Frequent flier programs in China can be confusing, so we have simplified them for you. Have you ever felt like you had no idea how to get your miles, what the programs looked like and generally what to do? Well, the Daily Tea Leaves have sorted through to help you out.

The basics:

For the local airlines the best way to sign up is in the airport. Typically companied have service centers where you can fill out a form and receive a temporary card. Normally they will send a card to a Chinese address, but some will ask you to return to the airport in your home city (within China) after a few days to pick one up--a particularly ludicrous idea customer service. Once you receive your card you should show it at the check-in counter. Some allow you to enter it when you book your flights, but not all.

Most of the frequent flier programs are either called Gold Card or Pearl Card so look for kiosks that say 金卡 or 朱卡.However, usually the people at check-in can direct you to the right place. On to the carriers:

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Air China has the most international plan. Here are other carriers that accept their points:

United, Lufthansa (Germany) , Shanghai Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Austrian Airlines, China Airlines, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Airlines, SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES, Air New Zealand, Virgin Atlantic.

The restrictions vary so you should check http://ffp.airchina.com.cn/EN/jldh/hkdh.htm#3 for details

Air China also allows you to redeem points at many of the major international hotels including: Marriot, Shangri-La, Hilton, Mandarin Oriental, and severaln others. You can get details at http://ffp.airchina.com.cn/EN/hzhb/jd.htm

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China Southern is somewhat international with English speaking people answering the phones and some international flights as well. Their plans are a little convoluted, but not as bad as some others. Basically if you are a pearl club member you can use miles towards China Southern flights, unless the flight shares a code with another airline, and towards partner flights. Rewards can only be used for one-way, non-stopover flights, and can be changed as long as you flight the same route on a flight with the same number. You can upgrade a regular economy ticket 72 hours before the flight.

The airline partners: Northwest, Airfrance, Northwest, Sichuan Airlines and KLM

Hotel partners: Mariot Rewards, Intercontinental, Shangri-la, and Best Western.

You can get more informtion here: http://skypearl.cs-air.com/index.html

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China Eastern actually has a very good program in terms of ease of use. Most of the work can be done in English online including signing up. They seem to have it together with regard to service. The biggest problem is they only have two airline partners. You can sign up here: http://www.easternmiles.com/uk/login/userlogin.jsp .

Airline partners: Cathay Pacific, and China Airlines.

Hotels: They have 14 hotel partners, but the biggest are Mariot Rewards, Intercontinental, Shangri-la, Mandarin Oriental, Hyatt, Accor, and Hilton. A complete list can be found at http://www.easternmiles.com/uk/partner/hotel.jsp .

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Hainan Air is another company with pretty easy services to use, and virtually no partners. You can sign up online at http://ffp.hnair.com/ffpcluben/Introduce/Join/Default.aspx .

Airline partners: Hungarian Airlines. So if you fly to Hungary from China a lot, you're in good shape.

Hotels: Shangri-la and HNA Hotels

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Xiamen Airlines is a particularly strange. The sign up page is entirely in Chinese, but once you've signed up you can choose to proceed in English. So basically, things get easier once you've signed up, which you can only do if you already speak Chinese. Not to worry, as unless you live in Xiamen you probably can't accumulate enough points to make it worth it. They have no airline partners and the hotel discounts are pretty minimal. Nonethless you can sign up here.

http://www.xiamenair.com.cn/4lcjl/index_zxsq.asp

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Sichuan Airlines' program is fairly limited although relatively easy to use. Their only real hotel or airlines partner is China Southern, but only for flights out of Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, and Shenzhen. You can sign up at http://www.xiamenair.com.cn/4lcjl/index_zxsq.asp .

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Keep checking in for more details as we will continue to update this until all of the major Chinese carriers are added.