Montreal

I keep hearing comments like above and "it was the best weekend of my life". Can you guys be a little more specific and explain why - best nightlife, great food, friendly people, cheap shopping, etc. as an example....

wanaflyforless

I got bumped DTW-NRT two days in a row. These flights had shown J0 Y3 and J1 Y2 when I checked. From other posts, this route along with SEA-NRT are the most commonly overbooked. In both of my bumps, no announcement was ever made. For bump 1, I asked the GA about 1.5 hours before the flight if they were oversold. Answer was no. I stayed within ear shot, and saw someone else get bumped. Asked again and was told no. Waited until a connecting passenger arrived asking for a seat assigment and then asked again and my boarding pass was taken. Another passenger who asked after me was again told not oversold. The gave me a $750 bump voucher, some other discount vouchers, hotel and meals.
The next day when I asked the GA 2 hours before the flight I was told no but when she discovered I had no bags checked, "OK, let me put you on the list." 1.5 hours before flight time I was paged and handed a $750 bump voucher for the next flight, only two hours later.

Had I waited for an announcement, I doubt I would have gotten either bump.

NRT-PEK return was about 2/3 full. NRT-DTW was full, but no bump.

anc-ord772

PEK is fun. I've gone 2x each between four to eight days. If you have not experienced China, or Asia in general it will be different.

ohcanada

Mrs. Ohcanada and I went on a 4 day weekend trip to PEK in 2004 and it was terrific. We're not much for the nightlife, but the sights, shopping and food made for a wonderful trip. The Forbidden Palace and the Great Wall are pretty much a day each and unforgettable. We hired a driver and it was a very worthwhile thing to do. My wife was apprehensive about going but has been angling for a return trip ever since. Unfortunately, this year we're going to Cyprus twice.

Agrolingua

Don't want to turn this into a trip report, but seems a little late for that! China may not be for everyone. That said, the big cities as Beijing and Shanghai are truely big cities. Excellent and reasonably priced dining at a variety of types of restaurants and regional cuisines. Great shopping at name brand stores and lots of markets where you can bargain for $2 fake Raybans and so on. Then, of course there are the sites as the Forbidden City, the Bund, the Great Wall and so on. You can hire a car and driver for $60, so things are reasonably priced.

Certainly in Beijing they are getting ready for the Olympics and they are trying very hard to make tourists feel very welcome. Many places are being renovated. People are trying to learn English. The taxis all have meters that drivers are obliged to use. Overall, it is very safe. So, it is an excellent time to visit China. I found this website helpful and got a lot of answers. www.thatsbj.com For Shanghai it is www.thatssh.com

On the other hand if you want to get into the rural areas the contrast might be quite different from the big cities, but I am sure it would be very interesting.

With respect to being bumped. During our layovers at Narita there were a lot of announcements about overbooked NW flights. This makes me think it is pretty common. I seem to recall on the announcements they were offering $400 travel vouchers. I suspect that could be negotiated depending on the conditions. Unfortunately, none of our flights was overbooked.

poppajon

horrible food - i ended up eating western, amazing hotel (PM me if you want it), amazing sights, incredibly friendly people, cheap shopping - you can live like a king, and the biggest culture shock i ever had. it was an adrenaline rush practicly the whole time!

pj

Middle_Seat

Good food, very friendly people who work hard. Be cautious about counting on fingers to determine prices: The Chinese have their own finger-counting system so they can count up to 10 on one hand, and that can cause honest mistakes if you thought the price was 3 (fingers) but it's actually 9 or something. Take a cheap calculator and punch the digits into the display so everyone agrees in advance.

anc-ord772

Very very very good advice. A calculator will save you a lot of hassle!

Montreal

Well THANKS for all the great advice. It seems like one has got to go to China (I am sick of hearing about it in the news all the time now). But the question is how does one get to it for 200-300 bucks

wanaflyforless

Well, if you count bump vouchers, I did it for -$1089, or about -$889 if you count in country expenses.

I stayed at a clean, well located youth hostel in a single (private) room with excellent English speaking staff and access to great inexpensive outings for 120 Yen/night. Booked at HostelWorld:

Downtown Backpackers
No. 85, Nanluogu Alley
Dongcheng District
Beijing

moondog

[QUOTE=Agrolingua]I found this website helpful and got a lot of answers. www.thatsbj.com For Shanghai it is www.thatssh.com
QUOTE]

That's BJ runs a good website and print publication. However, That's SH (and all the other "That's" magazines) is now pretty useless IMO since the ownership shake-up. For SH, City Weekend is pretty solid (Beijing too).

BTW, I don't care much for Chinese food either and I've yet to go hungry. One Chinese restaurant that I do like is the Xiaowangfu between the Kerry Centre and the Traders Hotel. They serve jiachang cai and nice ducks. Their lazi ji is great as well.

poppajon

200-300 canadian dollars? no chance. 200-300 american dollars... very very very slight chance. my mileage run in feb was from newark to beijing for $500 USD all in. plus the $50 for a visa (and the time and hassel to go get it). but it gave me enough miles to push my FF account high enough to go to chile next year. and bringing a calculator is a good idea because of the number system... however most merchants have them already.

pj

Agrolingua

Finger counting for bargaining! Not a good idea. Stick with the calculator.

The www.thatsbj.com site is very good. I signed on and asked several questions in the forum and got great responses and discussion. I would agree that www.thatssh.com is not so good. A good source for Shanghai might be www.shanghaiexpat.com

If you are looking for accomodations a bit above the hostel level I found a couple apartment complexes that rented by the day (in thatsbj.com). The cost was $25-30/day. They offered a soft bed (not always easy to find in budget accomodations) and the apartments were basically effieciencies. Good locations. They had a microwave, fridge, washing machine, cable TV, and internet access. I thought it was a good deal, especially if you are staying more than a couple nights.

Another thing to take note of is that NW is offering 15000 bonus miles to Shanghai at the moment.

best

This is now discussing travel to PEK.

Agrolingua

Resurrecting an old thread here. I remember thinking at the time what a great fare this was. (indeed it was) and that might never see a fare like this again. I recall grabbing my wife and swiftly figuring out if we could get the days off, etc. before pulling the trigger. It was a great vacation.

Then today I see a post on SF using Momondo I got a fare of $376. In truth I did not actually try to book it as I just can not go at this time.

Nevertheless, I am amazed that all these years later there are fares even cheaper than what I thought might be once in a lifetime.

I am curious if anyone did successfully book one of these runs.