<redacted by moderator. Question about AA connection at JFK has already been asked in the AA forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post18344846>

By the way, if you know how to book a China Eastern flight in US dollars, I'd love to know (the China site handles only domestic flights, the Hong Kong site charges Hong Kong dollars, etc.)

Most FTers would agree that if you are traveling on 2 separate tickets, you want to be in the city of your international departure a day before your flight.

If you have two itineraries (CUN-MIA-JFK and JFK-PVG), if you are late because of your first itinerary, you will have to buy another ticket to PVG (which won't be until the next day). 2 hours is already cutting it close, as even a 30 minute delay can cause you to miss the check-in cutoff.

I would get a Friday flight out of CUN, stay the night in NYC, and be worry-free for your Saturday flight to PVG.

I'm trying to book through a travel agent, is there some way to get them to put the two on one ticket?

Book it as CUN-PVG.

How does one book China Eastern international flights online?

I live in Singapore and was hoping for a site that lets you pay US or Singapore dollars. The China site cannot do international bookings, the Hong Kong site asks for Hong Kong dollars, etc.

elong.net, ctrip.com, zuji.com, expedia.com

I'll try to do that tomorrow as people in my city are closed for Good Friday. I was dealing with Zuji, an online agent, and I was asking them to put two itineraries I wanted to book on one ticket (the exact same flights). They gave me a runaround until I gave up upon realizing they just tried entering and entering flights into their website.

So, no easy way to book directly with the airline as some recommend when possible?

Orbitz will ticket your exact itinerary as one itin in USD.

Orbitz also has several options that are $400-500 cheaper and only about 3-4 hours door-to-door longer. (Just looking at one-way fares...)

Was your agent quoting something far below what Orbitz's prices are? I trust Orbitz (even though I'm not a huge fan of travel agents unless you really, really need them)...and they can get you there in about 28 hours for just over $1,000. Or your itin for $1,500-ish. That's a pretty good deal overall...I'd be hesitant to book with someone who seems to have difficulty booking this just to save a few bucks.

And I'd never, ever, under any circumstances book with a human travel agent that doesn't have 24/7 service.

I do not think that is a all true.

Booking on a single reservation can be as easy as using the multi-city search in your preferred online booking tool, assuming the fares permit end-on-end. The two hours should be plenty of time, assuming you're on time. If booked as a single reservation the AA folks should even be able to tag your bags all the way through so you don't have to grab them in JFK (though you will in MIA and then drop them back off after customs.

I'd pay more to avoid China Eastern long haul and JFK. There are cheaper options and he still wants MU & JFK? What else could be worse?

Thanks all, this has been very educational. I think what happened is that China Eastern had some promo for a day where flights from Singapore to NYC were about US$1,500. However, I needed to connect a flight from Cancun to NYC after a side trip and Zuji, the Singapore Travelocity affiliate, just couldn't do anything other than enter flights into their own website and completely BS'ed me (it was at least amusing to speak to an Indian accented guy named "Brad"). The China Eastern flights are now gone.

I'm flying into NYC for something and decided to take a side trip in the Yucatan, which is why I need to stick the Cancun flight.

It seems that Air China had some promo for Singapore-NYC flights via Beijing (which unfortunately adds five hours each way!) and I took the advice and just pulled the trigger on Expedia. I got the flights for my entire 3+ week trip (counting an open jaw to Guatemala and another from Cancun) for slightly less than US$2k. I have now learned not to assume that all online agent search engines are equal, and Orbitz and Expedia are probably still better (although Asian agents may do it better for Asian regional itineraries).

Any more tips about online agents are welcome!

The original situation was that Zuji (again, the Travelocity affiliate over here in Asia) could get me the flights I wanted but only in two separate multi-city searches. Had I booked those as two separate itineraries with the same agent (silly, I know), how would you get American Airlines to send the bags to my international flight in NYC even though the flights are on separate tickets?

The cheapest options were SFO as the departure point and Air China on the TPAC.

I have to admit, when I'm in coach I look for "shortest TPAC segment". I hate that flight in coach. I almost look at the connection in San Francisco and again in Beijing as reasons in favor of this itin! (vs. JFK-PVG)

All of that said, it sounds like the OP has found a good option...a triangle trip all on one itin. ^

Really, I'd love to learn.

Why are you guys talking about SFO and what's TPAC?

And what's wrong with China Eastern? (Apologies, but I have learned to fear American, not Asian, air crews!)

TPAC is FT shorthand for Trans-Pacific. (You'll see TATL around here a lot, too.) On an itin like this, when someone talks about the "TPAC segment" and specifically what airline is operating it, it's because we're mainly interested in the long-haul part, with the short regional/domestic connecting flights being a bit secondary.

SFO is San Francisco...a ton of Asian-bound flights go out of there. The "cheap" Orbitz routing I saw this morning was Cancun-Dallas-San Francisco-Beijing-Shanghai. One extra stop, about four extra hours, about $450 (I think) cheaper. But...just one-way...not part of the circle trip. Your total $2k fare is pretty good.

I've seen a lot around here about avoiding China Eastern. In general, the Chinese airlines aren't highly regarded like many of the other Asian carriers are.

I've only flown Eastern once and I didn't have a problem with them. But it was just a late-night PEK-SHA run, not long enough to care. It did illustrate to me how huge these two cities are, though. Flight was an old A330, packed to the gills, taking off at 9PM on a Wednesday night. And they were running something like 10 flights a day, all big planes, and I'm pretty sure either Air China or China Southern was doing the same thing. We joked about how the A330 and B767 were Chinese "regional jets".