they are travelling onward to Hong Kong or a third country.
The earliest travel date seems to be April 19th:
If you don’t intend to travel back from Chengdu, a one-way itinerary is also possible. You can add a stopover at Beijing, allowing you to visit the capital for a few days first:
And of course, you can stretch further with a stopover at Brussels too.
As long as you are staying at Brussels for over 24 hours, the fare will drop to around £650 because of the lower APD. It’s an excellent business class deal for visiting three cities.
I’ve never flown Hainan Airlines but heard good things about their business class. The drawback is your mileage crediting options are very limited, basically only Alaska (125%) or Etihad (85%) – the Brussels – Beijing segment appears to be booked in bucket R.
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