Point for CA (plus an extra half point for better schedule times all overall, as you state)
Unfortunately, you don't state the final destination - but coming from Europe, in (almost) all cases to East Asia, PEK will be the shorter flight time all overall. When travelling as 2 people together, I'd probably even prefer CA's seats over CIs if you want some interaction. Both seats are their newest edition of their respective fleets. Seat-wise, the CI product is better (1-2-1 instead of 2-2-2), however the CA product is perfectly fine for sleeping (full flat) and the difference isn't THAT much.
