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Q: How do you arrange your flights?
I am booking a flight from Shanghai to Vancouver. I'm new to this. Do you use a big portal travel site like travelocity? Or can I trust the more local travel agencies here in the city?
I don't speak Chinese. I'm also fairly poor so I need the lowest price. I work full time, so I prefer to do things online, although Mondays and Tuesdays are my 'weekend' making business for me easier....
Any suggestions?
10 years 20 weeks ago in Transport & Travel - China
Since I am some kind of super nerd, I will usually
1) Find relevant airports on Wikipedia, there will be a list of all airlines operating
2) Go through all airlines web sites
3) Use a site like www.momondo.com to search alternate routes, and realize steps 1 & 2 are a bit waste of time
4) conclude that using flight search engines for some reason always involves a 17 hour stop somewhere in Russia (might not apply to Shanghai - Vancouver, but you never know)
5) Book directly from the airline of choice
When you are hunting cheap tickets, it will matter a lot what day of week you are looking at, and also how many stops you are willing to accept. The direct flights (if available) are always the priciest, but remember it will also save you spending time and money on crappy food in some airport somewhere.
JanShanghai:
thanks for the momondo.com site, that looks promising.
So have you found that buying from the airline directly is cheaper than using a travel agent?
Scandinavian:
for most airlines yes. the travel agent makes it easier but needs a cut of the price.
what the airlines actually do in many cases is that they allocate a certain percentage of the seats to travel agents, and then they sell the rest of the tickets themselves, the portion of the tickets allocated to travel agents can be very cheap if the flight is on route with overcapacity, which my best guess is that your route is not.
plan as much into the future as possible, it is always expensive to book tickets just days or weeks in advance.
I would recommend to use some help of a Chinese friend. There are a lot of sites in Chinese, there can be discounts, too.
I buy online, it's cheaper. I use CTrip, they have an English version and it does a good job at finding cheap flights. Shanghai/Vancouver, you should be free of crappy flights (ie. the joy of waiting 15 hours in Moscow airport if you go to Europe)
dom87:
are you seriously considering taking aeroflot over moscow? its like playing lottery with life and death
DrMonkey:
I took Aeroflot a couple of times, and I'm still there to speak about it ^^ They seems to have some bad reputation indeed
http://news.travel.aol.com/2010/05/20/worlds-most-deadly-airline/
Reality, however, sounds not as simple as "they are bad"
http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/2584/how-good-are-aeroflots-current-safety-and-performance-standards
If we look for the last decade, they seems to be fine
http://www.grumpytraveller.com/2013/02/21/is-it-safe-to-fly-aeroflot/
But then, I look for recent statistics, and they seems as good as anybody. Actually, Chinese airlines seems to be a worst gamble
http://www.airfleets.net/crash/fatalities_airline.htm
TMaster:
Been to Moscow Airport for transfer.
Will gladly pay more on all of my future flights so I don't have to see it ever again.
diverdude1:
hehe,,, I flew Aeroflot (Aeroflop) a few times back in the '70s. One of the few airlines that handed out hard candy to suck on to pop your ears. :-p I still think it was kinda fun,, the way that we all applauded upon landing,,, a nice reminder that flying by jetliner was still pretty cool and wild ! 
I generally would book direct through the official airline website.
The key is to be flexible, you can see how the price can fluctuate by thousands of RMB just by changing your departure/return dates by a day or two.
If for some reason you don't have a credit card, I would recommend you first find the itinerary and price online through the airlines website, print it out and take it to a local travel agent and ask them to book the same flight for you. Of course they will tack on a couple hundred RMB to the price, but I think it's reasonable given the circumstances.
I use skyscanner.net (they have an app for iPhone) and then let them search for the lowest price. Next I will go directly to the lowest priced airlines website and check there, it's usually 10-20% lower than skyscanner even though they say they don't take a commission. Compare with the next lowest price through skyscanner then if all looks good I book.
You can use a local travel agency but it's only worthwhile if you have a friend who works at one otherwise you won't get the BEST deal.
I have found CTrip gives the best prices for me so far.
i look online through bestflights from Australia however i then take the info to a travel agent and they discount it by $1 and do all the work then give me a $20 voucher for next time. if in China I use Ctrip for domestic flights
Try to avoid, of course, major holidays periods. And, in my experience, you can find the best deals if you book 3-4 months in advance. Also, prices change almost daily, so you better check several times what options you can find, till you find the right deal. Using website like Edreams.com (or the others suggested) helps a lot in checking a vast range of flight. Then, once you choose the one you want, usually you can get a slightly better deal if you book it directly through the airline website.
And no, you don't need a chinese friend to buy a ticket.
I use Mobissimo, KAYAK and Cheapoair for international flights.
I usually use Ctrip to check which flights are available then i go directly to the airlines website to compare the prices with ctrip. Usually prices are pretty similar but sometimes u get a better deal with the the airlines website. I purchased my round trip to Vancouver in Oct. directly from the China Eastern airlines and was able to use my Canadian credit card
Farecompare.com will do a reasonable job and gives you the comparison from 3 sites. You must book early at least 60 days in advance and a Tuesday flight ( a red eye) is usually the cheapest.
Watch out for real cheap fares like Tiger because they have a charge for checked in baggage and it constitutes a 40% increase in the fare. Idiotic!
Bravofly
Skyscanner
Take your time, use a spreadsheet and make sure you have all the connecting flights sorted and allow for different terminal arrivals and departures.
Most of the time I use skyscanner. I like it because the price they list is the price you pay. All taxes, fees, etc. are included. They have applications for IOS devices and probably android as well.
Book directly on Air Canada's sight. For all the bad mouthing about Air Canada, it is one of cheapest and most reliable international airlines for the purpose of flying into Vancouver. I have been flying return to Canada for the last 7 years from China. Usually through Pudong in Shanghai. Air China cost about the same if not more. But on overnight delays Air Canada will put you in a luxury hotel and feed you. A Chinese airline doesn't do that.
www.elong.net in English or www.elong.com in Chinese. Cheap.
Skyscanner without a doubt are the best.
I have been using them for the past 5 years and travelled to over 12 countries, without exception they have given me the best price.
I used to do a lot of comparison and try other sites but over the past year I realised it is pointless as Skyscanner always come up with the best price for me. Occasionally a direct airline site will have a slightly cheaper deal if there is a special offer.
One thing I have noticed is that it is usually cheaper to fly on Tuesdays or sometimes Thursdays. I assume that this is because fewer people fly on business trips or leave for a vacation on these days.
Thanks for all the helpful advice everybody! Happy travels!
