I need to buy tickets from HK to Sydney and Brisbane back to HK for a March trip. AsiaTravel.com have requested a bank transfer rather than credit card, which seems odd to me. Any thoughts?
Also, any other good travel agents that would help me out here? Names and websites, please. Thanks

We always use Tiglion Travel in Hong Kong, they are big, efficient and reliable. Remember it's Chinese New year so if you contact them you probably won't get any response until Monday

http://www.tiglion.com

They do discount air fares ex HK no problem.

On-line agents in Hong Kong are mostly dodgy, and should be treated with caution. If at all possible wait until arrival in Hong Kong and shop in person. If you absolutely must use a Web service, then stick to one which has had a long-time physical presence, and isn't solely Web-based--there have been endless problems with these. If you can get hold of a copy of the South China Morning Post where you are, use that to get an idea of what local agents are charging. In general I wouldn't recommend them, but have a look at CTS

www.chinatravelone.com

and get a price from them. Not the cheapest in HK by any means, but payment shouldn't be a problem, and it's not going to disappear on you.

I was a bit surprised at the recommendation of Tiglion. Certainly that company grotesquely overcharges for rail tickets to the mainland, so it's hard to imagine it could be reliable for other services (or, at least, it seems unlikely to be good value for money for them either).

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Cathay Pacific services Sydney and Brisbane back and forth from Hong Kong. Why not book directly with the Airline? I believe you can do this directly thru their website or you can call them.

I've flown them a number times from the US and within Pacific rim countries and have always been very happy.

Peter has advised all of us repeatedly that booking in country is cheaper and he would be the guy that knows, but if you want to book in advance I would look at Cathay.

We use Tiglion or a regular basis, perhaps once a month for several years, they have never let us down, though we have never used them for rail bookings. For us at least they have been fine.

I just had another look at their site. On tickets from Hong Kong to Guangzhou they are charging 79% more than if you bought directly from the railway company (which you can do up to 60 days in advance and book by phone). Other agents in Hong Kong sell these tickets at their face value, getting a commission from the railway company. Probably Tiglion is pocketing that, too. In short, a very serious rip-off of the booker from overseas.

So it doesn't seem very likely that a good deal is being obtained on air tickets, but even if it is, I wonder if this agent should be getting our business?

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

As I say, we have never used them for Rail, you are really worrying me now, we paid them HKD 1,588 ( B 7,900 )for 1 return ticket HKG-BKK on Srilankan for February and HKD 1,796 ( B 8,900 )for one in March on Emirates. If they are ripping us off I need to know!

Presumably the only way to tell is to shop around elsewhere for tickets, although it's very hard to compare like with like as prices fluctuate considerably, and its difficult to make direct comparisons as with the train. Perhaps a starting point would be Sri Lankan and Emirates own web sites, the web sites of other Hong Kong-based agents (although I've noticed outrageous prices on other sites, too). If you can put your hands on a copy of the South China Morning Post you'll find what agents are advertising currently (but wait until after Chinese New Year has died down).

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

No. Checked, both those fares are the going rate discount fares, both fares according to our BKK agent are quite the 'average' discounted fares from HKG. So...maybe we can continue the thread where it started for Nigello asking for an online agent in HKG.

That's good news. I was going to say that if you give me the dates of the flights I'm going to be going into some Hong Kong agents in a few days' time and I could compare the prices if you want to make sure. I'll be a little pushed for time, but it should be possible.

I'd still say that any agent which overcharges that much for rail tickets should be at least be treated with caution, and I must admit I'd probably prefer to look elsewhere, whatever the track record on air tickets. Anyway, caveat emptor, as so often in this part of the world.

Peter N-H
http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Nigello have you tried priceline.com.hk? Just to let you know we used Tiglion in Mar/Apr 2003 for rail and air tickets and paid too much. We wanted to have everything organised before we left Australia as we had limited time to shop around in HK before train to Shanghai. Peter, you told me we had paid too much when I posted on fodors and I've since learnt my lesson. chinatravelone.com were very efficient and we saved a lot by buying other air and accom with them. I would not use Tiglion again as I thought travel agents would all be about the same price for the same service-WRONG!!

I've been reading your posts with interests because I am in Canada, will
go to HK in May and want to use a HK travel agency or web to book a side
trip to Chiang Mai.

I have also been tracking the airfare -both Farrington Amex Travel Hong
Kong, and Wing On Travel seem reasonable. Farrington appears to be more
expensive than Wing On, and both are less expensive than Tiglion.

Just my observation