Talking Travel: Where's the Best Place to Buy Air Tickets?

As now seems to be tradition, right at the moment we hit "publish" on Talking Travel, some new deals come in, and last week was no different. Our previous edition was barely up when Cathay Pacific Airlines offered a Flash Fare on flights to Newark/New York for RMB 2,110 each way, not including tax. Even with the tax included, fares totaled just over RMB 4,600. That's pretty good for flying from Beijing to the US East Coast, via Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the offer now seems to have ended.

Lufthansa German Airlines is offering special 88th anniversary fares from Beijing to several European destinations for RMB 2,488 each way, plus tax. The destinations we looked at (Amsterdam and London) still ended up being over RMB 6,000 when tax was added in. Not bad, but not great.

Some happy news from Hilton Worldwide: by April 1, all of Hilton's properties – including the Hilton Beijing Wangfujing, the Hilton Beijing Hotel, Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Beijing, and the newly-opened Waldorf Astoria Beijing – will all be shark-fin free. Hilton Worldwide is removing shark fin from all of its Asia-Pacific properties, 96 in all. Thank you Hilton! It's about time.

There's a new member of the Fairmont family, the Fairmont Nanjing. We're not sure if it has the same distinctive bronze exterior color that its local sister the Fairmont Beijing has, but we expect the level of luxury and service will certainly be similar. The hotel is offering a grand opening rate of RMB 888 per night, including a deluxe city view room, complimentary buffet breakfast for two, complimentary Internet service, and 30 percent off at the hotel's other food and beverage outlets.

Where's the best place to get airline tickets? Well, initially we had hoped there'd be a big reveal on this, that we'd find out something we didn't know, but given the three options – travel agents, independent travel websites, and the airlines' own websites – we have found that the way to go (at least in Beijing) is to use the airlines' own websites. There are two main reasons for this: 1) all airlines in China, both foreign and domestic, are required to use a single, state-run travel booking system, although this is changing. This means there are few options for the airlines in terms of pricing, and also explains why sites like Ctrip don't necessarily confirm your flight at the time of booking; and 2) travel agents here receiving their commission by charging you a fee on top of the ticket price, instead of being paid by the airline, as they are at least in the United States. Therefore, dealing with the airline directly will most often produce the lowest available price, and even sometimes generate small rewards, such as a slightly lower fare or additional frequent flyer miles that the airline will offer as a bonus.

This may not be true if buying a package, which also includes hotel or other services, or buying during peak periods. One advantage that large travel agencies have is that they will pre-book blocks of tickets for major travel times, which they can they offer at lower prices as the holiday approaches and fares begin to rise. It pays to check both, but we find that nine times out of ten, booking with the airline is the way to go.

That doesn't mean it will always be convenient. The aforementioned Cathay Pacific does its passengers no favors buy using a convoluted version of Alipay to handle payment, and its English interface is no fun for foreign users to use. It's disappointing that a first-class airline like Cathay is forced to use such a third-rate payment gateway.

That's it for this week. Until next Tuesday, we wish you one road flat safe.

Photo: Real Holiday Reports