Booking internal flights in China
 

We have to travel one way from Beijing to Shanghai. Someone told me that it's far better to wait until we're in China to book, as the air fares will be considerably lower. Can anyone verify this, please?

At the Chinese version of China based <www.ctrip.com>, there are 30-40 daily non-stop flights listed from Beijing to Shanghai. Full economy fare is US$147 (based on US$1= 7.7 CHY). Most discount fares run from US$58 to US$88. Three fares are over US$117. Extras are construction fee and fuel surcharge totaling US$17.

Thanks for that. Those fares are a lot less expensive, aren't they? I had a look at that website but it doesn't work on my PC here in the UK. I'll persevere. Thanks again.

Discount fares also appearing on zuji.com now, sister company to Travelocity. You may still get lower fares after you get to China, but the difference is now lower with those online sites.

And Beijing-Shanghai is a competitive route with like 4 airlines and dozens of flights each day. I'd still wait until you get to China before booking.

I'm also in UK - the Ctrip link is fine - maybe try to go straight to English version
http://english.ctrip.com/

Thanks everyone. I did use the English version of that website which worked fine until I entered my query, then it all went a bit odd. We're not going until July - v hot, I know, but we've no option, my wife's a teacher so it's the summer hols or nothing - so there's plenty of time yet to look around. Between that and finding flights to Vegas for New Year, that should keep me busy.

Just one thought - if you are flying out from UK with like China Eastern it will be possible to add on an internal fare which is cheaper then booking it seperately.

sorry should read cheaper THAN (not then)

We were in China in Dec and although I tried to use elong and Ctrip I had difficulty in booking a specific flight (from Shenzhen to Xian). Basically it indicated all the seats were booked. We decided to chance it. Got to Shenzhen at 11.30pm asked the hotel staff to see if they could book us a flight next day. Within half an hour he had booked flight 9am next day for a discount which is the one we wanted originally. Need I say more?

albauust:

may I ask what kind of discount were you able to get?

I have encountered the same problem as you checking out prices on Elong and Ctrip - so I gave up. I am planning to fly either from Hong Kong through Kunming to Lijiang, or Shenzhen to Lijiang; but even if I was able to get a price, it was like US$400 return. I am sure that not the price most people pay.

Yes, I was told that I should wait till I am actually in Hong Kong to book the flight; but if their last minute discount is not more than 50% of this list price we will have to change our plans to go somewhere else.