Beijing (PEK) - Macau (MFM)
 

Beijing (PEK) - Macau (MFM)

Looking for the best *A possible flights:

Depart Sat. April 11, 2008
Return Sun. April 12, 2008

The only *A flights are on CA (nonstop, 1 per day I believe, watch out for the codeshare with Air Macau) and FM (through PVG).

You should have no trouble finding either option on the Star Alliance website.

If you don't have to land in Macau you may find better fares into HKG and take the ferry from there.

Also would price out a ticket to the China side of the border since that would be domestic flight fares... forget the name of the city there, I'll have to look it up and edit later. I'm assuming you have a Chinese visa or passport if you'll be coming from PEK.

EDIT: City on chinese side of the border is Zhuhai

Yep, will be in Beijing on business and thought a night in Macau would be fun. But the cheapest flight I see is about $ 850 and not *A.

All my other trips within China were much cheaper and 1st class was only just a few $$ more.

Would I be better off waiting till I'm in Beijing to book the tickets there?

CA only has a seasonal service - it stops in a few weeks time. In April the only choice will be double daily FM service to/from PVG.
The OP may want to check what FM are offering fare wise for a BJS-MFM via PVG or get a 4 coupon Asia Airpass as outlined in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=793642 for USD600.00. Would need more stopovers though so probably wouldn't work all that well for the OP.

From the *A Web site it gives me this:

Leg 1 - Air China 984 -
07:20 Beijing/Peking (PEK), CN - 09:30 Shanghai Pu Dong (PVG), CN (683 miles) Total distance 1484 miles 2h10m , 330

Leg 2 - Shanghai Airlines 807 -
15:25 Shanghai Pu Dong (PVG), CN - 18:00 Macau (MFM), MO (801 miles)
2h35m Boeing 757

Depart 7:20 AM, Arrive 6 PM :confused:

Return is no better: :(

Leg 1 - Shanghai Airlines 818 -
12:55 Macau (MFM), MO - 14:50 Shanghai Pu Dong (PVG), CN (801 miles) Total distance 1484 miles
1h55m 767

Leg 2 - Air China 156 -
18:45 Shanghai Pu Dong (PVG), CN - 21:10 Beijing/Peking (PEK), CN (683 miles)
2h25m 738

Just following up from my comment this morning. CA has a daily non-stop to Zhuhai for about $480 r/t. You can easily get ground transportation into Macau from there. This would give you about 24 hours in Macau.

Something else you might consider:

There is a Turbo Jet Ferry directly from SZX (Shenzhen) to Macau. There are multiple flights a day into SZX on CA, one of which arrives pretty early and another that departs fairly late the next day, giving you a lot more time in Macau even with the added time of the ferry ride. This is slightly cheaper than the flight to Zhuhai.

Keep in mind if crediting to UA on CA flights you want to book a K fare or above to get 100% milage credit, lower fares will earn 50% miles or none depending on the fare.

Domestic fares in China are calculated on a government imposed distance flown formula. There are some discounts available from the official fares depending on the destination. If you were flying to cities near each other it explains why your other tickets were much cheaper in comparison.

Macau and Hong Kong are both international destinations, so don't necessarily follow the same pricing formula as domestic fares.

This sounds interesting, thanks. I'm going to post a question about this in the China forum for some more information.