I know I've read here to never prebook flights within China as they are much cheaper last minute.

So I avoided doing so a month or so ago when I saw what seemed like great prices on CTrip -- usually marked "early bird special" or something like that. Now I'm seeing those same flights are double or triple in cost -- but admittedly I don't know what they might cost last minute. The flights at "bad times of the day for me" are still cheaper. So does that mean to save money last minute I have to take what's left and perhaps get up and to an airport way earlier than I like or arriving in a city very late at night?

I still see a flight for Chongqing to Guilin on a special -- a non stop flight (and as far as I can tell, the ONLY non stop of the day-- for my date, for about $52. I'd sure rather book that now than possibly lose the only non stop. How much more could I save by waiting -- $5 or $10? Doesn't seem worth waiting to me.

But is there anything I should know about booking a flight on CTrip?

It highly depends on the route you're flying. $52 is a good price for that non-stop on CKG-KWL, which is not a popular route. Definitely book it now. You're not going to save much more than that.

Chinese airfares have set full fares, and then depending on when you book and inventory, you may find discounts from 5% to even 60-70%, or no discount at all. Full fare Y for CKG-KWL is around US$100. So, you are already seeing a 50% off - and there's absolutely NO reason to wait booking it. Like you said, at most you can save another $10; but likely you'll pay more if you wait.

Hi Patrick, I responded to a similar question after I returned from my China trip. My motto: Book now, avoid the agita

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...s-or-china.cfm

Yes book now. I used C-Trip and was happy to do so, read my tr. You know who will tell you to wait till you get there to save 5 dollars or so,lol

Aloha!

My experience was that the best prices appear 2-3 days before date of journey. For the flight in question, just check out the fare 2 days from hence or 3 days from hence. If it is pretty close to what is being quoted now for the date of your actual journey, just go ahead and book. If however, the 3-day forward fare is much lower than the present quote, better to wait.

Flights generally do not fill up till the date of departure. The exceptions would be if there is only one flight per day on that route, or if you are traveling during a holiday period.

Patrick: I use CTrip too, trust the Fodorites who have responded to you, (Nutella and I had dinner in Shanghai), you are going next month, book that nonstop special now. If it is a longer, more popular route, you could wait till you get there to save a few $ if you wish.

Alooha, HT, where's the "who"? Are you coming to SF this year?

Well, yesterday when I posted this there was a special for that flight -- it was 360 juan. But when I went back to it last night, it was gone and set at 780! So for right now I'm on hold. I'm curious if some of those fares just hop up and down all the time, but oddly, I'm not finding any great savings for any of my flights when I look for a day or two from now.

Oh well, what will be will be.

Neo, check every day....like I have to tell you that

Shanghainese, the who is from whoville and is now on a business trip or all us little who's would have been tidied up like the little <i>addenda</i> we are,lol

We were just in the Bay area in June for Linda's birthday. Got to stay at our favorite "The Inn Above Tide" in Sausalito for a night and then down to Monterey for a few nights. The weather was incredibly nice, not a cloud in the sky for 5 straight days and nights. I'll holler louder the next time we are in town

Aloha!

HT - where did you eat? Patrick and Lee were with 23 Fodorites at Hunan Restaurant one year, and another year at the Slanted Door where Charles Phan came to our large table and had pix taken with us. DH and I are going to GTG with wiselindag and her DH on Thursday at Bund Shanghai, my new find in SF Chinatown.

kimtonone, I'm a little confused by one thing. I need to fly from Guilin to Changsha. I enter that on your link and nothing comes up. The same happens on CTrip. I understand that I have to change planes and there are a couple of options, but is it really not possible to book that combination as one flight, but rather as two separate flights? And if the first flight is late, does than automatically void the second one?

As an option, is it logical to fly from Guilin to Guangzhou then take the high speed train to Changsha? The train will put me much closer to my hotel in Changsa that flying into the airport there, but I'm not sure about the logistics of getting from Ghangzhou airport to the train station there to get the train to Changsha. I'm beginning to think that this is a case of "you can't get from here to there" regarding Guilin (actually starting in Yangshuo) to Changsha.

In general, the concept of "connection" in China is very different from the rest of the world. A plane ticket in general is only for one flight number. So, you'll have to buy two separate plane tickets for what we'll call a "connection".

And when you get to the transit airport, generally, you'll be automatically dumped into the baggage claim, and then you'll to the regular check in counter (closes 30 minutes before flight time), and then go through security again.

I say this is "generally", as I have done airside transit before, but that's limited to Air China to Air China in Chengdu (CTU). There might be other airports that allow it, but I don't know which.

That's interesting, because I brought up lots of flights on CTrip from Chongqing to Guilin that do involve a change of plane, but are booked as one ticket with a stopover. Maybe it's because the two flights are the same airline, and those don't happen with Guilin to Changsha -- I'll do some more looking.

There are also two "T" trains during the day (7 hours), and one overnight train (about 10 hours) that may make sense from Guilin to Changsha.

OK, I found numerous flights Guilin to Changsha on China Southern Airways that have stopovers -- some in Shanghai and some in Guangzhou. So that looks like the way to go. I'm not anxious to lose an entire day by train -- or worse yet, I despise sleepers -- I call them "keep awakers".

I ran into the same thing when booking a flight on C-Trip, the "early bird" price was on for a few days then went off. I waiting looking almost daily for a week or so and sure enough it popped up again. If you watch the "early bird" deal will hopefully become available again. We also got what I think is a fairly decent deal between Guilin and Guangzhou if you choose that route (350 RMB).

Well, I have booked flights on CTrip for Xian to Chongqing and from Chongqing to Guilin. I keep looking at Beijing to Xian, but no matter when I check for (even in the next few days, it always shows 1050 plus 90 (about $167). The worst issue is that while there are some flights early or late (if I wanted to get up at 4 AM or arrive in Xian late at night, which I don't) they are only slightly cheaper. And the mid day flights seem to be full (or at least not showing up) when I go to dates very close to this, so I suspect I should be booking.
This is a route I never have seen better prices listed for on C-Trip, and the prices are even higher on other sites I've checked.
So I'm thinking I should bite the bullet and go ahead and book this flight -- now just over 3 weeks from now.

Interesting. I chatted online with a Chinese guy who flies between Beijing and Xi'an fairly often who told me that indeed the most savings I am likely to get in August on that Beijing to Xi'an route would be about 10% and that yes they do often fill up -- that is the mid day flights -- but I could perhaps get a better last minute deal on early morning or late night flights by waiting longer. Then I noticed something. There was one flight on China Eastern that is 11:55 to 13:40 (PERFECT) that costs the same 1050, but says Early Booking special. Huh? On closer inspection I saw that although it is the same price as the regular price, this one is for First Class by booking now. So I did. Rather have first class (doubt it is a big thing) for that price than take a chance on saving $20 or so later on!

I don't thinks so. It really depends on your flight destinations and departure city. You may not be able to book one in the last minute.

Hi Patrick, what was your final itinerary for China?

6 nights Shanghai, four nights in Kyoto, Japan, then 5 nights Beijing, 2 nights Xi'an, 3 nights Chongqing, 3 nights Yangshuo, 2 nights Changsha, 2 nights Hong Kong then on to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.

Incidentally, I started to check in yesterday at China Eastern in Beijing for my flight to Xi'an, and suddenly remembered it was for first class. It was a surprisingly nice flight on an Airbus 300. First class was very nice and at 11 they served lunch, including a large filet mignon perfectly cooked rare, after what I thought was the whole lunch, some creamy miso like soup and some of those dark green almost black cold gelatinous noodles and a nice fruit plate. And of course the nice benefit of First Class is having your luggage come out first on the belt. That flight was totally sold out -- so it was a lot of people.