Readers asked me about how to arrange a trip in China. I understand that many tourist will do an around-China tour, so most of the tour is connected between multiple points, like Hong Kong to Xi’an, to Beijing, to Shanghai, and then back to San Francisco – something like this.
Let me rest assure you something.
1. You can buy tickets like this.
Some worries that the multi-stop tickets are more expensive. Well. I don’t think it is the case. Since most of the tickets are single trips, and round trip is typically the same price as double the single-trip. So don’t worry.
2. You can buy tickets locally.
Go to hotel receiption or call 800-820-6666 for ctrip to book the ticket, and they can issue electronic tickets.
3. You don’t need to have too long lead time.
Several days, say 4 days are very safe time for booking most of the lines, unless you are travelling at festivals.
The business festival is Spring Festival, and the second is Oct festival, and the third is May festival. Avoid them, and you should be OK.
My reader asked about the ticket of Oct 3 and Oct 9 of 2007. My answer is: you are not lucky since it is the national holiday and the tickets are generally hard to book. But the good thing is, Oct 3 and Oct 9 are much better than Oct 1 – Oct 2, or Oct 7 – Oct 8.
On Oct 3, most people already left home for travel destinations, and on Oct 9, most people have get back, but anyway, it is busier than norma days.
Hi,
We had rip recently(May 2007) from SFO-Shanghai-Beijing-SFO. We bought tickets SFO-PVG, PEK-SFO as multi-city via UAL website http://www.ual.com. Oddly enough, the cost is lower than direct city(SFO-PVG-SFO or SFO-PEK-SFO), you may check the rate base on schedule whether UAL pricing has been changed. We bought air tickets locally for Shanghai-Beijing leg about 520RMB one way.
You have not been rip by United. Open jaw multi-city fare is always higher than same city return fare, is not just United all air lines have the same pricing structure.