Why You Should Book Your October 1 Holiday this Week

It's time for us to invoke one of the Talking Travel desk's most important maxims: book your next holiday as soon as you get back from the previous one.

Some foreign residents of Beijing seem to think this is still 2003, when outbound demand wasn't very high, and tickets to Thailand could be booked in early September. Just bear this in mind: More than 100 million travelers from China went abroad in 2014, spending USD 500 billion. That's billion. With a B. What that means for you is that there is likely huge demand to go anywhere. South America, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia seem to be off the map, at least for the moment, but Northeast and Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America are the map.

So, we checked out a whole bunch destinations and fares to those destinations on local national carriers, Air China, and where applicable, Cathay Pacific Airlines for comparison. The Thai Airways site would not give us fares for any destination we entered; we'll check back another time. All prices are roundtrip and include tax and fees. For all destinations, we checked fares for departure on October 1 and return on October 7. We also included better fares available when dates are shifted by a few days in one direction or another, which we highly recommend.

Beijing-Bangkok
One of the world's top tourist destinations in its own right and the jumping-off point for just about every non-Phuket city in Thailand, Bangkok sees huge traffic from China during the October 1 period. The best fare we found for Bangkok was on Cathay Pacific, for RMB 4,110, connecting through Hong Kong. October 4-10 produced a fare, also on Cathay, of RMB 2,710.

Beijing-Phuket
With less competition on the route, fares are quite a bit higher than flying to Bangkok, although it probably isn't cheaper to go first to Bangkok and then connect. Again, the best fare was on Cathay, for RMB 5,810, connecting through Hong Kong. Move the dates to October 4-10, and the price drops to RMB 3,560.

Beijing-Hanoi
Vietnam has emerged as a pleasant and easy trip from Beijing, and for foreigners traveling with Chinese partners, Vietnam is an easy visa for Chinese nationals to get. To Hanoi, shockingly, it was Cathay Pacific with the best fare, RMB 3,210. That drops to RMB 2,160 for October 4-10. That's the way to go – save the RMB 1,000, enjoy three days of an empty Beijing, then strategically burn a couple of vacation days in order to miss the Saturday make-up. Vietnam Airlines was about RMB 800 higher per person.

Beijing-Ho Chi Minh
Same same as above. Cathay, RMB 3,280, or RMB 2,260 October 4-10. Also a good deal, also worth a couple of vacation

Beijing-Hong Kong
Now that visitors from the rest of China are somewhat restricted, prices to Hong Kong continue to fall. Cathay Pacific/Dragonair had the best fares, RMB 2,350, or RMB 1,760 from October 1-6, or October 1-8. Those are pretty good fares, especially for the holiday period.

Beijing-Manila
The Philippines has really come up in the world as a tropical alternate to Thailand, despite an occasional and unofficial ban on Chinese tour groups there. Again, the winner was Cathay Pacific, via Hong Kong, for RMB 3,010. Leave on October 4 and come back on October 10, and the airfare comes down to RMB 2,210. That's pretty good. These fares are also lower than Philippine Airlines, which was higher by RMB 200-300 during each period.

Beijing-Seoul
Only 90 minutes away by air, Seoul will be a little chilly in October, but there's good food, good shopping, and a bit of nightlife. Maybe it's not worth a week, but it could also be combined with Busan for a little beach and film festival action. Flying there October 1 and returning October 7 is RMB 2,901 on Korean Air. Korean Air's website doesn't offer flexible date choices in the same way as some other airlines, but it was less expensive than Air China, at RMB 3,567.

Beijing-Yangon
Burma/Myanmar was already popular among European visitors, and has become more so since it started to open up officially a few years ago. Get there on Air China for RMB 4,312 – but beware that it requires an overnight stay in Kunming to do so. Thai Airways also flies there via Bangkok, but as noted earlier, we couldn't get their website to give us anything except error messages.

Some notes on booking air travel, as lately we've done quite a lot of it. Air China consistently has the highest prices of any airline that serves Beijing. Many of the fares we checked were about RMB 500-1,000 higher per person on Air China than on other airlines, and was least likely to Considering Beijing is Air China's hub, that's not good news for local passengers. While it is a national carrier, it's not a premium airline. Perhaps its greatest advantage is that it's a Star Alliance member, and is pretty good about honoring the privileges that gold and other higher level Star Alliance members are supposed to receive.

Prices can change significantly over time, including down, so if you're not able or not desperate to book a trip, check every week. Soft demand could result in a price reduction, although the opposite is also true. We're still hoping for a slightly better fare to Japan in November, and that fare has risen since we first wrote about it.

More stories by this author here.

Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
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Photo: Journeys of Distinction