Air China Sale: Starting at €317 to Asia, €533 to Australia from Paris

Star Alliance member Air China currently offer extremely cheap flights to a multitude of destinations from Paris. The cheapest tickets are insanely low €317 roundtrip tickets to Taipei, Taiwan. Further reduced destinations include Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Melbourne and Sydney. All fares include at least one (sometimes two) checked pieces of luggage up to 23kg.

• Taipei at €317
• Manila at €370
• Bangkok at €382
• Singapore at €410
• Tokyo-Narita at €502
• Tokyo-Haneda at €512
• Sydney at €533
• Melbourne at €563

All connections include rather lenghty layovers in Air China’s hubs Beijing or Chengdu. You can use that to your advantage by applying for a 24-hour visa at either of those airports. Adding two stopovers to your itinerary is free.

Flights to Chengdu from Paris are operated by Air China’s A330 aircraft. These planes feature a 2-4-2 seating in economy class. Enroute to Beijing, you’ll board a Boeing 777-300ER or Airbus A350-900. Both types have a 3-3-3 pattern. Onward flights feature a wide variety of planes.

Search & Book

According to fare rules, this offer will be around until December 10, 2019. It is valid for trips at least five days long, but not exceeding three months. The following travel periods apply:

• August 23 – October 3
• October 14 – December 19, 2019
• January 1 – March 31, 2020

Availability is scattered during the first two and generally great within the last travel period.

Unfortunately, none of these fares can be found on Google Flights. We suggest to use the Airfare Matrix to quickly find suiting flight dates (instructions). The following parameters will guide to a table showing you when the lowest fares will be available:

Enter the dates you’ve found our flight search to find the cheapest ticket offered by an OTA. Alternatively, go to Air China’s website and look for flights there.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

Mileage

Air China issues these tickets in booking class L for all segments. Most Star Alliance frequent flyer programs will not credit you more than 25% of distance travelled in award miles. The harvest of a trip from Paris to Taipei should look like this:

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