[cch253]

we plan to travel in September with our 1yo son from
HK - LA (1wk)
LA - Philadelphia (1wk)
Philadelphia - HK

So far we haven't found any airlines that have direct routes for all these locations. Any ideas? Thanks!

C Evans

[PDLM]

Cathay will happily sell you a ticket for this with the US segments operated by American (the routing would be HKG-LAX-ORD/DFW-PHL-ORD/DFW-LAX-HKG; in other words you would need to transit through Chicago or Dallas on the way between Philadelphia and LA, and you would need to come back out through LA).

The pricing varies a lot depending on when you need to travel and when you book the ticket. For example, at the moment there is a ticket bookable by 30 April for travel by 15 June which would be H$5280+taxes ($5800 for Fri/Sat departures). But apart from that the fares seem to be in the $9-11000 range. You really need a good travel agent who can keep their eyes open for the deals when CX announces them and can book them for you. Or you need to keep a close eye on the Cathay website.

You could probably do something similar with United, but I know much less about their services.

[wing]

I believe that Continental has a direct flight from HKG to Newark, NJ. From there, it will be about 2 hours drive to Philly. It was a 15 hours flight, non-stop.

Changing flight in LA from International to Domestic can be painful. You may have to take a shuttle, depending on the airline(s).

I would rather go thru SFO which is an easy walk from the International terminal to the domestic side. For HKG-SFO route, I would take the UA from HKG to SFO. It usually arrives at around 8:00 a.m. in the morning and then catch flight from SFO to Philly before noon. You should be at Philly by 7 p.m.

I am going to Philly next month too to see my Mom who lives on the Main Line which is about an hour drive west of Philly. For me, I will be much better off to go Newark and then take a rental car from there getting on the the NJ Turnpike and then the Penn Turnpike.

[wing]

Sorry. I missed your 1 week stay in LA.

Please forget what I told you.

I would take CP to LA non-stop. Since you are going to stay in LA for a week. You can just take any domestic flight (non-stop) from LA to Philly. There are a lot of non-stop flights from LA to Philly.

Go to travelocity, expedia, orbitz or similiar to check out the domestic flight section. CP's partner airline is AA. AA has several flights from LA to Philly non-stop per day.

Sorry for the confusion.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by wing

AA has several flights from LA to Philly non-stop per day.

Can you quote me even one flight number?

I see no non-stop or even direct (single flight number) AA services between LAX and PHL.

[goergeWbush]

Do what PDLM said and book oneWorld with Cathay and American. I recommend transiting through DFW rather than ORD though, as O'hare always seems to run on constant delay and is very hectic.

Philly is a very difficult airport as they do not have a large international presence, so transferring would be required. You could* go HKG-LAX-DFW-PHL then go PHL-JFK(new york) and take the cathay nonstop from NY-HKG, but that will be a very expensive ticket.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by goergeWbush

I recommend transiting through DFW rather than ORD though, as O'hare always seems to run on constant delay and is very hectic.

I'd agree with that - both ORD and DFW have bad days (and when it goes wrong it can go very wrong) but ORD seems to have more of them.

[wing]

I have forgotten that AA has stopped their direct flights from LAX to PHL.

I usually take UA which shares with USair and America West because of my frequent flyer.

Examples:

US Airway #22 6:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m

US Airway #196 10:55 a.m. - 7:05 p.m.

US Airway #18 1:50 p.m. - 9:55 p.m

US Airway #46 red eye

America West and US Airway are practical the same airline.


For September, the weather usually should be OK. There are other smaller airports that AA uses as a hub e.g. St. Louis. I would try to stay away from ORD or DFW. Last year, I got stuck in ORD on the runway for 5 hours trying to go to PHL because of storms in the Mid Altantic region. There are always delays in ORD.
As for DFW, you may have to take a train going from one terminal to another even within the same airline. Check it out ahead of the time.

[cch253]

Thanks all - very helpful!!