I'm closing in on the end of a 5-day trip and have nothing but bad things to say about the travel experinence. I just wanted to do Shenyang plus Xi'an... back to BJ by Thur.

All the fun started Monday afternoon; boss and I were planning on Tue am, but there was only one seat (in F); I gave it to him and I flew out Mon night.

He called me at 730a Tue to inform me that he had missed his flight (on an F ticket, which I bought) due to traffic; I wanted to call BS on him, but there were airport sounds in the background.

The next morning, my cousin, J, and I were all due to meet in Xi'an. J purposefully missed his flight because of the typhoon that never happenned; meanwhile, my cousin fell into the same traffic trap as my boss and struck out on is 755 pek-xiy flight.

He didn't make it out until 230p, and only then because he figured out how to flirt with the ladies at the stand-by counter (otherwise, those gold fliers would have continued to sink him every time).

So, my cousin, J, and I all want to make it back to PEK as early as possible tomorrow (meeting ends at noon), but we're stuck with 730p in business class. While we like the latter part, ctrip called us today and told us that if we decided to retain our tickets, they would become non-refundable and non-changable.

In the past I've told all of you guys to chill out on the ticketing front... and I still maintain this position; however, I'd like to throw my hat in, insofar as this week is concerned.

I feel for you. Traffic anywhere in China is getting from bad to worst. I usually have to get to the airport so darn early that I wasted lots of precious time.
Chill-out! Yes, you said it.

It's all part of the fun of China really!

Chilling out is invariably the best option though (and not just in relation to air tickets) - often not so much because there is nothing to worry about, more that there's nothing you can actually do about whatever the situation is.

Once the CRH network gets expanded I will not bother with Chinese domestic flights at all. What a great experience that train has been so far. ^

Isn't this week's dificulty have anything to do with the New Moon Festival?

Xi An was amazingly put together yesterday when we passed through.

Generally the hols begin October 1st, I believe.

Add me to the list of those that are --VERY-- impressed with Xi'an's recent progress; it's basically stepped forward and told the world that it's a real city during the course of the past year.

In spite of these warm feelings, we're really hoping to make it out of here tonight (Air China will need to find us an airplane first).