China Travel Forum

[Brendan]

Hello
I wanted to book internal flights from Beijing to Kunming and Kunming to Guilin. I tried http://www.elong.com/flights/ but it wouldn't give me any dates past Feb. 28 - are most flights inside China normally booked within 2 weeks? How difficult is it to get flights (how many days in advance should I book?)?
Thangks in advance

[Mandy]

Flights can be booked very close to departure in China, sometimes even on walk-up basis. Flight schedules change from winter to spring mode on March 1, that is why you can't get access to flights yet online. Try after March.In China, you can reserve seats on flights reasonably far in advance and pay full price, but if you wait until closer to departure date (within 2 weeks), the discounts become available. On short notice, BJ to Kunming has lots of flights and should be available; the Kunming-Guilin route has fewer flights and they often get booked out, so that's one to get in advance or while you are still in BJ, if you can, if you are on a critical time frame.