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I will be traveling to China from the US soon, and I am trying to find the cheapest way to fly over there. What good websites are there? Travelocity.com seems to take me on a very indirect flight path. Any better alternatives out there?
Also, how do these online places actually work...do airlines sell them seats or what?
Finally, note that I dont have a choice when or on what flight to go back to the US, so I am a little tied in the regard.
This has been discussed before - It's generally under agreement that the cheapest air tickets are from the airlines website!!!!
Use sites like travelocity as a search engine only to find what airlines have the cheapest route only, be very flexible with times, dates, and airports you can leave and arrive from, then go to the airlines website and book it online. You almost never get a bargain from booking through these travel sites and sometimes will pay more.
Bangkok is a very cheap place to buy tickets. If you can find a ticket from USA to Bangkok for about $400 less than the flight to China, you might just fly to Bangkok, and then go to a travel agent there and find a cheap fare BKK to China. There might be some BKK travel agents that have websites that will give you an idea. But you'd have to take your chances, and just walk in off off the street in BKK and hope for a cheap ticket. Or maybe a ticket to Hong Kong, depending on where in China you need to go. You can also get your China visa very quickly with no hassle in Hong Kong.
I have never found that the airlines websites offer the best deals ... I have found them to be the most confusing alternative.
Personally, I would look for a consolidator and see what sort of deals that they have available. They often offer the best deals on INTERNATIONAL flights. You will find ads for consolidator flights in the travel sections of major newspapers like the NT Times or the Chicago Tribune.
Also, airfarewatchdog.com notifies you of special fares available from the area airports. China periodically comes up from Chicago.
cheap, a favourite of Flight Centre, but add the cost of rewritting your Last Will: they were half the price for Brisbane-Teipei(Taiwan)-SanFran-Vancouvre return when friends booked a year ago for a trip to ski Whistler. Xena's report and pics are on snowatch.com.au . Since she booked, a discount war has developed so maybe look into flying to Japan as well. Happy travels.
Skip travelocity, orbitz, etc. unless you just are hunting for US carriers (why?). They are very limited in their selections and searches for international travel.
I highly recommend sticking with asian carriers as they have newer aircraft, (generally) more attentive flight crews, and are usually a more pleasant experience.
I always hate it when I get the hobson's choice of Northwest (often the cheapest) for a trans-pacific flight against an asian carrier. Usually I bite the bullet and save $50 by going with the old creaky Northwest 747 that makes their Narita run. At least they still feed you.
Also, you might save a bundle by changing your dates by a day or two. Run lots of searches before you front any cash (or plastic).
There are a lot of travel related websites in the world. I am suggesting you a travel website. It may be useful to you. They will assist you as soon as possible.
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