Flight to China

bagand96

For comparing flight prices online, www.kayak.co.uk is excellent, it compares hundreds of airlines directly, and online travel agents.

As a rule, booking online will be cheaper than with a travel agent. However, travel agents may be able to help with unusual itnineries, or open returns etc.

2sides2everystory

Ader1 wrote: »

I got in touch with one of these agents today....'Oriental Visa' http://www.orientalvisas.co.uk/china-visa.html. They said to me that I needed to provide details of accommodation throughout my whole stay. It's seems a little restrictive. That's the trouble, I'm hearing so many different things.

Well I am sure that on the VISA application form it does ask where you are staying. In my case, it was pretty standard for the authorities I guess, a single hotel in Beijing for the duration.

Here is a downloadable version of the Visa Application form: On page 2 it asks

Residence(s) and
phone number(s)
during your stay in
China (in a time
sequence

It doesn't ask for dates, just chronology.

Notice that the standard visa appears to be valid 3 months so not sure what prompted you to look to apply for one month?

NB: Last year China was using two different versions (one was just two pages - the other was longer) of the application form which were equally valid for a period, and their websites were a bit inconsistent depending on where you came in! If I were you I would stick to the more recent online completion arrangement unless you can find a definite validity period for any downloadable form you may prefer to use.

Ader1

lady1964 wrote: »

As for the 'interview' the OP describes, neither my OH or myself had to have interviews, I have a multiple entry visa, OH has a Business one. I don't quite understand myself what the OP means by an 'interview' either, can you explain please?

Hope this clarifies things a bit more.

OK....maybe interview is the wrong word......rather it should be 'Appointment'

If you see the link below it says....'Make an appointment' It provides you with a slot of half and hour for when you are 'booked.

http://www.visaforchina.org/LON_EN/

How about flights?

2sides2everystory

Ader1 wrote: »

OK....maybe interview is the wrong word......rather it should be 'Appointment'

If you see the link below it says....'Make an appointment' It provides you with a slot of half and hour for when you are 'booked.

http://www.visaforchina.org/LON_EN/

Yeah that half hour slot is merely to help the office manage the queues - if you turn up an hour early I guess they might not give you a cheese counter ticket and ask you to go away and come back later, but I was about 30 mins early, had a pleasant banter with the security man (a ginger Cockney I recall) and got my ticket straightaway. Apart from the notion of "Appointments" spreading the load of the queue throughout the day, it is just first come first served.

Interesting what lady1964 found via their agency website - that as of 16th January 2012 the airline and hotel booking details must now be provided with tourist and family visa applications. That would not have been a problem with our trip but I can understand it is a bit of a pain for DIY tours / trekkers.

I see this is also mentioned on other websites e.g. this one

and particularly on the Chinese Embassy website here

alyth

Interesting thread - I'm also off to China in 128 days to be a pandakeeper again :-) All I've done when I've got previously is use the postal service to obtain my visa using the visaforchina website and haven't had any problems with that. I was studying out there for a month last April on a uni exchange and still went on a tourist visa on the advice of the Chinese organisers.

I'm also interested in Lady1964's post about a letter of invitation - I can't find anything regarding that on the visaforchina website...... I'm arranging my trip privately through a tour operator but am travelling independently both before and after my pandatrip.

And to the OP - KLM fly direct from Britain to Chengdu - I'm going into Beijing and out of Shanghai and at the moment KLM are showing around £550. However my internal flights to Chengdu are being arranged by my tour company.

alyth

http://www.visaforchina.org/LON_EN/news/254556.shtml

I stand corrected - according to visaforchina's website you do need to provide either an invitation letter or confirmation of your flights.

Ader1

alyth wrote: »

http://www.visaforchina.org/LON_EN/news/254556.shtml

I stand corrected - according to visaforchina's website you do need to provide either an invitation letter or confirmation of your flights.

I've booked my flight tickets today. The tickets I purchased may be changed and valid for 12 months. But there will be a charge of £150 to do this. The only thing I'm concerned with now is the hotel bookings. I've been told to just give the name of a hotel where you hope to stay. They won't check it. In fact, last week I telephoned the Chinses visa office in London and the lady I spoke to there said I should be ok with booking a couple of days in a hotel at the outset of my visit. But it's quite late for me now as I'm travelling first thing in the morning to London so will hope for the best. If not ok, then I'll probably use one of the agencies to to my paperwork next week.

Ader1

I went to the Visa office yesterday and all seemed to be in order. The lady behind the counter questioned me regarding the air ticket as I didn't have the actual ticket but a ticket summary and proof of payment from Thomascook. After I pointed out to her the flight dates written on the summary, she seemed happy enough. Initially, when she questioned me I incorrectly assumed she was querying my hotel reservations as I only had reservations for the first 4 nights of my 1 month stay and I explained to her that I was told on the phone by the Visa Office that a couple of nights reservations would be OK. She just said...."No. the hotel booking is fine. How about the air ticket?"

So hopefully all will be ok and they will send me my passport next week for a fee of £25 which is a bargain considering I had to pay £60 - £70 for petrol + parking + tube journey + congestion charge + Severn bridge tolls.

Hope this will help somebody else.

PS If I'd have to do it again I might consider using one of the agencies which do this kind of thing for you for around £90 but the one I phoned insisted I needed accommodation reservations for the whole time I'd be staying there.