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Hello, I'm currently in Thailand and I've been looking for a ticket home (the US) for March and April for two people. I was looking at flying out of Bangkok on March 3 or 4 to New York City, and then flying out of San Francisco on April 25 or 26 back to Bangkok. Kayak and every other website showed me China Eastern for about $885 and also Air China for ~$980. I like to book directly with the airline. I chose the Air China flight since it is about 24 hours each way as opposed to 35+ hours with China Eastern. Also, I can't select a multicity itinerary with China Eastern. The problem is I tried booking it on Air China's website about five or six times, each time after I put in my CC information and click Purchase, it says Failure to Authorise, check with your bank. My bank said everything's fine, it must be Air China's website. The only thing that might be a problem is that I have a debit card from Bank of America. I've used it as a credit card for the last ten years (it has a Visa logo on it) but the bank said that the website might not take it for some reason. My questions are: 1) Is Air China's website notorious for being awful? 2) Would a website really differentiate between a credit card and a debit card with credit card capabilities? I've never encountered that in the 10+ years I've been using it that way. 3) If I have to purchase it through a website like Kayak, Expedia, Travelocity, etc., is any one better than the others? I'm really reluctant to buy the ticket, but it might be the only way to save the $500 or so since I have to buy two tickets. Thanks for your help.
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Dec 11, 2013 14:23
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 12:58 |
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Mackieman posted:The problem here is that you're using a debit card. Though many merchants allow the use of debit cards as credit transactions, it is not a credit card and when a merchant requires a true credit card, it won't pass muster. That's why the validation is failing on Air China's site. Their site isn't broken; you've not specified valid payment. If you don't have a true credit card and can't get one, you can place the ticket on hold and go to one of their ticketing offices (they likely have one at BKK) and pay for it in cash there. In sum, answer to question one: nope, it works ok. Answer to question two: yep, it can and does. Ah, that's so frustrating. I've bought tickets the same way on Singapore, Qantas, Cathay, Air Asia, Swiss, etc with my debit/credit card without any problems at all. I'm already in contact with the US Air China office, so hopefully I can buy it through them that way. They also seem to have the stipulation that the traveler needs to carry the credit card used to purchase the ticket. Anyway, thanks for your help.
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Dec 13, 2013 02:08
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So, I booked a one way ticket home (NYC) from Bangkok back in December. I'll be flying on March 17th. I was expecting to spend around $600-$650, but I found this super low price on Etihad for $415. I booked it, though I did realize at the time that the flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK would be operated by Etihad, but on a Jet Airways plane. Some friends also booked a ridiculously cheap Etihad ticket to New York from Bangkok, but they have to change somewhere in India and in Brussels as well. Is there anything I should know about this flight at all? It looks like I'll be on a regular Etihad airplane from Bangkok to Abu Dhabi, then on a Jet Airways plane to JFK. For just over $400, I don't think I'll complain that much. For the record, the Abu Dhabi-JFK flight is EY 103.
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Feb 19, 2015 05:16
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Mackieman posted:These are called 5th Freedom flights and can be a good deal in some cases. That's a long time in coach, though, and be aware of layover times. They could be significant overnights at each stop. Huh, that's interesting. Yeah, it's only 3 hours in Abu Dhabi but something like 14 hours in the air from Abu Dhabi to New York. It just seemed strange to me that it's a Jet Airways airplane but we don't land in India at all.
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Feb 19, 2015 17:12
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I have a question not necessarily about finding the cheapest flight, but about routes and layovers. I'm looking to fly from San Francisco to Singapore at the beginning of August one-way, and I found a good price for that - $618 leaving on Friday the 7th. There are two options to get to Singapore with the same price: a 5.5 hour layover in Seoul, or a 3 hour layover in LAX followed by a 1.5 hour layover in Tokyo. I feel like I might be a little paranoid for asking, but with this MERS breakout popping up in the news more and more, would you guys think it's crazy to choose the route with two layovers just so I can avoid Seoul? The overall travel time is only 20 minutes more. Edit: I guess I'm not that paranoid. Singapore Airlines is waiving cancellation and rebooking fees if you want to change your flight from stopping in Seoul. So is Cathay Pacific. Edit 2: Maybe I am paranoid. The CDC doesn't seem to think there's much to worry about and I couldn't find a mention on travel.state.gov. LosMein fucked around with this message at 18:41 on Jun 14, 2015 |
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Jun 14, 2015 16:15
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Haha thanks.. I'm usually the last person to overreact. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse to take a flight on an A380.
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Jun 14, 2015 23:14
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I have a return flight from JFK to SIN on Jan 1 on Air China. I booked it from Singapore way back in September because a two week trip to the US for less than $800US was too good to pass up. The trip here was decent enough I guess, but I was never able to choose my seat for the JFK to Beijing portion of my return trip. When I go on the website to choose it, it still shows that all seats are full. Should I be worried that I won't be able to actually get on that flight? Thanks.
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Dec 28, 2015 06:31
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fordan posted:Many/most airlines do block off seats for advance assignment: some for elites, some for handicap access (bulkhead) or for an extra fee for seats like exit row. Generally these open up at check-in, sometimes until actually at the gate if it involves an actual nicer seat where someone needs to get bumped up to premium economy or business class to accommodate all the passengers. Thanks for that, that's a relief to know. I will be on CA982. Bizarre to see all the seats are marked premium but now that I think about it, on my flight to JFK from Beijing two weeks ago I sat next to a professor from SUNY stony Brook. He said that he'd paid for a premium economy seat but got assigned a regular economy seat. Don't know what kind of shady stuff Air China is pulling, but I think I did OK with a $775 roundtrip ticket from Singapore to New York for Xmas and New Years. Thanks again.. I'll be using that website in the future myself.
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Dec 28, 2015 16:06
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fordan posted:The "Premium" Expertflyer is using basically means "elites" or people who have achieved higher status in the airline's frequent flyer program. I didn't see a seat listing for a "Premium Economy" which is usually a bit larger seat and slightly better service than Economy but not as good as Business class. I was actually bumped up to Premium Economy for the 13 hour flight, which was a godsend. Overall, however, Air China was a pretty negative experience - from not allowing phones even in flight mode (which was pretty important after spending 40 hours in their planes in 3 weeks and watching all of their English entertainment multiple times) to the awful airport in Beijing to the terrible food even by airline standards. Next time I would gladly pay a few extra hundred dollars not to fly with them.
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Jan 3, 2016 11:16
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I've got a slightly unusual question. I'm coming up to the end of my contract at my current job and as part of the contract, they'll reimburse me for a flight up to a certain dollar amount. Ostensibly it's to go home, but they don't really care. I don't plan on going anywhere to use the full amount they're offering, so I'm looking to get a refundable ticket as close to that dollar amount as possible. The destination doesn't matter of course. Is there any search engine out there that will allow me to input those options? Price, refundability, but without a specific destination in mind? I know Skyscanner lets you look for tickets to anywhere, but I don't think I can search for refundable tickets specifically on there. Otherwise I suppose I can just manually go through random airline websites and try to figure out a ticket as close to that amount as possible. Thanks. (Yeah, I know it's a moral grey area, but our HR person suggested it so I'm fine with it.)
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Jul 7, 2017 02:40
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 12:58 |
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asur posted:I believe ITA Matrix can search by fare class. I would start with an airline you regularly fly though and branch out from there even with the search engine. I don't see the point of getting $X more if it's on an airline that doesn't go where you want or is more expensive. Thanks for that, I've been trying it out for a little while now. It's good to know, but I can't really search for a ticket that's refundable (not that I could see, at least). I guess I'll just have to do it manually. peanut posted:wild guess but... if it's a job teaching english in asia I think they at least require it to be to your home country. Good guess! But in this case it doesn't have to be to my home country, for some reason.
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Jul 8, 2017 17:18
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