Since I moved from Dubai to Shanghai I can explore a whole bunch of new cool places on a budget. The basic principles to find cheap flights are simple. Be flexible with dates and destinations, if any of those are fixed then it will be much harder. Oh and don’t forget about the tricks to earn miles quickly without even flying.
Flights within China under 3 hours? Take the bullet train
Before we talk about flights, the bullet trains here are dirt cheap. For trips to places within China that are only a few hours from Shanghai I really suggest you to take the train. I went to Suzhou, about half an hour on the bullet train from Shanghai and the ticket was only 6 USD. You don’t waste hours waiting in airports, it’s much cheaper and often you arrive much closer to the city center.
Quickest way to find cheap flights
A good place to start is skyscanner as you can quickly find a list of cheap destinations. You don’t have to fill in a date but can chose a whole month or even the cheapest month. Any site that has similar search functionality is good as well. Remember what I said about being flexible 😉
Now you can see a list of destinations ordered from cheap to expensive. Let the cheap destinations decide where you will go next!
Positioning yourself to golden start points
For some destinations Shanghai is not the cheapest starting point but flying to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia is quite affordable. This is good news as there are crazy cheap flights with Air Asia from KUL. Learning airport codes is also important if you want find more cheap flights, you will find out later why 🙂
If you can’t find a cheap fare from Shanghai it might make sense to position yourself first to a cheaper city. I have done 4 flights in First Class with Qatar Airways for 1100 USD because I positioned to Egypt (I was living in Dubai at that time).
And I have flown Emirates Business class from Dubai to Taipei cheaper than economy because I positioned to Sri Lanka and Kuala Lumpur. (also when I was living in Dubai)
Who knows there might be cheap starting points within China but I have to do some more research for that as I only arrived a month ago.
Collecting miles and points in China
It’s sad but flying is the slowest way to collect miles. Earning miles by converting points in smart ways and using credit cards sign up bonuses are the fastest way to score First Class Flights. Last year I flew Etihad First Class Apartment with just one credit card sign up bonus and some extra miles.
I am new in China so I still need more time to research the credit card situation. In most countries that’s the easiest way to collect a massive amount of miles without even flying. In the mean time you can easily earn miles by booking hotels.
Once I find out more about credit cards or other ways to earn points in China I will write an update 😉
Sites with secret deals
I plan to have a separate section with cheap flights from China. In the mean time you can check out sites like Fly4Free Asia, Secret Flying and Flyer Talk. Enjoy 😉
Any questions, or maybe you know about other ways to fly cheap in China? Leave a comment! 🙂
Smallers cities around Shangai can be used as golden start points , such as Nanjing, Hangzhou,Wuxi and Ningbo. Japan can also be that for further international fligts. This February Ipositioned to Osaka and flew to Honolulu. The return tickets cost about 2500 RMB.
Very good tip! Which Airline was that? Air Asia is doing crazy promotions at the moment to Hawai but I am not sure I can do 9 hours in the tiny (for my height) seats.