Welcome to FT,
loves2travel. Nice informative first post. Keep it up!! ^
Originally Posted by moondog
Ctrip just recently, it seems, has begun accepting foreign plastic for a 2% surcharge. However, the one time I tried (about 2 weeks ago) I wasn't able to get my card to work on their web site.
I tried ctrip about 2 months ago with my USA-issued CC and it didn't work then either. Hopefully they get the capability to start accepting USA-cards, this would be extremely useful and the first site to start offering this would get boatloads of business IMHO.
Originally Posted by iahphx
Then the question becomes how much to pay. It looks to me like the system is set up on a "percentage discount" basis. What's the best discount one can usually obtain? 30% seems pretty good; 50% looks difficult, but possible if you plan ahead and are flexible.
My Chinese colleauge got 80% off on a PEK-HRB (Harbin) flight a couple days after news broke of the toxic chemical spill on the Songhua River. Seems like so many people wanted to get OUT of Harbin that Air China flew 747s PEK-HRB to get everybody out. Obviously nobody was flying into HRB, he said the 747 was less than 10% full, but the prices sure were low. That's as big of a discount as he'd ever seen he said. Naturally there was no discount whatsoever from HRB-PEK for those wanting out. When I flew to Harbin about 2-3 weeks later I got ~50% discount. Normally 60% is the biggest discount I ever see on the websites, whether travel agents can be cheaper, I don't know.
Originally Posted by iahphx
And then which airline do you fly? Any to avoid? Which ones to prefer?
I personally will stick to Air China from now on. Their birds seem newer (at least in my experience). Also I had a bad experience on my last China Southern flight. On a 2-eingine MD-80/82 they flew the whole flight with one engine out (and no the engine didn't go out mid-flight which would be understandable, the engine started and ended broke as evidenced by a mechanic who got on a ladder and looked specifically at that engine after we landed............and then they proceeded to re-board the flight to take off for the next destination). Needless to say I will never be flying them again when I am in China.
Originally Posted by iahphx
Finally, if you're transiting to an international flight (in my case at Beijing), how much time should you leave for an inbound or outbound connection? Are nonstop flight times from the US reliable enough to, say, plan on a 2-hour connection (for instance, do wind conditions make the scheduled flight times only an educated guess)? And are Chinese flights reliable enough that it's safe to book a 2-hour return?.
In my experience, the US flights could get there anywhere from an hour early to an hour late if there are no delays in the US. As far as domestic China flights, those things seem to get cancelled all the time, they don't seem to be as reliable as flights in the US. But I would assume if they cancel the flight they will get you on the next flight no problem.
One other thing that my Chinese colleague told me. He said that the way they price airfare in China is that a FULL FARE Economy ticket costs 1 yuan per kilometer in distance traveled. I looked at a few sample city pairs and for the most part this is fairly accurate (maybe +/- 10% in price, with the exception of extremely short flights). The discounts are taken from that full fare.
moondog referenced a great thread above where he made a table of sample domestic China airfares. It was very useful if you want a ballpark figure for airfares. BTW
moondog, if you ever want a nomination for FT China Forum Moderator, I'd love to put my vote in for you. Your posts are honestly the most helpful posts ever regarding anything relating to China. You are to China what
slippahs is to Hawaii, and as far as I am concerned the 2 of you are the most helpful destination-specific FTers around! Keep up the good work and thanks for all the help and insight you've provided over the years!! ^