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I bought our first domestic airline tickets today for Guilin to Kunming in China from 9588.com. I know that Peter says to wait until in China, but we need the 14:50 flight. I also notice that the charge of 710 a ticket is the lowest price available on line for any Friday date I checked, between now (the end of March) and June. The notation said there were 6 seats left at this price. I'm surprised at this since the price is 15% off full price, not the usual 25%-50% I see on most other flights to other destinations, but not this combination of cities.

I just wanted others to know that there were add on charges to the base 710.00 price. There was a 50.00 airport fee and 5% booking fee added to my purchase. Also I needed to use microsoft internet explorer for the payment page to work. Firefox was able to access that part.

We still need several more sets of tickets, so if there is a better way to buy tickets, on line please let me know. I can't wait until we arrive for our own peace of mind

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Another update on buying Chinese domestic tickets on 9588.com.

I'm finding the prices best, not at the last minute, but 4 weeks out or so for the flights I'm buying. They're 25% off for the best times. The 40% off flights have been for times we can't use. I needed to e-mail 9588 after our first purchase because our bank card didn't first accept the charge, even though we had called ahead and informed them of our charges. 9588 responded the next morning, re-ran our purchase and all was fine.

Now that all our passport information, CC information etc is entered, it's much quicker buying more sets tickets. So far I'm very pleased with the process. The 5% booking fee is for use of a foreign credit card for e-tickets.

rkkwan

You can't expect deep discount for KWL-KMG as it's not a very frequent route, and you need specific flights. I guess you've found out about that.

Gpanda

We have to buy Shanghai to Beijing return flights for September. Which site is best? When should we buy the tickets?

Thanks.

rkkwan

Gpanda - There are lots of flights between Shanghai Hongqiao (SHA) and Beijing each day. If you have a few days in Shanghai before flying to Beijing, it's pretty easy and generally cheapest to just buy after you get to Shanghai, from a local travel agent. Just ask the hotel.

Or like the OP, you can use an online agent. 9588.com is pretty big, but the largest is ctrip.com. While I have flown on a ticket bought from ctrip, I wasn't the one booking it, so I have no 1st hand experience. Therefore, I can't tell you they are better or worse.