I was booked in Z class, or discounted business, so based on Air China's relationship with United, I only got 6,251 Premier-qualifying miles, and a 25% class-of-service bonus on base miles for a total of 7,813 United miles. Air China is a member of Star Alliance, so I banked my miles to my United MileagePlus account. The flight took 12 hours going east across the Pacific, and clocked in at 6,251 miles. The Miles Ordinarily, my one-way ticket would have cost about $4,900 (though roundtrips go for about $5,500). They also served Budweiser and Yanjing beer, plus Glenfiddich 15-year and a few other liqueurs. The alcohol list was short and to the point with two French reds and white wines each, a semi-sweet French champagne, and red and white Great Wall wine from China.

The Western choice was a plain omelette with Lyonnais potatoes, Canadian bacon and herbed tomatoes, breakfast rolls, cereal and fresh fruit. Breakfast was a sparse spread of dumplings and congee.īreakfast took place about 90 minutes before landing and started with pickles with sea kelp and salted duck egg, congee with dumplings and black mushroom-veggie dumplings, and fresh fruit.