Hi,

I am applying for a travel visa for China and I have been informed by my Chinese embassy, the Chinese embassy in Ireland, that I need to provide flight booking details for both my trip into China and my trip out of China within 90 days of the issuance of my visa.

I am therefore trying to book a cheap international flight out of China.

Doing a quick search on baidu, flights, even over a short distance, one way, are expensive. For example, these flights on December 1st from Kunming to Luang Prabang, start from 2700 yuan.

Where can I start looking for cheap international flights out of China? I am not flying all the way back to Europe. Just a short distance out of China. I think a flight to Hong Kong or Macao or a city just over the border from China will do. Then, I can provide evidence of this advance booking to my embassy for the purposes of gaining a travel visa.

The cheapest i have had...was on elong.com. 1500rmb for kunming to chaing mai.

On the same site i have booked a flight to the Mongolian border (erlian) from Beijing for only 500rmb ....But, Its not international.

Also try airasia.com and cebuair.com..(something like that) cebu has cheap flights from Beijing to Manila, sometimes really cheap!

Thanks. Yeah, I checked out elong.net. I see they have various discounted flights such as a return from Guangzhou to Kathmandu for just 800 rmb. I can avail of this discount up to next April but when I press on the link, I am taken to a page where the full price is given, no discount. Am I supposed to ring elong.net directly and tell them I want the discounted flight?

do airline websites such as cebuair, airasia, dragonair, evaair and so on offer a direct link to discount flights like elong does?

airasia.com

Just click around. airasia site was pretty easy to find low fares with some clicks.

On elong, if you really want to go to Kathmandu for 800rmb, you need to keep entering dates on elong till you find the fare or something close to it. They do have English speaking agents who could assist you also.

I will be in Hong Kong in a few days. Then, I will fedex my Irish passport and documents to a visa agency in Ireland. I am applying for a new travel visa for China. The visa agency has told me that I need to provide evidence of both a flight booking into china and out of china within 90 days of the issuance of my new visa in the case of the flight out of china.

So, I'm thinking a really convenient flight booking would be a return flight from Hong Kong to a destination in mainland China and then around 80 days or so later a flight back to Hong Kong. Probably it would save me a fair bit of money.

Does anyone know where I can book a discount return flight from Hong Kong to any place in China?

800 is most likely the price for the flight then they add taxes and all that. It ends up being more like 2000.. My flight to chaing mai i was talking about was only 400 or something like that, but then you add taxes! Not really sure about the other sites ..now that i think about it once i got a flight from Tianjin to Kuala Lumpur for under 1000 with tax! check on airasia.com

Are there any low cost carriers that operate out of Hong Kong? Perhaps I can use such an airline to book a cheap return flight to a destination in mainland China and back again.

Jetstar and DragonAir. Neither are real budget like airasia and cebupacific. Those last two are your best bets in HK.

And bjtokm is right about taxes and fuel surcharges. They can easily be same or more than the airfare.