Cheap Tickets to China
Jan 13, 2025 | 5:18 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,962
Cheap Tickets to China
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.
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.
Jan 13, 2025 | 7:05 pm
#2
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: HNL
Posts: 1,167
Good question... I checked the World Journal website and couldn't find a classifieds section (only Google inserted ads). I guess you could call one of the local travel agencies to see if consolidator fares are still a thing.
Here's the first result from a search:
https://fantatours.com/other-services/airline-tickets/
Here's the first result from a search:
https://fantatours.com/other-services/airline-tickets/
Jan 14, 2025 | 1:40 am
#3
Join Date: May 2010
Location: AVP & PEK
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$1360 USA-China R/T isn't even that bad considering what it was just a few months ago.
No, it's not the $400 tickets we saw pre-Covid, but prices are finally coming down.
Also, if you can make it down to LA, LAX-PVG R/T on UA can be had for $969 in BE, and $1129 in E.
Jan 14, 2025 | 4:49 pm
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
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We have a long running thread on this general topic here:
More flights [ex-China to N America and Europe]
The short of it is that cheap fares to China are available from countries that have customer friendly bilateral air services agreements with China, but the US is not one of these countries at present.
More flights [ex-China to N America and Europe]
The short of it is that cheap fares to China are available from countries that have customer friendly bilateral air services agreements with China, but the US is not one of these countries at present.
Last edited by moondog; Jan 14, 2025 at 4:55 pm
Jan 14, 2025 | 5:03 pm
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,962
We have a long running thread on this general topic here:
More flights [ex-China to N America and Europe]
The short of it is that cheap fares to China are available from countries that have customer friendly bilateral air services agreements with China, but the US is not one of these countries at present.
More flights [ex-China to N America and Europe]
The short of it is that cheap fares to China are available from countries that have customer friendly bilateral air services agreements with China, but the US is not one of these countries at present.
Jan 14, 2025 | 5:09 pm
#6
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Jan 14, 2025 | 6:14 pm
#7
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Jan 14, 2025 | 6:35 pm
#8
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Star Alliance has some January business class deals, & Sky Lux travel services has some global one-way & RT pricing on Asia now.
The CNY travel season has started, China media is saying that in 40 days of CNY there will be 9 billion (B) cross regional trips, includes car, bus, train & Air
The CNY travel season has started, China media is saying that in 40 days of CNY there will be 9 billion (B) cross regional trips, includes car, bus, train & Air
Jan 15, 2025 | 7:46 pm
#9
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: TAS
Programs: A3*G, UA 1K
Posts: 9,250
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.
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.
Jan 16, 2025 | 1:28 pm
#11
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: LON
Programs: BAEC
Posts: 5,142
I think the internet has done for many of the Chinatown travel agents.
Even Omega Travel seems to be a shadow of it's former self, and now seems to focus only on outbound from China package tours
http://uk.omegatravel.net/
They used to have a flight booking engine which was just as functional as Expedia and others.
Ours Travel which was always more Taiwan focussed still seems to be trading but again is focussed on packages inbound to Taiwan
https://www.ourstravel.com/
Even Omega Travel seems to be a shadow of it's former self, and now seems to focus only on outbound from China package tours
http://uk.omegatravel.net/
They used to have a flight booking engine which was just as functional as Expedia and others.
Ours Travel which was always more Taiwan focussed still seems to be trading but again is focussed on packages inbound to Taiwan
https://www.ourstravel.com/
Jan 16, 2025 | 2:30 pm
#12
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 46,376
While that's probably true for the most part, as long as airlines exist that hopelessly suck at doing their own distribution (or even working with OTAs), some sort of market for those guys will presumably remain. For example, if I were to find a ticket I wanted on CI or BR from the US to Asia, I would seek out a bucket shop to book it for me, regardless of how much of a discount they are able to pass on because then I wouldn't need to deal with crappy websites or calling unattended customer service phone numbers. Such agents can also be useful for RTW fares (I haven't booked one of those in a while, but I never had the patience to try to piece compliant itineraries together on my own).
Jan 17, 2025 | 10:51 am
#13
Join Date: Oct 2014
Posts: 3,285
It's not a question of being bad at distributing their own tickets. Just that some airlines -- in Asia particularly -- developed the practice of using bucket shops to sell deep discount fares because selling them directly would have complicated selling higher fares directly.
And of course the practice continues today with OTAs replacing bucket shops.
And of course the practice continues today with OTAs replacing bucket shops.
May 1, 2025 | 7:51 am
#14
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 162
Will be interesting to watch over the coming days and weeks, but it seems it was a good idea to book the flight tickets to China one and a half month in advance.
I have booked BUD-XIY (T5 with the brand new unique one-stop-transfer)-PKX with China Eastern, as always with flights from BUD operated by Shanghai Airlines, for 172,50 CHF via Skyscanner and Cheaptickets.ch (TRAVIX-Group affiliate).
Now the price for the same flight has almost doubled, and we are still 3 weeks out from the day of departure.
I have booked BUD-XIY (T5 with the brand new unique one-stop-transfer)-PKX with China Eastern, as always with flights from BUD operated by Shanghai Airlines, for 172,50 CHF via Skyscanner and Cheaptickets.ch (TRAVIX-Group affiliate).
Now the price for the same flight has almost doubled, and we are still 3 weeks out from the day of departure.
Last edited by wwtknoyb; May 1, 2025 at 8:02 am
