If you frequently fly solo between Shanghai and Tokyo, your best options are to fly from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (SHA) to Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND) using China Eastern for morning flights and ANA for afternoon flights.

How I decide on what best is

As I mentioned in my best SHA/PVG-HKG flights post, SHA is always better than PVG. If you want to fly to Tokyo, flights at the times you want is the only factor worth considering as there are very few options:

  • Morning: Shanghai Airlines and China Eastern (SkyTeam)
  • Noon-ish: Japan Airlines (OneWorld) 12:45pm flight, but the cost is prohibitive; often 2.5x China Eastern.
  • Afternoon: ANA (Star Alliance)

There aren't enough flights to make you lean towards a particular airline alliance I think.

Why Haneda (HND) instead of Narita (NRT)

Haneda is a lot quicker to downtown than Narita. If you're familiar with Shanghai, it's a bit like Hongqiao airport (SHA) versus Pudong airport (PVG). You will save at least 1hr door-to-door time with SHA being 30 mins less travel time than PVG, and 30 mins with HND being closer to downtown than NRT.

Seats

Only Japan Airlines meets my preferred 18" seat width criteria, but doubling (or more) the price of competitors is too much for a 3 hour flight. China Eastern and ANA offer 17.3" economy seat width. You will get less on Shanghai Airlines than China Eastern due to older planes.

Takeaway

You'll just have to "rough it out" for 3 hours flying from SHA to HND. Shanghai Airlines, China Eastern and ANA are the most reasonable choices for comfort and price flying out of SHA to HND. If you can't wait 3 hours and need to eat on the plane, then ANA will undeniably offer better food than Shanghai Airlines or China Eastern.