junglejelly

Need to travel Shanghai - Beijing in July 2007.My husband not keen on domestic airlines ,concerned re safety . Is this really a problem ? Any alternatives? Thanks

rkkwan

Not a problem.

But you can also take one of the non-stop express overnight "Z" train between the two cities.

Or you can pay many times more and wasting hours flying a Japanese airline via Japan, Korean airline via Korea, or Cathay Pacific and/or Dragonair via Hong Kong, etc...

Shanghainese

Flown domestic flights almost 40 years and still in one piece. As rkkwan said, the alternative is the train.

junglejelly

Many thanks rkkwan and Shanghainese

tourday

yes,its better by Z train fron Shanghai to Beijing,most of them leave Shanghai at about 7opm,arrive Shanghai early morning about 7 :00am.the soft sleeper not more than 500RMB.

tourday

sorry.made a mistake,arrive Beijing at 7:00am

albaaust

We were in China in Dec/Jan and took trains and flew. The domestic flights were cheap, effecient and from our point of view safe. It seemed that most of the planes were new.BTW a lot of the pilots have trained in Western Australia where I live.

junglejelly

Hi albaaust we also live WA. Do u know which airline u used in China ?

albaaust

For information on planes we flew go to http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/baf50/5a0/
where I have included details about the flights and trains we took.

withkids

Albaaust, this is terrific information. I love your pages. Thanks so much!

Ian

We recently flew China Southern Shijiazhuang to Xi'an & Hainan Air Xi'an to Beijing. Easy, efficient & cheap - although the Beijing flight was 5 hours late leaving. The Hainan staff even bow at the end . . .

Ian

mishkah

Agree. Recently flew Shanghai to Chengdu on China Airlines and while I was irrationally nervous pre-flight, it felt entirely safe, smooth and rather better in service, food and seat comfort than alot of the domestic flights I've flown in the US or Australia.

guenovnd

I do not think you have much to worry about -- I have flown tons of miles in China on Air China, Eastern, Southern, Shenzhen Airlines....All have been OK. Plus now Air China is a partner of United so you get miles on United rather than on Air China...You can check my blog http://travel.chinafinds.com
I have entries there on Frequent flyer aspects including China...

DonTopaz

I found flights on Chine Eastern and Shenzhen Airlines to be comfortable and secure.

Lunch was served on the 2-hr Shenzhen Airlines flight. I declined, but my seatmates did not: it was the most ghastly looking glop that I have ever seen. Dark brown goo with lumps of various sizes, with an irregular-shaped block of foul-looking rice. Neither seatmate found the lunch delightful enough to finish.

donnawolski

We plan to travel in China the first 2 weeks of September 2007 and have checked domestic airfares online at several sites as well as through China Hightlights. The prices seem quite high. Will they come down as it gets closer to our departure time? We undetstand that it would be less expensive to make reservations once we arrive in China but are concerned flights may be full in September. Is it too early to book flights now or if we wait some more time to pass, about when will the prices begin to drop? Thank you.

rkkwan

Discount fares won't be loaded into reservation system this early. Try a few weeks before departure.

Booking sites that do show the discount fares include:

ctrip.com
elong.net
yoee.com
zuji.com (subsidiary of Travelocity)

To get a glimpse of fares, try search for a flight closer to today - tomorrow, next week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, a month and so on - to see the price pattern.

donnawolski

Thanks for the reply Rkwan. Some of the sites you listed provided opportunity to indicate delivery city. Does this mean the tickets would be delivered to our hotel in that city or would we collect them at the airport? Also, I notice flights into Lhasa are priced the same if flying this week or in 6 months - why? Can we pre-book Lhasa flights without the Tibert travel permit?

rkkwan

donna - Sorry that I don't travel to China frequently myself, and I haven't used any of those sites to actually book tickets. [I only use them for research, as my parents who travel to China often usually uses a travel agent in Hong Kong.]

So, I can't tell you how exactly will they deliver the tickets. But be careful when you read about "e-ticket". Definitely is not the same as we use the term here, and I see people still holding a paper "ticket" when if they're on e-ticket. It is pretty stupid.

As for Tibet, I think a permit is still required for now, though I have read conflicting information during the last few months.

donnawolski

Thanks again for your response Rkkwan. Your answers always seem so specific that I assumed you are in China.

Has anyone else tried to book flights on line using one of the links suggested above? If yes, please share your experiences. Thank you.

albaaust

I tried to use elong and ctrip and had trouble with the delivery city bit. As well, the day we wanted to leave kept on coming up as being fully booked.In the end I gave up and just decided to chance it.We ended up arriving at Shenzhen at 11.30pm asking the hotel staff for help and within half an hour getting a flight the next day at 9.30am (the day and time we originally wanted!!)at a discounted price. We were travelling in December so I can't guarantee you will have the same experience but it is worth consideration!