Originally Posted by moondog
Special fares and packages to HK are common, but unlike intra-China fares, most require RT travel (i.e. no open jaw). For example, PEK-HKG return is y1760 right now:
http://www.ctrip.com/supermarket/Fli....asp?dcity=bjs
Plus, Dragon Air has a some nice ongoing promos that let you fly from PEK or SHA to HKG for 2388 (iirc), including two or three nights at a nice hotel, based on double occupancy. But, again, I think open jaws are tough to work (though it would be worth calling).
Given all that, you might want to buy PEK-PVG oneway and a separate PVG-HKG rt.
And, of course you could always do the Shenzhen shuffle (whole process takes around 1.5 hours), but flying into HKG is so much nicer that it warrants a premium over Shenzhen (maybe $50 per person) IMO.
Thank you for the reply moondog. I like the look of that Y1760 PEK-HKG RT, however I can't find where that rate is mentioned in English on the ctrip site (and the site can't book HKG tickets). With that type of price, I may just book a PEK-HKG RT and then a HKG-SHA RT and toss out the return for each. That would be about US$400 for PEK-HKG-SHA, which is a lot less than anything I've been able to find elsewhere.
I would much rather fly in/out of HKG than Shenzhen. Since the ferry costs about US$40 each way, it looks like I wouldn't save that much over using HKG.
I also looked at the Dragon Air package site and that seems to have some good deals. If I end up not doing the throw-away ticket idea, I'll likely book one of the packages through Dragon Air (you can get RT plane ticket plus 2 nights at the Peninsula for about what I had thought just the RT plane ticket would cost). The only problem I have with flying PEK-SHA just to pick up the SHA-HKG flight is that I would be trouble if the PEK-SHA flight was cancelled/delayed.
Again, thank you very much for your reply. You sure are an asset to this board.