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Paris Return from Melbourne $896, Sydney $901, Brisbane $932 via Air China (March-July)

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More cheap flights to Europe but this time to Paris + in early summer (IMO the best time). Flights are via Air China with a stopover in Beijing. I mentioned the Melb-Paris flight last week but it has fallen $61 since.

Travel dates:
March – July 2017

Via Fly4Free

P.S. Skyscanner seems to be having some technical issues fixed now. IWTF + Momondo are picking up the same flights.

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closed Comments

  • +1

    Bestjet are Australian so Flight Centre should price beat them by $1 if that's more convenient, and may get you around CC fees.

    • +1

      Normally I don't like price matching as it takes business from the company offering the best price,but bestjet are really really really bad so I would use any option not to go with them.

      • Never used them before as I usually just book direct with the airline.

        What makes Bestjet so bad?

        • If you just book, pay and travel you may not have any problems, but if you need any kind of customer service etc you won't be abel to reach them, at least that is my experience.

          see link below - 174 of 253 review rated them as terrible.

          http://www.productreview.com.au/p/bestjet-com.html

  • I'm going to Paris next year in June/July, but have never bought tickets overseas before, so I'm not really sure - is this the kind of deal I should be jumping all over, or is this a kind of standard deal?

    • +2

      Seems like a good price, however, do some research into the airline as they can vary substantially from carrier to carrier..

    • +2

      Its the 2nd cheapest Paris flight ever posted on OzBargain with the previous Air China deal being the best. All the carriers are competing for the European routes so will likely be similarly priced deals.

      The great deals really are when Emirates, Singapore Etihad etc. compete on the price.

    • Depends if price is your only factor. There's also quality of the carrier, total flight time, stop over location, risk of delays just to name a few reasons why I would personally pay a bit more…

    • +2

      It depends on what you value in a flight.

      The first international flight I ever organised (1987) I flew Aeroflot to Germany because I was told it was the shortest total flying time (as opposed to total travel time) and it was cheap.

      What I wasn't told was that the total trip time including airport stops for fuel (New Delhi, Tashkent, Moscow) made it into one of the longest journeys I've ever done.

      Add the boiled chicken for breakfast, whole mangos for desert, banana beer from Cuba and the provision of only one blanket per 5 passengers and it made for a memorable experience.

      I did a flight back from the UK in 2009. It was mega-cheap (GBP2300 one way for 4 adults on <24hrs notice) but there was an 11 hour layover in Bankok. Again, you really don't want a huge layover between connecting flights.

      personally, my priorities in order of importance are minimum overall flight time, good service, minimal layovers, reliable planes and avoid qantas (personal reasons - some people love them)

  • Is it worth getting a return flight with Air China?

  • In people's experiences, are Chinese airlines better, worse on par with budget airlines?

    • +1

      I have flied a lot with all sorts of Chinese airlines. I know a lot of people have their own opinions towards Chinese airlines, especially China Southern. But based on my experience, I have to say I have worse experience with other airlines. Of course they are much better than budget airlines, room wise, food wise, even service wise. My only complaint with Chinese airlines is that sometimes they are too crowded, or have too many tourist groups. Those tourist groups could get noisy during the flight.

      • +1

        I have the opposite opinion. I would rather fly AirAsia than China southern in particular. Having said that if China southern was $50 cheaper in total I would prob go with them - I guess that's why I'm on OZB.

  • Great find. This is definitely a good price. Not sure the flying time but looks like it's a bit of a detour through Beijing. Also, for those who haven't been to Beijing or Shanghai, you can have a 72-hour stopover in Beijing or 6-day in Shanghai and around without needing a visa.

  • +1

    Air China is crap. China Southern I've heard is better.

    Air China left me hanging in Beijing for nearly 48hrs in a half finished hotel and compulsory to share a room with another person of same gender.

    Pretty much if there is a transit of 2-4hrs or less you will miss your connecting flight and then you join the queue with all the other people who have missed their connection.

    Never again will I fly them, once in 2011 was bad enough.

    • +9

      Ive had the worst experience ever flying China Southern. Food poisioning, general rudness, Chinese people spitting on the floor in the plane, etc etc

      • -3

        Sorry to hear that. If you've been on a Sydney train lately, you might think twice about your comments on so-called rudeness or "Chinese" hygiene issues.

        • I fail to see the link between his/her post an yours? He/she commented on a specific experience, whereas you treated it as a generalisation.

      • Oh right.

        I personally stick to Singapore airlines, for the last few years now

  • +5

    Do yourself a favour people and pay a couple hundred more for a proper airline like Singapore or emirates. Dont fly with this mob unless you wanna deal with rude Chinese people and tour groups, feet on your seats or spitting.

    • Its about $1655 with Singapore unfortunately.

      • +1

        I'd pay the extra.

        Singapore, Cathay, Emirates, Swiss Air, ANA, Qatar.

        Don't forget to look at seat pitch and baggage allowance.

    • -5

      Sure, those two sound much better. To make it even better, consider taking a private jet, as no one would spit on your floor but yourself.

      • +5

        I'm guessing you're Chinese

  • +4

    I'd wait for a price drop with the higher rated airlines.

  • +1

    Sweet Jesus the BNE-CDG return flight is the "scenic" route shall we say…50h and 2 stops there, 54 hours and 2 stops back.

  • +2

    Word of warning. Transiting through PEK is a nightmare!

    They have not worked it out. Why in the fk you'd need to check the passports of transiting passengers 4 times I have no idea. But I suspect it's because there is no transit specific security area like you find at all other transit hubs, so to get transit passengers thru security they need to put them back at the start of the "process"

    • Incoming immigration (yep, idiots make you go through it and wait in the lines)
    • Transit check desk
    • Outgoing immigration
    • Outgoing passport security check

    You cannot do a transfer in PEK in under 2 hours. You do not want to be stuck there and enjoying the onground "hospitality" of Air China

    • So thats mean everyone will need to have either a passport with visa free to China or Visa on arrival/pre arranged?

      • Incoming immigration issued me with a 24hr transit VISA on the spot without too much difficulties. At no cost.

      • No, if you're transiting international to international then you don't need a visa for China. You just need to go through a ridiculous amount of queues and checks, that no other transit hub forces on passengers.

        You'd only need a visa if you want to go out of the airport. You'd need a bit of time to get anywhere because the airport is quite out of the way, and be very careful of the traffic coming back.

  • Anyway to check how much flights are if adding in a longer layover (2 days+ etc.)?

    • Select multi city.

  • Hey folks Just booked Sydney to Rome out in June and back July
    Any recommendations? I am flying with a 10 and 14 years old. I am a bit concerned about the entertainment and the stop over. we go via pek and quite long stopovers (8 hours out and 11 back). What are you experiences?

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