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What is the cheapest way to buy domestic airline tickets in China and Southeast Asia?

I am going to China, Thailand (hopefully!), Vietnam and Cambodia from October 12 to January 3. We will be travelling in those countries extensively, and are on a somewhat tight budget. The less money we spend on travel, the better. We are flying into Hong Kong and will book our domestic inter-city chinese flights there. We are going from Hong Kong to Shanghai to Beijing to Xi'an to Guilin, then back to Hong Kong. We are looking for any tips to get these flights cheap. If anyone knows of a discount travel agent in hong kong, that would be great. Similarly, We are flying into Bangkok from Hong Kong, and will need to book our southest asian flights there. Any tip for that? Thanks Alot!!!

Public Comments

1. Check a major city Sunday paper (San Francisco or LA) and look in their travel section. There are often advertised as Asia Hopper/Jumper tickets that allow you to board as many as 10 different flights throughout Asia. Mine cost $279 four years ago traveling off season, and had a great time.

The next best thing is to go to your nearest Chinatown, and go to a travel agent there. They will always have the best deals because they deal in bulk. Where as a regular travel agent might sell 10 trips a year to china, they sell at least 10 a day. Last year I paid $999 for a tour of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, 12 days, hotel and air.

Good luck and have lots of fun!

2. try www.elong.net I used them many times for travel within Asia

3. When there ask hotel staff, the larger hotels usually have a travel agent department inside

4. The cheapest way to travel in China, by far, is by train.
There are excellent train services everywhere. Its a tiny fraction of the flying cost.
The cheap/easy way to get to Thailand from China is to travel to Kunming by train, the fly to Chiang Mai.
Kunming is one of the best provinces to visit. Why return to Hong Kong (unless you've already paid for the tickets)
Bangkok is a good place for tickets, probably the cheapest in South East Asia.
If you are buying domestic Chinese air tickets in China, negotiate for a discount. Don't be shy. The Chinese never pay full price.

5. In SE Asia out of Bangkok use www.airasia.com. In China it is cheap to take the train. If you travel in coach - with "the people" you can buy tickets dirt cheap - but the culture shock can be intense. However, for overnight and long trips on the train this is a no-no. Get a bunk (hard sleeper) - it's a bit more expensive but well worth it. Don't buy a deluxe bunk (soft sleeper) unless you have extra money. But - having said that - I recommend flying anywhere in China. It is much less of a headache. The train from Beijing to Xi'an is OK - but anything else I recommend flying. You can get reasonable tickets on many different domestic Chinese airlines from many different travel agencies in any city in China. Get a Chinese person to help you find one and you can get a premium discount. If you have no Chinese friends you can try the English-speaking travel agents at the DaBao Hotel in Beijing near XiZhiMen or the famous Beijing Hotel near Wangfujing street.

6. The cheapest way travelling through China is definitely by train or bus.
You can buy tickets right from the train station or invest some money and pay a small comission at get them bought through the guesthouse or travel agency as you will save a LOT of time and hazzle. Also from Kunming you can take the train to Vietnam.
You get all info, shedule, prices on chinese web side http://train.tielu.org/ (in english not available yet)

One of the oldest, biggest and efficient web side about traveling in China is the famous (but not among foreigners) CTRIP. The english version is by far not so comprehensive as the chinese one, but still beats the other competitors. (link: http://english.ctrip.com/index.asp) I used it many times for booking hotels, flight tickets (train tickets still not possible) and got a lot of usefull info through their destination guides. (guesthouses cannot be booked).
You only have 2 1/2 month time and I wonder how you will manage. Of course it is possible but for which price? I also wonder why departing and going back to HK? Years ago, I was backpacking 6 month in China and I feel like sawing nothing.

Take care,

7. Cheap air tickets in China are available by waiting until a few days before your travel date, then buying the tickets in the town where you're departing from. Tickets are usually available at steep discounts, 30%, 40%, even 50% off. Ask around at different agencies because they don't all offer the same discounts. It is very difficult for Internet outlets to match the prices of storefront sales agents so I always buy my tickets in person.

NOTE: Do NOT TRY THIS near the start and end of holiday periods, the start and end of the school year, and other popular travel dates. The worst days are probably around Oct 1, Oct 7, May 1, May 7, and two weeks on either side of Chinese New Year. If you want to travel during those times, buy your ticket way in advance and be prepared to pay full price.

During non-peak seasons, it would be very rare for all seats to be sold out on all flights on the day you want to travel. Major routes like Beijing-Shanghai have dozens of flights daily. There is almost always something.

During summer holiday times, popular vacation spots like Lhasa are frequently booked solid but often empty seats will appear the day of the flight because agents have book-blocked groups of seats and end up with smaller groups than they expected, hence last minute cancellations.

8. the cheapest way to fly from China to southeast asia is to get a ticket from the border of China to Vietnam, that's Yunnan province in southeast China. There are lots of tour attractions in Yunnan as well, you will found it worthy.

9. i found northwest airlines to be the cheapest, but you have to call them, their number in minnesota is on their website. once in china, china airlines was the cheapest. you'll be amazed how cheap you can fly once in china. remember, though, if you make 5 calls a day to northwest, you might get 5 different prices, so you decide and if you don't like what they tell you, call later and you might get a better airfare.........