Rachel + Will = Together Forever Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 We are considering purchasing our flight tickets through ELong, mostly because they are pretty inexpensive. But for some reason it seems like you can't view all the details of the flight(s) until *after* you book?! We're planning to go from Guilin to Shanghai, and then from Shanghai to Chicago... and the flight from Shanghai to Chicago appears to be a direct flight from looking at the booking info on the website, but that doesn't seem likely in actuality to me. I'd like to view the seating arrangement, flight info, etc., before I book, if at all possible. Has anyone else successfully booked through ELong before? How did that go?Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengdu4me Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Websites like ELong do not actually "book" tickets online. Your booking request is just that...A request. They will contact you after you book letting you know what flight they can get you on. Chances are it won't be the low price you thought it was going to be. If you read the booking policy, you will see that nothing is confirmed until after they reply to you. And while they are wasting time contacting you and you them, the seat will be gone and they will quote you a different flight/price in the middle of the conversation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel + Will = Together Forever Posted December 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Websites like ELong do not actually "book" tickets online. Your booking request is just that...A request. They will contact you after you book letting you know what flight they can get you on. Chances are it won't be the low price you thought it was going to be. If you read the booking policy, you will see that nothing is confirmed until after they reply to you. And while they are wasting time contacting you and you them, the seat will be gone and they will quote you a different flight/price in the middle of the conversation.Thanks for the tips, chengdu4me. I just found all that out when I had a Chinese friend give them a call for me... kind of disappointing, but we found out another solution. A relative of Will's here has a friend who works at a Korean travel agency that can get us tickets from here to Chicago very decently priced, but we have a layover in South Korea, of course... Is a layover in Korea or Tokyo a problem at all for K1 holders? Shouldn't be any more of a problem than it would be for me, which is none at all, right?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tony n Terrific Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Try these also. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-flights/ http://www.chinahighlights.com/hotel/fligh...amp;pricey=1750 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpedbored Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Websites like ELong do not actually "book" tickets online. Your booking request is just that...A request. They will contact you after you book letting you know what flight they can get you on. Chances are it won't be the low price you thought it was going to be. If you read the booking policy, you will see that nothing is confirmed until after they reply to you. And while they are wasting time contacting you and you them, the seat will be gone and they will quote you a different flight/price in the middle of the conversation.Thanks for the tips, chengdu4me. I just found all that out when I had a Chinese friend give them a call for me... kind of disappointing, but we found out another solution. A relative of Will's here has a friend who works at a Korean travel agency that can get us tickets from here to Chicago very decently priced, but we have a layover in South Korea, of course... Is a layover in Korea or Tokyo a problem at all for K1 holders? Shouldn't be any more of a problem than it would be for me, which is none at all, right?!When my wife came here 5 1/2 years ago I booked her a ticket from Nanning to Shanghai then from there to Seattle with a 3 hour layover in Incheon Korea. She had no problems with the Korean stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whome? Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Try ctrip.com, qunar.com, and flychina.com. Elong and Qunar are known to have one price listed but the "seats not available" when you try to book but sometimes you get lucky. BTW - American Airlines and United Airlines have direct flights from Chicago to Shanghai and vice-versa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 http://www.vayama.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokiessky Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 http://www.vayama.com I booked 4 different flights on Elong and it was good. I got the price i clicked on. I will use them next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xiaofeizhu Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 Websites like ELong do not actually "book" tickets online. Your booking request is just that...A request. They will contact you after you book letting you know what flight they can get you on. Chances are it won't be the low price you thought it was going to be. If you read the booking policy, you will see that nothing is confirmed until after they reply to you. And while they are wasting time contacting you and you them, the seat will be gone and they will quote you a different flight/price in the middle of the conversation.Thanks for the tips, chengdu4me. I just found all that out when I had a Chinese friend give them a call for me... kind of disappointing, but we found out another solution. A relative of Will's here has a friend who works at a Korean travel agency that can get us tickets from here to Chicago very decently priced, but we have a layover in South Korea, of course... Is a layover in Korea or Tokyo a problem at all for K1 holders? Shouldn't be any more of a problem than it would be for me, which is none at all, right?! Carl already said that Korea is no problem. Japan is no problem as well. My hubby's sister is still living in Japan so we took our layover in Osaka. We tried to time it to have the longest layover possible because Japan offers a "shore pass" to Chinese so they can even get out of the airport. It's like a transit visa that is issued at the time of entry to Japan. It's good for three days and the great thing about that is we were able to spend a good 5 hours with my sister in law before coming over (we had to catch a train to Kyoto so that took some time). You will have no problem getting off and will get a 30 day tourist visa should you decide on this route. It's a great way to see Japan, even if only for a few hours. I am not sure if he will be able to leave the airport if you transfer in Korea, but if you are going to have quite a long layover, you might as well have some fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam and Fen Posted December 2, 2009 Report Share Posted December 2, 2009 I used elong to book my SO's ticket.did not have any problems. quoted fare was what we got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel + Will = Together Forever Posted December 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 Okay, we booked our tickets. Guilin-Seoul-Chicago. Unfortunately we *do* have a very long layover in Seoul... but the tickets were cheap (we went with the local agency here.) So, my other question is whether or not K1 US visa holders may enter and exit the airport there in Seoul, or if that would cause any problems? Would he need a separate Korean pass/visa? US passport holders do not require a visa for up to 90 days in South Korea. http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1018.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpedbored Posted December 3, 2009 Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 I would check with the Korean consulate but I don't think he can leave the international area of the airport without a visa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel + Will = Together Forever Posted December 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 thanks... I can't find any info online... it seems like the Korean Embassy doesn't have their own website in China?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
warpedbored Posted December 3, 2009 Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 I looked at the visa waiver program. US citizens staying less than 30 days don't need a visa for South Korea. China is not on the list. It may be fairly easy to get a transit visa for your sweet heart seeing as how he has a visa and plane ticket through to the US. Again I would contact the Korean consulate in China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel + Will = Together Forever Posted December 3, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2009 I looked at the visa waiver program. US citizens staying less than 30 days don't need a visa for South Korea. China is not on the list. It may be fairly easy to get a transit visa for your sweet heart seeing as how he has a visa and plane ticket through to the US. Again I would contact the Korean consulate in China.Thank you for that info, we're going to do that! I'll post what we find out later... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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