Buying an open ended ticket

[dnoblett]

You could fly her from Seattle to Hong Kong for about $850 and take the train to Shenzhen and fly to Nanning for about $250 RT

 

Yeah, I'd do that sort of thing, but I'm not going to make my wife to it. Besides, getting her to Seattle is still $300 ticket and taking the train would be time and tickets for both of us...

 

As great as it is to live here...when you need to go someplace the numbers get big in a hurry.

 

I think I'm going to send her Delta to Guangzhou for $1700. She can get to Nanning without any problem.

 

 

Still working on getting her connection from Nanning to Guangzhou. It seems to me that the plane schedule is pretty tight for the Nanning/Guangzhou transfer...at least that's how I remember it.

Getting to Seattle by Amtrak "The Empire Builder" is $67 one-way from Libby MT $88 from West Glacier Park. The only pain is Amtrak is a 12 hr trip.

 

Sometimes you need to think ground transport.

Edited August 13, 2009 by dnoblett (see edit history)

[C4Racer]

You could fly her from Seattle to Hong Kong for about $850 and take the train to Shenzhen and fly to Nanning for about $250 RT

 

Yeah, I'd do that sort of thing, but I'm not going to make my wife to it. Besides, getting her to Seattle is still $300 ticket and taking the train would be time and tickets for both of us...

 

As great as it is to live here...when you need to go someplace the numbers get big in a hurry.

 

I think I'm going to send her Delta to Guangzhou for $1700. She can get to Nanning without any problem.

 

 

Still working on getting her connection from Nanning to Guangzhou. It seems to me that the plane schedule is pretty tight for the Nanning/Guangzhou transfer...at least that's how I remember it.

Getting to Seattle by Amtrak "The Empire Builder" is $67 one-way from Libby MT $88 from West Glacier Park. The only pain is Amtrak is a 12 hr trip.

 

Sometimes you need to think ground transport.

 

Griz,

You also gotta think Chinese. My wife is the one who suggested getting to Nanning from Hong Kong via Shenzhen when we went in 2007. It is all about too expensive with her. She would rather take the train from Guangzhou to Nanning then fly. Besides you also save hotel cost with the train by getting on in the afternoon, sleeping at night and waking up in Guangzhou or Nanning at 6 am all refreshed. My wife would be upset with me if I tried to fly her between Nanning and Guangzhou. I've tried and for saving money we have always taken the train. Her comments would be, "Are you rich? We don't have too much money. Flying is 'tai gui le'. Ask her what she would like, you might be surprised. Hong Kong is different we would have taken the bus, but safety reason we choose to fly.

Edited August 13, 2009 by C4Racer (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

Also about my Amtrak suggestion.

 

You could ride the train to Seattle with her a few days before the international flight, and do a vacation, perhaps visit China Town, and the see her off on the China flight. Then do the same when she comes back.

[Missingyou]

How about Hainan Airlines? I took that last year twice directly from Seattle to Beijing. Duration was great, 10.5 hours. Pilot said the wind was helping though. I must comment that though flight ride was comfortable and meals were yummy, but flight attendents were too young, not very helpful at times.

[griz326]

I've tried every variation I could come up with and it costs $1600-1900 USD to get to Guangzhou + $100 to Nanning. I even tried flying out of Calgary, but the USD prices were the same.

 

Then I tried a 1-way ticket which in all but one case were FAR MORE EXPENSIVE than a RT ticket - $2800-$5400 USD for cheapest way. In the case of the one less expensive fare I found, it was just shy of $1300 USD - measly savings of $400.

 

I'm just going to book a Delta flight out of Kalispell. The good thing about that is if something goes wrong like missing a connection, you won't have to change each ticket in the path at $100/a pop. I booked through one of the online sites and missed my first connection...so I've experienced that. I don't want that to happen to wife.

 

Gotta get her a credit card.

 

BTW - Thanks for all of the suggestions. I looked into each option, but it boils down to the price of living at the end of the line.

[Guest Tony n Terrific]

Have you checked flying into Shanghai then buying a domestic ticket from Shanghai to Nanning? I did this last April and paid just over a G note r/t I saved over $350 compared Dayton to Nanning thru Chicago and Guangzhou to Nanning. I cut off about 9 hours flight/wait time by doing this. She will have to fly out of a different airport in Shanghai. The NO. 1 bus will get her there for 30 RMB.

I used ctrip.com. for the domestic carrier service. You can use paypal for speedy service.

Here are a couple China domestic links that may help you. Good luck.

 

http://english.ctrip.com/index.asp

 

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-flights/

Edited August 15, 2009 by Tony n Terrific (see edit history)

[griz326]

Have you checked flying into Shanghai then buying a domestic ticket from Shanghai to Nanning?

 

Like I said, I tried every variation I could think of.

[Guest Tony n Terrific]

Good. I am happy that you looked at every alternative Griz. I was just trying to be helpful. I am sorry I waisted your time.

[griz326]

I am sorry I waisted your time.

 

Not a problem...it's just the cost of living here, I guess.

 

The things that really surprised me were how close every alternative was in cost. You never really saved cash; you just invested time and inconvenience to make up the difference...which was never a substantial difference. ...and the cost of 1-way tickets vs RT flabbergasted me; in some cases they were even more expensive than RT.