Friday, January 23, 2009

Airfare

I'm planning to travel to Chengdu in March. I usually fly with Cathay Pacific/Dragonair:
LAX > HKG > CTU > HKG > LAX
Economy:$1.086
Business: $9,324
First: $20,455

I also checked with Air China:
LAX > PEK > CTU > PEK > LAX
Economy: $1,155
Business: $7,411
First: $11,737

If you look closer at the fare breakdown, Cathay's fare is $861 + $225 in taxes while Air China's fare is $771 + $371 in taxes + $7 booking fee. Are taxes higher because Air China connects through Beijing and need to pay for the new Terminal 3? Is there any logic to airfare anyway?

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My analyst left for Bangkok again tonight. For this trip, she will probably be in the air (18 hours + 15 hours) for about the same length of time as on the ground (~1.5 days) in Thailand. Another co-worker told me he once flew from LAX to Singapore to attend a morning meeting, ate lunch, then got on a plane to come back. I look forward to the day we have transporters like in Star Trek. "Beam me to China!"
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

maybe if TPE finally opens up to mainland flights; the landing fees will start coming down. i think Taiwan has a great chance to displace HKG as the gateway to china; although Hong Kong is much nicer than Taipei. unfortunately, we won't be able to buy business or first class for a while. maybe if MS hits this year.

our manager had to do a same day round trip to Taiwan but it was because his passport was going to expire within 90 days. immigration in Taiwan wouldn't let him in. not sure i would do that trip(LAX->SIN) just for a morning meeting.

Jan 23, 2009, 7:08:00 PM

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