Fly From Bkk To Beijing And Back To Bkk From Hong Kong

[WilliamIV]

Hi Evrybody

I plan to fly from Bangkok to Beijing

visit Great Wall - Terra Cotta Warriers in Xi'an - then River Li and into Macau.

All Travel on Land - road / rail

Jet Foil from Macau to Hong Kong

Fly Hong Kong back to Bangkok.

Will I need to purchase two ONE WAY Air Tickets?

Is it possible (and cheaper) to purchase a Return Ticket to Beijing

and later get the Return portion changed to fly back from Hong Kong to Bangkok.

I would be gratefeful if any body has ACTUAL EXPERIENCE.

But all suggestions about the Trip would be welcome

Thanks

Bill

Edited August 12, 2009 by WilliamIV

[jerrylee]

get the Return portion changed to fly back from Hong Kong to Bangkok.

The only people who can answer this will be the airline that you choose to

book on.

[bkkmei]

It sounds like you're looking for an open jaw ticket. I asked about this with my travel agent (it was for European destinations though) for airlines that fly both routes from Bangkok. My agent simply took the more expensive fare and halved it. So ask your agent - Thai Air is the obvious airline, but there may be others.

[fantuzi]

The best place to get cheap one way tickets are- budget airlines.Tiger flies to HK,Macao,Shenzen and Kanton.AirAsia fly to Macao, Domestic tickets in China are cheaper.All you can find out -checking their websites,where you can fix the bookings.

[LaoPo]

The cheapest and best way to book tickets is from WITHIN China if you have people who could do it for you.

But, in your case, ask your travel agent to quote a price for:

BKK - Beijing - Beijing > Hong Kong > Bangkok (and leave the flight Beijing - Hong Kong out; ie do not use it; tell them if they ask anything that your auntie fell sick on the Great Wall )

OR

one way ticket BKK > Beijing

and

one way Hong Kong > BKK

Book what's cheapest.

LaoPo

Edited August 14, 2009 by LaoPo

[knocka]

Look at BKK-KUL with Air Asia and then another AA flt KUL-TSN(Tianjin). Tianjin is only 130km or so from Beijing and there is a cheap high speed train between the two. Can do this airfare for just over $200USD all up (checked date 30Sep/01Oct)

Great budget hotel for Beijing is the Harmony Hotel just near the Beijing Central Railway Station. Just google it!!!

Then you can return to BKK from either HKG or MFM(Macau) on Air Asia

[knocka]

Air Asia sale currently on from 17-23 Aug, can now do BKK-KUL-TSN for $137usd one way. (test date 4/5 OCT) Train from Tianjin to Beijing $8.50 or so, 30 mins.

[siam2007]

LaoPo, creating an itinerary like that with a legacy carrier would cost u a fortune. surprisingly, open-jaw tickets are not really common here in Asia, and if so, incurring unreasonable extra costs (for actually no reason).

some good advice from KNOCKA, though I would not recommend to fly via KL, as the OP obviously doesn't have much interest to visit Malaysia.

Bill, you could fly directly to XI'AN on BKK AIRWAYS and let your itinerary begin there (though, at 8600 THB for the oneway not a bargain either).

but at least that would be more convenient than going to KL and through Malaysian immigration, plus maybe have to spend a night there due to timetable-restrictions.

but if you insist on starting the trip in PEK, then the Tianjin-option is probably the best.

returning to BKK, indeed the best option is to buy a ticket on AirAsia from HKG or Macau.

you said you wanna do all your travelling within China by land, train or bus, but don't forget that the distances are huge, and a 36-hours train ride in a cramped compartment may not be the kind of cultural experience you are after.

both for domestic flights and hotels, the websites ctrip.com and elong.com are most recommended, big and reputable companies where you can book online, via phone or livechat (in english). and you don't need a credit card to book, as your payment will be made directly to the hotel - which means: easy to cancel a booking or make amendments !

China has a plethora of fantastic-value budget hotels, virtually all less than 5 years old. they all look more or less the same, not really handsome concrete blocks, but the rooms are excellent and great value for money.

there are so many chains to choose from, and all are actually offering the same good standard for the same rate.

motel168 and 268 as well as super8 seem to have the most experience in dealing with foreigners, but even at the smaller chains and at smaller towns I always managed to find at least one english-speaker at the reception. and the people are friendly and will try to help you as much as they can, even if there is a language barrier (and yes, there is one, which means, as an independent traveller u need some kind of pioneer spirit - but isn't that half the fun already? ).

here some useful websites of those numerous hotel chains, though not all are in english, but u can always try to call their hotline, and once you stay in a hotel of a specific chain, they will book your stay in the next town for you, where there is for sure a hotel of that specific chain too.... if that doesnt help, u can book most of those budget-hotels through ELONG and CTRIP too.

here now some helpful websites (I hope it's ok to post them):

http://www.chinatravelguide.com/ctgwiki/Main_Page

http://www.chinahotel.com.cn

http://www.chinahotelsreservation.com

http://www.travelchinaguide.com (recommended and used to deal with foreigners, though rather limited choice of hotels)

hotel-chains:

http://www.jinjianginns.com/en

http://www.super8.com.cn/en

http://www.motel168.com/en/index.aspx

http://www.homeinns.com/resvhomeinns/home/index.aspx (a good chain, unfortunately no english booking engine)

http://www.7daysinn.cn/

for Hongkong, absolutely NOTHING beats the great deals that WOTIF.com has on offer.

if you are willing to spend a little more, there are plenty of inexpensive HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS and BEST WESTERN - hotels around the country, where the breakfast-options are a more satisfying for the Western craving. and more English will be spoken there as at independently-owned Chinese hotels.

virtually ALL hotels (including those budget chains) have free in-room-internet connection.

information on trains as well as ticket-bookings (it's well worth to pay a few extra-YUAN for that service, as buying a train ticket at any given station can be a very frustrating experience - socialist "non-service attitude" still applies there in many cases):

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china-trains/

I have been to China twice in 2009, so if you have some more questions, feel free to ask or PM me (even my reply may take a few days as I don't log in to Thaivisa every now and then).

oh and BTW, when will a Thai travel-agent, inbound/outbound-agency / tour-operator finally hire me or open a travel-agency with me ? still waiting for that ^^

Edited August 19, 2009 by siam2007

[LaoPo]

LaoPo, creating an itinerary like that with a legacy carrier would cost u a fortune. surprisingly, open-jaw tickets are not really common here in Asia, and if so, incurring unreasonable extra costs (for actually no reason).

Sorry, I didn't read the entire post. Too time consuming for me at the moment.

I'm not sure which part of my post you're referring to but I advised in the beginning that booking from within China is the cheapest, provided you have someone who can do that for you.

In China ALL carriers have the opportunity to book one-way tickets, VERY CHEAP, also to/from BKK but.....you have to have a Chinese friend/family member who does that for you.

My wife does it all the time (also for both of us); the system is PERFECT; the only problem she sometimes faces is that she can't put my name into the computer system which is just for Chinese characters. The solution is that she then phones the on line agent, tells them how to write the name on the ticket and a delivery boy comes with the speed of light....and brings the tickets and receives the cash, if not paid already by CC.

The guy will come to any place in the city where you are, hotel, restaurant, business, whatever.

The Chinese travel business acts and reacts much (at least 10 times) faster than any other travel organization I've encountered in my life, where ever in the world; and that were many! In Europe, Far East, Americas, where ever.

LaoPo