Greetings, all! This is my first post in here.

I'm traveling to Beijing, China, and my dates are provisionally May 26 through June 10, 2006. I've got a Travelocity farewatcher keeping an eye on prices, and it's from there that my question comes.

My friends and I would like to buy our tickets soon and get it out of the way, but the cheapest that we can find as of right now is on Orbitz, with a round trip for $1061. The Farewatcher on Travelocity has fares for $627.20 round trip, but all the travel, both going and returning, has to be completed by May 18.

My question is this: Should I wait to buy my tickets in the hope that a similar deal will be offered that will encompass my dates? The farewatcher has been giving me lots of deals for the last few months, and they've all been for dates that are too soon for me to book, but if I can get similar fares by waiting a few weeks to buy the tickets, I'll do that.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I guess many travel agents located around Chinatowns have better deals for the air fare to China than the online database. You can get contact with them by phone, make reservations using your credit card, and finally fax necessary authorization forms to them.

Here is an agent list:
http://www.travelsuperlink.com/china_air/airtravel_us_china_agent.htm

And an up-to-date fare reference:
http://gochina.travelsuperlink.com/

It might help if we knew which country you are travelling from, preferably which city, and which dollars you are quoting prices in...

(Welcome to FT, by the way.)

Sorry, I forgot to give all of my proper information. I'm traveling from Newark, New Jersey, preferably (or LaGuardia or JFK in a pinch, or if it's significantly cheaper), and prices quoted are in USD.

Go to one of NY's many Chinatowns and pop into a few travel agents. Some friends are coming out on almost the exact same dates and paying $750 on KE (and they are, by no means, experienced shoppers).

I used an excellent travel agent in CA for an upcoming trip to Japan, Beijing and Hong Kong (and she saved me a bundle off of anything I could find online) but I'm sure given your location you can find one in the Chinatowns in your area. If you are interested, let me know and I can give you contact info. I'd post it here but I'm pretty sure I would get in trouble advertising...

I used an excellent travel agent in CA for an upcoming trip to Japan, Beijing and Hong Kong (and she saved me a bundle off of anything I could find online) but I'm sure given your location you can find one in the Chinatowns in your area. If you are interested, let me know and I can give you contact info. I'd post it here but I'm pretty sure I would get in trouble advertising...

nah, people plug their ta's all the time here and i've never seen any objections stated. in fact, i'll take this opportunity to once again refer my favorite ta: gateway sdf: 502.895.9878.

Good to know!

Here goes:
JJ Travel in Cupertino, CA: (408) 446-5588, Ask for Erica. Again, AMAZING!