How to book a cheap international flight in China?

[Voiceroveip]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to find a ticket for my future wife, but the fares out of GZ airport are becoming unreal (800€ for a one way, round trip no better). She could fly from Hong Kong as well ...

I tried Ctrip without success, a local agency in her town quotes the same prices I found. Any ideas where else I could look?

Cheers,
Frank

[JimB]

I would start with a google search for cheap airfares from china to the US and start digging.  The only way to be sure to get the lowest fare is to check at least 4 or 5 different places, then it still is a crapshoot.  Days of week, times of year all go into the fares.  Exactly how it works is anybodies guess.  One thing is to have your wife check from inside China to see what she comes up with.  When my wife did this it saved us almost half of what I found.  But that was all inside China. If she has not done a lot of flying, tell her that most fares quoted inside China are all one way fares.  Make sure she checks that out.  Of course in your case that is all you want.  So congrats, she is coming.

Jim

[ttwjr32]

Frank,
not sure about the french consulate but at the USA consulate on the first few floors before
you get to the USA floor there are many many places for tickets to go anywere and they are at
reasonable prices from what i saw when i go there. have her check that out and remember the
day of the week means a lot in the price. and time factors in also

Ted

[Voiceroveip]

Well she checked online and in a local agency, she came up with 800€, same as me. Now I believe the Canton fair is on during that time, could be the reason why it's so hard.

I'll keep digging ... Jim, I'm in France :icon_cheesygrin:

[JimB]

Sorry, I didnt think to check that.

[Voiceroveip]

No problem Jim

Ok found a solution, but not on the same plane although I will attempt to call the airline or see if I can get a miles ticket on that plane, they code-share with Air France and I still have a good stash ... otherwise maybe I can upgrade to business? :angel:

So far the best way is 2 days later from Hong Kong to Beijing to Paris, under 400 USD, funnily enough the Beijing to Paris cannot be had for the same price out of China, the same long haul flight  from GZ to Beijing is over 800 USD, those airlines are nutcases. So maybe I'll get that ticket, throw away the Hong Kong to Beijing and book a cheap interior flight from Shenzhen to Beijing, easier for her than having to hassle to Hong Kong with the transit visa crap and all ... but those airlines have to clean up their act ... anyway looks like I saved 4-500 Euro, even if it means traveling on different dates.

Oh ... and of course that fare does not appear on European search engines, I found it through farefinder.com ... hip hip hurray!

[ttwjr32]

any event such as that will change the prices drastically in China
along with hotel rates

[Voiceroveip]

Yes true, but even a flight well after the fair out of GZ is steep, no competition I guess, just China Southern and Air France in code sharing, I'm not even sure if Air France actually flies there. I have to investigate this a little more, if I move there my son will have to fly back to see his mother regularly ... when can they fly unaccopanied? 12 years old?

[rockycoon]

United Parcel has the cheapest,  Put yourself in a large box, address it to your girlfriend, put a sh**load of stamps on it and be
patent for 1 or 2 days.  When your girlfriend opens it, she will really be surprized when you pop out.  By the way, use a differnt
box for your baggage and pray she isn't on vacation for 2 weeks....gets lonely on the front porch...:icon_cheesygrin:

Really, did you check priceline.com or any of the other vacation places... sometimes they have vacant seating they just want
to fill.  Of course your on stand-by, but at least you'll be getting there cheap.  Same thing on return.

[Voiceroveip]

Yes I thought about shipping her UPS, or even in a container :icon_cheesygrin:, the latter would just require 4 weeks of food and water, a lot of reading material and some sanitary installation, but a container delivered here is about 1500€ and we could fit some shopping in there too ^_^

Priceline doesn't find Paris France, so I guess they are US focused only. I got her on a Qatar flight finally, a few days after my leaving since the last tickets simply disappeared... so that was fairly reasonable although it will be a long treck for her, for which I am sorry, but there was no direct option to follow me quickly.