Travelling by air inside China for a foreigner

[prephil]

My wife and I are going on holidays to her family near Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province start of next month. Instead of spending the whole time being suffocated at their place, I'd like to do maybe spend a bit of time travelling to Qingdao, Ningbo and maybe Kunming. Don't know if I'll fit them all in. Don't want to do it by rail as time is of the essence. so;

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Can I fly within China?

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Is it expensive to fly internally?

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What sort of documents will I need to provide if I can.

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Can anyone recommend websites to book flights on (preferably with English) or will it be travel agents face to face?

[taylor04]

Yes you can fly in China. It's almost as cheap as riding a train if you buy it at the right time. You only need your passport. elong.com is a good place to buy tickets

[jbradfor]

At one point in time, foreigners had to purchase special (and more expensive!) "foreigner-only" plane tickets. I assume that is no longer the case?

Instead of spending the whole time being suffocated at their place

I just can't help myself from pointing out that this might not be the best attitude to have when meaning your new in-laws.....

[Chinadoog]

All you need to do is buy a ticket online, and get to the airport on time with your passport.

[yonitabonita]

I like to use ctrip.com for domestic and international fares.

They are efficient, helpful, friendly and reliable.

Tickets delivered to your door too.

No I'm not receiving commission.

Y

[Meng Lelan]

Instead of spending the whole time being suffocated at their place

I just can't help myself from pointing out that this might not be the best attitude to have when meaning your new in-laws.....

I think he's referring to their smoking habits, unless the domestic flights in China allow smoking in flight.

[knadolny]

When I was living in China 2004-05, I think the best deal to be had was with travel agents and buying shortly before flying. I remember being a bit confused since that is the opposite of the US.

I'm not sure if that is still the case, but something to consider.

[Simon_CH]

I used ctrip.com a lot when in China, very easy to use, go online, pay with credit card, get confirmation of booking by sms and print it out yourself - really easy and straightforward, great way to travel.

[Prodigal Son]

ctrip and elong are virtually identical - very similar in operation, fares, etc. I found out recently that ctrip.com takes Paypal - pretty cool!

[zerolife]

as others have said you are just fine with ctrip or elong. Don't wait for last minute. The cheaper discount tickets go fast especially during peak travel season. I think buying plane ticket in China is pretty much the same as in the US. Keep checking for a good deal as prices can go up or down any day.

What I would do is also googling the airline. Air China is fine ... Hainan Airline is another large one (however, personally, I only had bad experiences with them)

[gougou]

prices can go up or down any day.

Actually I think there is a system to it in China. I only remember vaguely, but I think it was that prices stay up long in advance, then suddenly go down a certain time ahead of the flight (really can't remember at what point that was, maybe somebody can google the relevant article?), and then slowly work their way up to the full price again depending on booking conditions.

If you speak Chinese, you can look at qunar.com, where you can see a graph of how the price of tickets changes over time.

[taylor04]

I've found booking 2 weeks to a month in advance is the cheapest

[simonlaing]

I found qunar.com which is set up by an expat in Beijing gives you good ticket prices and good hotel prices.

Other places you can look at are taobao.com, (espicially if you want a package deal and are flexible when it is these can be great. Thailand anyone?)

The other thing is to make friends with a local travel agent , as well as telling you about the super cheap seats that become available about a month before most flights, they are sometimes able to give family discounts where they get an extra discount on the tickets because they say you are related to them sum how or qualify as a student or military personal.

When in Shanghai or Beijing tourist attractions like the Jinmao some times people pass out business cards for these flights and they are so cheap because they are using the family member discount. They look sketchy but you order the tickets over the phone and they deliver the tickets and you pay Cash on delivery.

These two were cheaper than Elong the last few times I bought tickets..

Good luck,

Simon:)

[prephil]

Cheers for all those replies. Will get my wife to look at qunar.com as she's Chinese.

[TCcookie]

These have been excellent replies. I have to throw in my own twist, though: how can I take advantage of these travel deals as a foreigner in Hong Kong? I've been going through these websites, and it seems they don't accept Hong Kong cell phone numbers. So...

1) Can tickets even be ordered from Hong Kong through (the domestic Chinese domestic version sites with the cheap fairs of) ctrip, elong, qunar, etc.?

2) Do you have to use a Mainland mobile number and delivery address?

2) a. If so, would I have any problems if I had friends in Shenzhen order the tickets and have them delivered and pay them back?

3) Can I use an American credit card on ctrip? I see I can on elong, but ctrip's help seems to say nothing about what specific payment options it accepts (or else I am just failing at using the help section).

Thanks for your help. My parents and I had always planned that they would come and visit when I finish my internship at the end of the program I'm doing in China. We were depending on cheap domestic travel to make the trip work, and I was never expecting I'd end up in Hong Kong for my internship. Luckily, I have American classmates on the mainland who will probably be willing to buy tickets for us if it comes to that and wouldn't be too much of a hassle. I am reluctant to try that with my native mainland friends because it might be quite a bit of money getting tickets for all three of us, and I don't know if they have that kind of money sitting around (whereas American classmates could use credit cards and just be paid back quickly) or how much of an imposition that would be.

[skylee]

Re TCCookie's questions. I live in HK and don't have a mainland mobile number. Registering for an account to use Ctrip and Elong was frustrating. I called the hotlines and was told that I should use the English version of their webpages to register as the English version only required an email address. I did that and opened my accounts without problems. Once you have an account you can choose to use either the Chinese or English version of the websites to make your bookings/changes.

I have used Ctrip/Elong several times to buy plane tickets and book hotels. Everything was done electronically (etickets and e-confirmation of hotel bookings) just like other international agents for such services. No delivery is required. No hassels, no prepayment for hotels and very reliable so far. The only thing that I am not too happy about is that you have to pay a transaction fee (can't remember the %) if you pay with credit cards issued by banks outside mainland China.

[TCcookie]

Skylee, thank you for the reply. That's great news! I'm glad I don't have to impose on others to make this work.

That is frustrating about the transaction fee. As long as it's under 5%, I suppose it's worth saving the hassle of opening an account in Shenzhen.