Stone Posted February 19, 2010 Report Share Posted February 19, 2010 I sometimes travel between China and US, and also within the continental US. I used to buy my tickets from travel agencies in Boston Chinatown, becuase I found they could get the best deals. Now it is no longer the case. I can almost get the exact same prices from the airline's websites and I can choose the seats right from my computer. I guess more and more experienced consumers will use the airline's own website instead of the travel agencies? Is that sort of a trend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnoblett Posted February 19, 2010 Report Share Posted February 19, 2010 I have used United the past two times to China, and a travel agent in China for the domestic flights. It started with Orbitz they can show how the international and domestic legs can fit together, I then simply booked the flights on United.com which allows multi-city with a "Ground" transport leg, so I was able to make a round trip to China with POE entry to China via one city and China Exit through a different city. Then use the flight numbers from Orbitz to have the Chinese domestic agent book domestic flights. I found that I could get the same pricing using United.com and Travel agent that I could using Orbitz, and this allowed more flexibility than using just Orbitz, such as having the domestic Chinese agent handle things like ground transport, and hotel bookings. Domestic agent I have used for all trips to China has been China Highlights (One of the oldest in China) http://www.chinahighlights.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lche195 Posted February 19, 2010 Report Share Posted February 19, 2010 I sometimes travel between China and US, and also within the continental US. I used to buy my tickets from travel agencies in Boston Chinatown, becuase I found they could get the best deals. Now it is no longer the case. I can almost get the exact same prices from the airline's websites and I can choose the seats right from my computer. I guess more and more experienced consumers will use the airline's own website instead of the travel agencies? Is that sort of a trend? I always buy from the airline's website under fare sales & special offers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broseph32 Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 When it comes to flying within china, qunar.com is always my starting point. I found they can even find me prices that beat all the best local travel agents, allow me to view other dates with ease, and since its online, no need for them to come give me the paper tickets. I guess only drawback is that it may or may not be English friendly... haven't tried... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsap seui Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 I sometimes travel between China and US, and also within the continental US. I used to buy my tickets from travel agencies in Boston Chinatown, becuase I found they could get the best deals. Now it is no longer the case. I can almost get the exact same prices from the airline's websites and I can choose the seats right from my computer. I guess more and more experienced consumers will use the airline's own website instead of the travel agencies? Is that sort of a trend? Amazingly enough, I find that I get better flight prices off of simple old Travelocity than I can get off Continentals website, but yet I get better prices off of United's website. I've used many of the suggested sites from Candle members but I never found any better prices...mainly because I won't buy a ticket whose total flight time is over 17 hours, and or has more than one stop. The trip I have next Friday I told my AAA travel agent I had found on Travelocity for Continental $837 return, she used their site and found it for $10 cheaper. Continental's website quoted the same flight for $1250, then it went to $1440. I did find out I needed to buy Continental's website ticket to get any air miles on my Continental One Pass card. Ah...yeah, sure, you betcha. Let's see now...somehow the math works out better if I don't even think about air miles, by the time they gave me a free flight, I would have still been better off by hundreds of dollars to buy tickets off of other sites. tsap seui Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Posted February 20, 2010 Report Share Posted February 20, 2010 Tsap, You can tie in your one pass account number when purchasing CA tickets through http://www.vayama.com More times than not, vayama has been cheaper then purchasing through the CA website. There have been the exceptions when CA is running a promo, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengdu4me Posted February 21, 2010 Report Share Posted February 21, 2010 An unknown little tip that I was told by a airline employee friend. If the need arises to "bump" travelers due to overbooking, they will always bump the ticket holders that DID NOT buy through the airline/airline authorized travel agencies first. And within that group, the cheapest seat holders go first until they have the space they need cleared. Just because a website/travel agency can sell tickets does not mean they are an authorized agent. MOST web based travel agencies are not authorized agents. For example: Traveler A buys a $700 ticket through the airlines website. Traveler B buys a $950 ticket through a discount website. Traveler B will get bumped and rescheduled. Traveler A gets his seat. This hardly ever makes any difference, but sometimes it can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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