Travelers from Shanghai to Beijing, Chongqing and Xia'men can still get 50 percent discounts on air tickets for the upcoming weeklong National Day holiday, thanks to a price war triggered by some domestic airlines, Shanghai Morning Post reported today.
Travelers usually have to pay the full price of air tickets on September 30 and October 1 every year. "Competition is very fierce, so cheap air tickets are still available, with airfares to Beijing cut by 50 percent on September 30 and October 1, and those to Chongqing are half price on October 2," said a spokesman with a local airline ticket outlet.
Continuously-surging fuel prices have caused domestic airliners a loss during the first half of this year, with China Southern Airlines reporting a deficit of 800 million yuan (US$100 million) from January to June, and China Eastern Airlines in the red by 1.4 billion yuan.
Domestic air-carriers have to join in the price war to attract more travel agencies, tourists and capture more of the market share, said an industry analyst.

How low can they go?

Stay at a five-star hotel for only RM1 a night? Save RM11,000 on a business class flight? An excited KEE HUA CHEE trawls the Net for super-bargains.

EACH time I read the advertisements of a certain home-grown airline that offers rock-bottom air tickets, I key in only to discover that they have all been sold out! So I always end up being asked to pay a much higher fare than hoped for.

My lamentations reached my Net-savvy friends in faraway London who fed me uplifting tales of ridiculously cheap fares and hotel rates due to human error. They say that FlyerTalk.com, Travelocity, Airfarewatchdog.com and FareAlert.net. are the sites to visit for the best bargains on the Net.

A business class fare of US$33 (RM120) was once quoted on FlyerTalk.com for an Alitalia flight from Toronto to Larnaca, Cyprus.

Saving money on airfare to Europe

There are many cheap tickets to Europe in the winter but if you really want to save money, try one of these European airlines. I have found for my clients that they can fly into London-Gatwick very cheaply then pick up a connection on Easy Jet to a city in Europe for great savings. For example, Denver to Madrid is $778 roundtrip per person. Compare that to Denver to Gatwick at $320 roundtrip per person. Gatwick to Madrid at $92 roundtrip per person. Total for this itinerary is $412/person. This is a savings of $366/person! Or fly into Beauvais-Paris and pick up a flight on Ryan Air. Other airports are available. Try these airlines for substantial savings on your airfare. Be very careful about your dates and times. You will want to leave yourself 2-3 hours between flights to be sure to get through customs and claim your luggage.