Originally Posted by
mlin32
Thanks for the hints, very helpful.
Flying Economy, can speak and understand but reading/writing is a different story. So the chinese ctrip site won't get me very far.
I don't know if I have the guts to book last minute though, considering I'd plan to join a guided tour and stuff and would hate to lose the schedule i want. Perhaps a month before I'd reserve the plane ticket then.....
What route(s) are you thinking? I often fly to some pretty unimportant cities, and even they have 10+ flights/day from Beijing and Shanghai. I can't recall the last time I've seen a domestic China flight that was actually sold out. I usually end up with discounts of 30-70%, booking 2-3 days in advance, regardless of class. Full fare (0% discount) does happen but just don't take those flights unless you really want them. Bear in mind that even full isn't crazy expensive in China; in fact, full fare was the only option (for most people) until about 20 years ago.