Internal flights in China - rough idea how much?
 

Hi,

I'm going to China in May and plan on taking some internal flights while I'm there. I'm travelling independantly and all the guidebooks say to wait until you are there to book your flights, but they don't give any indication of the price. Can anyone give me a rough guide of the prices of flights from Beijing to Xian and Xian to Guilin? How far in advance should they be booked?

Many thanks,

Laura

Hi Laura...

My Daughter and I going to to China for the first time at the end of Feb, first week of March. We just booked our own Intra-China Flights, and without looking the paperwork, I think the Flight from Beijing to Xian was approx $133 dollars per adult, Air China. I believe the flight from Xian to Guilin was approx the same. The Flight from Guilin back to Beijing was the most expensive...approx 200 USD per person.
All combined....the internal flights we needed are costing us a total of $470 ish USD each. I don't know if these are high or low prices........

marebell - Just wondering how did you book your tickets?

I don't have the actual numbers, but I think you can get slightly cheaper fares if you book after you get there. I'd expect Beijing-Xian to be under US$100.

I know that softsleeper on the Beijing-Xian express overnight train is about US$50, and airfare usually is quite competitive with soft-sleeper on the train.

hi! i flew non-revenue (standby employee deal) to hong kong and when i tried to come home they had no seats available. i had to have my parents bail me out of HKG, but luckily the airport had free internet. i remember that is was cheaper for me to purchase it in Hong Kong dollars, even though I was using my father's credit card.

look at some of the chinese airlines websites make sure you can purchase your etkt online, then use a computer in PEK to buy them.

Laura, I found a fare on www.travelocity.com Beijing-Xi'an for US$138 one way - I'd take that as the upper limit normally, but bear in mind that around first week of May, the May Day holiday week, will be a busy time. I couldn't find a Xi'an-Guilin fare. Return fares are normally just double the one-way price.

We prebooked our two internal flights last year and as an example paid about US$95 for a 1-hour flight (Beijing-Dalian). I believe though that you'd get the best price by booking with a Chinese travel agent, preferably not one close to an international hotel, and negotiating. Again, busy periods could affect the negotiability of fares. In the event that the travel agent doesn't speak English you can get your hotel to write down your requirements in Chinese. (I noticed that dates are usually written in the American manner - mm/dd/yy.)

Hi,
last year (August) we bought in Xi'an 3 tickets to Beijng for 850 yuan p.p. in a Travel office in front of the railway station.
After one hour we found that the same ticket should cost 750 yuan in our hotel (Bell Tower).
Prices are really different from one place to the other...
Arrivederci.

Gianni (Milan, Italy)