While fares may vary slightly from channel to channel, if you're not seeing 340 or less, then odds are they aren't playing ball on your desired date. CA's lounges are nothing to write home about... though I do like the massage chairs in Guangzhou.

Thanks!
It got even worse now, Ctrip shows all 55+ fares twice, although second time available for those age 12-23 :eek:

No cheap flights left for us who are neither young or old :D So, I might have to get them on elong...

Please tell us your desired dates and travel times.

Yes, what journey are you trying to make? Booking class is actually easiest to find on travelzen. When your journey is entered and choices come up, click on the upper right hand "promotional fares" button and a matrix will come up of all the flights and fares/airlines for that day. "Terms" under each matrix choice tells you the booking code. Tip: Chinese airlines do not use the same booking codes so don't assume CA coding = MU = HU etc. etc..

I definitely second the suggestion to use the "matrix" format on travelzen as a useful way to find booking classes and compare flights (I think the button to click, which as jiejie says first appears when the list of flights comes up, is labeled something like "show all promotional fares").

One caveat to be aware of though is that it might not work on non-IE browsers (at least it doesn't work on my Firefox browser - I'm not sure if that's because I don't have the right java plugins installed, or my browser is too old, or just that it doesn't work with Firefox at all).

Thank you all, again!

Maybe the fact I am using two [one quite old] Macs is my difficulty :D

I should be arriving PEK 27th at 3pm, leaving 2nd April at 1am; and between those two dates I'd like to go to Shanghai for two [full] days.

I have virtual PC at home, so will try tonight in IE as well.

Once again, thank you, and apologies for the hassle.

If you can change your return international flight to a Shanghai departure, I would do so because this will save you up to 6 hours. Assuming the change fee is on the order of $150, figure the first $100 is offset by the cost of the plane/train ticket you won't need to purchase, and the remaining $50 is justified by the convenience factor (a no brainer if you value your time $8 per hour or greater).

Second, the train is definitely worth trying in one direction, or in favor of flying if you only need to go one way (as per the aforementioned point). Just get your wireless devices 3G enabled (or purchase/download a few movies), stock up on some KFC/Subway, and you'll be good to go... I really enjoy traveling through the country side at 310 km/hr, and checking out the rapid development in the second and third tier cities along the way. Beijing South Station is one of my least favorite places in China, but if you play your cards right, you'll only have to spend ~20 in that purgatory.

As far as flying is concerned, that Juneyao flight is still showing up at y340 during your travel dates, if you're a morning person, why not take it? I probably wouldn't use it on the way back up because it arrives very late, and for some reason tends to be a bit more expensive in the northbound direction (i.e. more or less on par with MU, CA, FM, CA, and CZ if you are flexible wrt flight time).

Two more points that you might be aware of already:
1) T2 in PEK is far more efficient than T3 because it is smaller and you'll never need to take a train to your gate area
2) SHA is almost always more convenient than PVG and there are many more flights from which to choose

While the train may not be the tool for this poster, others reading shouldn't be put off by this comment, moondog exaggerates. Beijing South Station is new and decent and clean, it just doesn't have a lot of amenities. Believe me, in the pantheon of Chinese rail stations, decent and clean goes a very long way! And once to the Station door, it's easy and quick to get through security and to your boarding gate, so you can time your arrival to limit the wait at the gate to 15-20 minutes. And that's the whole point, the Station is set up for people to quickly get to/from their trains, not to camp out, and it's not a connecting type of train station.

I've been in far more Chinese rail stations and airports that not only qualify as purgatories, but as outright h*lls.

one million sqms and not one cold beer for sale.:td:

I guess you mean one million sq meters - though sometimes in China it feels like the same could be true for one million square miles ...!

Thank you for a long and comprehensive answer. Decided for the above.
Just bought MU ticket departing at 07.00 for CNY350++ and will take a train back to Beijing couple of days later.

Once again, thanks to all. Really looking forward to the trip.

Also, [slightly OT] I got my Chinese visa yesterday! For a mere $3 ;)

So I've booked a flight KWL-HKG on Ctrip (English version). The credit card has been charged, and the order shows as "concluded" on the My Stuff pages on Ctrip, with the passenger names and passport details present.

However I never got a confirmatory email, and I don't see any ticket numbers anywhere.

Is all good? Is this all I get? Does the flight remain to be ticketed? (It is some time in the future yet).

Same thing happened when I ordered a CTU to HKG ticket on Ctrip (meant they didn't email a confirmation itinerary to us). So, I just emailed and asked them to send eticket information to us. They emailed over the eticket receipt w/i few hours and no problem at check-in either. ;)

Those not getting email confirmations do you not have a ctrip account? This is where having a China cell helps a lot, everything gets sent to your phone.

I have Ctrip account but no china mobile number. I only noticed "missing email confirmation" issue w/ China city to HKG flights, our other intra china cities flights' email confirmations always arrive timely.