Looking for advice on how to secure a reasonable fare from DEN to PEK later part of June 2006. Was watching fares in January at $1268 which evaporated and are now $1548. Wife and kids are on UA award tix so prefer to fly UA plus I am Premier on UA. Outbound flexible mid-June. Return on July 1 with family.

Any ideas?

You might have to a little creative to fly then, but I don't think you'll have to pay more than $900 pp, if you play your cards right. I suggest you use gatewaylax.com to get a feel for the bulk fare market, then call a few agents (they needn't be DEN based). I can usually find *A flights during the summer, even when UA is tight. In addition to UA, there is AC, OZ, NH, and the CA codeshares.

You might also check UA via ORD to PVG, even if you have to buy separate tix to a destination that is ORD-elligable and tickets between PVG and PEK. (Unfortunately, ORD-PEK is a tough flight to book during the summer, but ORD-PVG was easy last year and should be even better this year because AA starts service on the same route soon.)

Have you used GatewayLAX? They did have lower fares listed pre-tax ($1115) so hard to say what all-in cost will be. Could not call since they are closed for weekend. Any other consolidators you can recommend?

Still seems high since we paid an AA intro fare two years ago of $780 early June.

I will never book with them because they once tried to charge me a $20 "research" fee just to put an itin on hold that I had found on their website.

But, they are the only Gateway agent I know of that has a website and that is of some value.

Another way to save some money on this route is to check out what Air China is charging on its flights from SFO as they codeshare with United on the SFO/PEK route. For instance, I'm flying one way in biz class from SFO-PEK in a month on United metal but booked my ticket under the Air China flight number. Moral of story, my biz class ticket was $1500 vs. $4500 that United.com was charging for the same ticket. It was also the same for coach seats.