Originally Posted by BigFlyer

Once upon a time if you knew the right travel agent in Chinatown you could get a reduced price consolidator ticket to China. Do those still exist, or is there any other way to get unofficial fare discounted tickets to China?

Seems like the fares are artificially high. Round-trip SFO to PVG on UA non-stop is a steep $1360 RT in Basic Economy. But the seating chart for tomorrow's flight which is 20 hours form now shows 172 available seats, so they're not selling many tickets at that price.