steveandrong Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 (edited) Rongs' daughter wants to go back soon to attend the wedding of one her friends. Who has been back to China recently and where did you get your tickets through? I always bought well in advance of my trip when I was traveling.....this was just kinda sprung on me yesterday, so I know that short notice is not working on my side. Edited July 16, 2011 by steveandrong (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beachey Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 You might want to try: www.flychina.com www.ctrip.com (there is a link for English) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelt Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 Rongs' daughter wants to go back soon to attend the wedding of one her friends. Who has been back to China recently and where did you get your tickets through? I always bought well in advance of my trip when I was traveling.....this was just kinda sprung on me yesterday, so I know that short notice is not working on my side.My wife is in China now and we used www.cheapoair.com and found the best rates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yuehan123 Posted July 16, 2011 Report Share Posted July 16, 2011 (edited) My wife returned to China in mid-May on about 10 days notice. We used flychina.com (iflychina.net for Chinese first page) and overnight visa services. Passport went in Thursday's mail and was returned Monday afternoon. Good thing. The Tuesday departure ticket was already purchased. (Tuesday travel was the cheapest that week). Orlando to Hong Kong r/t $1200, or so. All taxes and fees included. We found out two things. First, flychina has a web site limit of about 12 flight searches per 24 hours. After that, they lock you out. Refreshing the browser, Clearing cookies and deleting history did not help. Second, we got a few dollars off by calling one of the travel agents on the first page of iflychina.net. Ok, we learned three things. The Chinese only looking front page of iflychina.net defaults to the English search page of flychina.com after you enter the search criteria. Fine, we learned 4 things, or more. When I called to change the ticket's return date, none of the agents on duty that day at the travel agency spoke English. Not so important, I called and waited and waited on hold for a special agent at a Delta Desk called "International Manual Re-Issue." When the first line telephone representative tells you 'sorry,sir that is a non-changeable, non-refundable ticket and sorry, sir I cannot transfer you to International Manual re-isssue only the issuing travel agency can change the ticket." Persevere, the bulk ticket purchased at a travel agency is changeable by the airline. I changed it. Why Hong Kong? It's lots cheaper, including buying a separate e-ticket r/t to wherever. Right now, for 7/25 returning 8/8 Chicago (chi) to Xian (xiy) on flychina is US $2,081 per adult (taxes and fees included United E-Ticket. Chi to Hong Kong is US $1,323 per adult (taxes and fees included)Delta E-Ticket. Trouble is, direct from Hong Kong flights to somewhere in mainland China are hard to catch. R/T Hong Kong to Xian is about $2100 CNY, but looks like only before 1:30 pm. My wife spent the night on the bench there. Not such a great option. She also arrived too late to catch any bus or train to Shenzhen or Guangzhou. "Honey, (I said) stay in the hotel." Wife's reply ( as some Chinese wives do) "No, thank you, it's too expensive." Daughters? That's different. Edit to add the flychina.com r/t hong kong to xian is at least $580 USD. The $2100 cny fare I quoted is from China Southern's website. Edited July 16, 2011 by yuehan123 (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy W Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 My wife returned to China in mid-May on about 10 days notice. We used flychina.com (iflychina.net for Chinese first page) and overnight visa services. Passport went in Thursday's mail and was returned Monday afternoon. Good thing. The Tuesday departure ticket was already purchased. (Tuesday travel was the cheapest that week). Orlando to Hong Kong r/t $1200, or so. All taxes and fees included. We found out two things. First, flychina has a web site limit of about 12 flight searches per 24 hours. After that, they lock you out. Refreshing the browser, Clearing cookies and deleting history did not help. Second, we got a few dollars off by calling one of the travel agents on the first page of iflychina.net. Ok, we learned three things. The Chinese only looking front page of iflychina.net defaults to the English search page of flychina.com after you enter the search criteria. Fine, we learned 4 things, or more. When I called to change the ticket's return date, none of the agents on duty that day at the travel agency spoke English. Not so important, I called and waited and waited on hold for a special agent at a Delta Desk called "International Manual Re-Issue." When the first line telephone representative tells you 'sorry,sir that is a non-changeable, non-refundable ticket and sorry, sir I cannot transfer you to International Manual re-isssue only the issuing travel agency can change the ticket." Persevere, the bulk ticket purchased at a travel agency is changeable by the airline. I changed it. Why Hong Kong? It's lots cheaper, including buying a separate e-ticket r/t to wherever. Right now, for 7/25 returning 8/8 Chicago (chi) to Xian (xiy) on flychina is US $2,081 per adult (taxes and fees included United E-Ticket. Chi to Hong Kong is US $1,323 per adult (taxes and fees included)Delta E-Ticket. Trouble is, direct from Hong Kong flights to somewhere in mainland China are hard to catch. R/T Hong Kong to Xian is about $2100 CNY, but looks like only before 1:30 pm. My wife spent the night on the bench there. Not such a great option. She also arrived too late to catch any bus or train to Shenzhen or Guangzhou. "Honey, (I said) stay in the hotel." Wife's reply ( as some Chinese wives do) "No, thank you, it's too expensive." Daughters? That's different. Edit to add the flychina.com r/t hong kong to xian is at least $580 USD. The $2100 cny fare I quoted is from China Southern's website. Connecting flights from Hong Kong don't seem to connect very well. I was stuck there for 24 hours waiting for the flight to Nanning. Yes, the hotels at the airport are ridiculously expensive. There is a "premium lounge" at the airport where you get food, a chair that you can sleep in, storage for your luggage, and access to a private restroom with shower for U$D75, more or less (it's by the hour). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsap seui Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Not much of anything cheap about China right now. School is out and everyone is traveling, even to America, and from America. In mid September it'll change, as it always does. I just spent around the $5,500 mark to fly 3 of us to Dulles airport from Shenyang, non-stop from Beijing. FUnny thing was, we changed the dates to earlier as we are hankerin' to get "home" and they didn't charge us one cent to change either flight...guess they had already got all the blood out of us they thought they could. If we had waited until mid September it would have been half the price....aiiieee wa...we just want to go home and start playin' house together. Steve, I used to play internet bingo with all the sites for my various flights to China, then I found I could just go to my little bitty AAA office in lil' ol' Bedford, Pennsyltucky and they took care of my visas and got me flights as cheap or cheaper than I could ever find on all them fancy sites....go figger. Off season starts in September, if she can wait. tsap seui Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beachey Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Connecting flights from Hong Kong don't seem to connect very well. I was stuck there for 24 hours waiting for the flight to Nanning. Yes, the hotels at the airport are ridiculously expensive. There is a "premium lounge" at the airport where you get food, a chair that you can sleep in, storage for your luggage, and access to a private restroom with shower for U$D75, more or less (it's by the hour). The cheapest method might be to fly into Hong Kong, take the train to Guangzhou and then fly Guangzhou to Xi'an. This is certainly not the most convenient but not that hard for a Chinese speaker. She would have to pack light. The one thing I don't know is if a green card is enough to get back from the Mainland to Hong Kong. Normally, Chinese need the special Hong Kong visa, even their passport is no good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveandrong Posted July 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Well, this is for Rong's 19 y.o. daughter who has never travelled on her own, so I tried to make it as simple as I could....straight from chicago to beijing and then on to xi'an....plenty of time between flights for her to do all the immigration business and figure out where to go and how to do....(i remember my first time doing all that with a bit of a language barrier)....anyway, return is the same as going....just everything in reverse.....had to pay just a bit more to keep from having to visit additional airports in the U.S., but still kept it under 2 G's......was like half that when i went there my first time 5 years ago, and it was in the summer too, august to be exact.....turned out to be cheapo air still had the best deal...tried to deal with united direct, but they wouldn't negotiate on the price.....seems to me, a ticket sold is a ticket sold...but they wouldn't budge on their price.....still flying united, just cheaper through cheapo air......thanks everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beachey Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Well, this is for Rong's 19 y.o. daughter who has never travelled on her own, so I tried to make it as simple as I could....straight from chicago to beijing and then on to xi'an....plenty of time between flights for her to do all the immigration business and figure out where to go and how to do....(i remember my first time doing all that with a bit of a language barrier)....anyway, return is the same as going....just everything in reverse.....had to pay just a bit more to keep from having to visit additional airports in the U.S., but still kept it under 2 G's......was like half that when i went there my first time 5 years ago, and it was in the summer too, august to be exact.....turned out to be cheapo air still had the best deal...tried to deal with united direct, but they wouldn't negotiate on the price.....seems to me, a ticket sold is a ticket sold...but they wouldn't budge on their price.....still flying united, just cheaper through cheapo air......thanks everyone! One thing that might be a little tricky is she will come into Terminal 3 (new Terminal) and might have to transfer to Terminal 1 or 2 (Terminal 2 is the old international terminal). http://en.bcia.com.cn/guide/transfer_i_d.shtml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsap seui Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Well, this is for Rong's 19 y.o. daughter who has never travelled on her own, so I tried to make it as simple as I could....straight from chicago to beijing and then on to xi'an....plenty of time between flights for her to do all the immigration business and figure out where to go and how to do....(i remember my first time doing all that with a bit of a language barrier)....anyway, return is the same as going....just everything in reverse.....had to pay just a bit more to keep from having to visit additional airports in the U.S., but still kept it under 2 G's......was like half that when i went there my first time 5 years ago, and it was in the summer too, august to be exact.....turned out to be cheapo air still had the best deal...tried to deal with united direct, but they wouldn't negotiate on the price.....seems to me, a ticket sold is a ticket sold...but they wouldn't budge on their price.....still flying united, just cheaper through cheapo air......thanks everyone! Amen, easy...I looked at that United flight out of Chicago to Beijing this time too Steve. I just like to fly direct from Dulles to Beijing (131/2 hours) and get er done. Then make the connection to home in China. When dealing with United nowadays, remember...they and China Air are partners, as well as Continental. China Air out of Dulles to Beijing is flight 8897, back to Dulles flight 8898...United is flights 897 and 898. I am sure you have the same type set up out of Chicago to Beijing with those companies. The games they play. tsap seui Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bullmastiff Posted July 17, 2011 Report Share Posted July 17, 2011 Jes, it's so damn expensive nowdays.When we took PEK to ORD , man , a lot of visiting high school students from wealthy Chinese parents. Good thing was I got bumped to the business class. I spent $1600 for Lao Po 's ticket one way. I was upset . But, after arrival in ORD , felt I made the right decision. She speaks no English , it'd have been a trouble and taken a long time to await for a Mandarin speaking officer to come out to process her greencard papers. I don't know why we don't consider Mandarin to be the most important foreign language to study in the United States , instead of Spanish . China has the strongest economy today in the world . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjr818 Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 I have used two travel agencies in previous travels. One was Nova Travel in Seattle I think, and the other is Travel Pack or Travel Pak in Boston. Ask for Sansan at Nova Travel or Peter at Travel Pak. I have always travelled to JFK, HKG and arriving CKG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steveandrong Posted July 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 (edited) well.....she got there safe and sound....that is after united's 3 hour delay and air china's connecting flight 2 hour delay....but she's a happy camper to be back with her friends after 2 1/2 years of not seeing them. and yes tsap....it is united flight 851 to beijing and flight 850 back to chicago....has been like that since i first started going to china in '06 Edited July 22, 2011 by steveandrong (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Posted July 22, 2011 Report Share Posted July 22, 2011 well.....she got there safe and sound....that is after united's 3 hour delay and air china's connecting flight 2 hour delay....but she's a happy camper to be back with her friends after 2 1/2 years of not seeing them. and yes tsap....it is united flight 851 to beijing and flight 850 back to chicago....has been like that since i first started going to china in '06Glad to hear she made it alright! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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