China internal flights
 

I have been researching the flights for china internally with the routes
Beijing - Xian
Xian - Shanghai
Shanghai - Guangzhou

It appears that booking with the airline direct is cheaper than the agents (elong, ctrip etc)

Elong are 750 wheras the direct price is 300 odd. The difference is that the fares are fully restricted and non refundable, is it possibel to get these fares from agents?

My suggestion is that you ask a moderator to move your thread to the China forum, I think you'll get a better response there.

no need for research; just do it (China affords such luxuries so go with the flow)

As Moondog has said many times, the best price (60% or so off list) are only found 5-10 days before the flight.

My preference (have only done it once) is for yoee.com. They have an English section and you can book internal flights on line. The ticket pickup works off your passport number that you supply when making the booking.

yoee.com is indeed a useful website. I am looking at mid-June fares for my PEK-SHA-SZX-PEK trip, and there are some very low fares available there already right now (e.g. ￥450 for PEK-SHA on CA). However, at the moment the availability is limited to early morning or late night departures. Should I wait till the lowest fares open up on the other flights with more convenient departure times, or is it better grab the ￥450 fare now?
Thanks.

I would wait.

I'd wait, even do walk up
 

found decent rates, last minute, walk up seems to work well in China...

they seem to just be going up!

Can't really risk walk up, what if they sell out?

what are your preferred times and dates? when do you arrive in china? ctrip accepts international cards now btw.

Xian to Shanghai on the 25th July

I arrive china 15th July.

I can't really be flexible on the dates unfortunatley.

first or business domestic flights
 

Is anyone aware of a reliable site that offers discounts on first or business flights within China? Thank you in advance

The delta between economy class prices and first class prices for intra-China flights is nowhere near the delta as we see here in the US. For instance, I just booked a flight on Air China going from Beijing to Shanghai for two weeks from now where the economy fare was $168 and the first class fare was $239. My colleagues in China tell me that that is typical for how the fare structure works.

So I'd encourage you to just check out the first class fare for the flights you are interested in - try it, you just might like it!

I guess they forgot to tell you that it's usually (but, certainly not always) possible to do the same for $80.

Oooh - this I want to make sure I get - the difference is $71, but are you saying I could have had the whole thing (one first class one way fare) for $80 total?

The downside of booking in advance from here in the US, perhaps.

no, i was talking about flying economy.