Sorry you had to go thru all that, better experience next time.

Oh, dear.

So this appears to rule out the possibility of using C-Trip to book a flight for which I would have to pick up a ticket at Kunming airport on the day of arrival...(I would be flying into Kunming and connecting with a Shanghai Air or China Eastern flight to Shanghai)..am I thinking clearly here based on what Fabio just reported??

BTW: Shanghai Air was planning a merge with China Eastern but the deal has just fallen through...

The whole process looks to me very complicated but not impossible if you are very patient...

Paper tickets can be delivered at your preferred chinese hotel address in advance. E-tickets receipts only faxed to a chinese fax number. Ctrip tells that we can check in with e-tickets at the airline counter just only with the passport.

At the end I found an e-mail address of Shanghai Airlines on their website and asked them directly to email me our flight and tickets details. They were very fast and this morning I received our confirmed reservation with ticket numbers and reference numbers.

For me it was just a matter to have at least something printed out to show the airline at check in, even though it would not be strictly necessary if they already have all details, but you know...... who knows ??

ekscrunchy: check also the mentioned travelzen.com how they deal with tickets delivery after you have completed the payment process

ekscrunchy

Here is a part of their FAQ section:

""""""""""""
What ticket delivery options are available?
Tickets will be delivered to you based upon your own request.
Tickets can be picked up at the airport counter or at our company (addresses are listed can be found during the China flight booking process)

Travelers booking e-tickets can check in at the airport counter by showing valid identification or passport.


What is the difference between paper tickets and E-tickets?
Paper tickets will be delivered to the address you provide or can be picked up at various Ctrip offices or airport counters.
For travelers booking e-tickets, check in at the airport counter by showing valid identification or a passport.
"""""""""""""

Check well ctrip airport office opening hours in Kunming if it is doable during your transit with your arrival time and departure time to Shanghai

oops sorry above are ctrip.com FAQ, not travelzen.com

with travelzen, e tickets were e mailed to me. I just printed them out and checked in at the airport. The process was very smooth.

I did buy air tickets from ctrip once after I was already in Beijing, over the phone. The paper tickets were delivered to my hotel free of charge.

Thanks HappyMom32

Yes, ok with ctrip for paper tickets delivered to the hotel for free. What I found not ok with ctrip is they did not email me e-tickets like it is done and expected all over the world.

Excellent information. Many thanks! I will attempt the ticket purchase next month, so will likely have more questions and a tale to tell.

I also have my iron in the fire with Agent Hanuman's personal agent in Bangkok...

Hopefully, one of these options will pan out and I will be able to get out of Burma and on to Shanghai!

try to check for fares at all the websites (ctrip, travelzen and elong). I find that sometimes there are deep discounts on ctrip but not on the other sites. They don't all list the same flights or fares.

Fares do fluctuate a lot. Sometimes a sale will disappear but will come back a few days later.

It is worth it to hold off and wait until it is close to travel date, unless you have no flexibility on the flight time.

Have fun planning.

Hi Fabio

If you were going to buy the soft sleeper train tickets from Bejing to Xian, try to do that ASAP when you get to China.

I was not able to get train tickets for all 4 of us in the same cabin. Only the upper bunks were available and I did not want to split the family and share the cabin with two strangers. This forced me to book air tickets only 1 day a head of the planned day and it turned out that the air fares were cheaper than the train fares.

We had a fabulous time though as you can see in the trip report that I posted.

HAVE A GREAT TIME IN CHINA

HappyMom32

Thanks for your suggestion !

I requested to book all 4 of us in the same soft berth cabin Beijing to Xian already some weeks ago. Chinatripadvisor.com told me they will do their best and if not we can try switch to one of the two other overnight trains departing more or less at the same time. Our train trip will be on 5th september evening so thanks for your reminder. I will write them now to see if tickets are now already on sale for that day !!

By the way, as I expected, flight fares Xian to Shanghai have dropped to RMB 500+50, no change or refund allowed, so this is not tha much less than what I have paid (660+50).

For sure I will read your trip report !!! thanks again !!

Question:

I am in Shanghai now and want to book air from Shanghai to Xian for Tuesday morning (it's late Sunday night for me). I realize I cannot book within 24 hours of the flight so I'll need to act quickly in the morning.

Would it be better for me to have our hotel book tickets in the morning (Mon) for us as I've heard there is a better price once here in China, is this true?

I did check prices and they have come down from $171 to $114 each on the internet.

****
Re: sleeper train. I had a friend who works here in China book my Z train 2-berth sleeper car (with toilet :) ) and at first all seats were blocked/booked by the government. It wasn't until this week that they secured our sleepers for us.

Hope you can get what you are looking for, Fabio. Can your hotel assist you to purchase your train tickets?

Hi BeachGirl

I could not get the hotel's staff to book the same air tickets for me at the same price. They said that for that particular price that I want I would have to book with ctrip (or the website where I found the fare).

Booking by phone with ctrip will get you the same price as those listed on the internet. If you don't feel like going through the hassle of photocopying, faxing the credit card, the authorization form etc. , try to call ctrip and they will deliver the tickets to your hotel for free. I did this in Beijing though, not sure about Shanghai.

I find that travelzen.com has the best internet procedure though but sometimes they don't have the same lowest fares as ctrip.

good luck

As fa as I know ctrip also offers the option of tickets payment by credit card or cash at their airport office at time of tickets delivery, if you choose this option. This would avoid the complicated fax procedure used when payment is online with an international credit card.

Yes, chinatripadvisor replied me today (sunday!!) that our tickets have already been purchased on my requested train and that we are all 4 booked in the same soft berth compartment. They will deliver our tickets at our hotel once we get there !

I just bought tickets on travelzen.com (thanks Happymom! for travel tomorrow between Shanghai & Xi'an. All I had to enter were names and passport numbers. No copies required.

Glad you got your compartment, Fabio! Be sure to bring toilet paper and sanitizing wipes if you haven't read about the shared toilet.

The planning is fun, isn't it!

bookmarked for the toilet paper !! thanks !!!

we are leaving august 31st !!! can't wait.. !!!

would be nice if you will report about xian ! I read somewhere that it is suggested to visit the 3 warriors areas in the opposit order, starting from no. 3, than 2 than 1 !!

HAPPY TRAVELS, FABIO!!

thanks ekscrunchy !!

all the best for your trip planning !