[dannysgirl]

Hi,

For those of you who have made this journey, did you let your agency make travel arrangements or did you make your own. If you made your own arrangements, what airlines did you use?

Thanks for any info you can provide.

Karen
LID 01/23/06
NEXT!!!!!!!

[Lissa]

We had to do our own. We used United. If you choose to use a travel agent to make your plans I suggest you PM me as to what agency NOT to use. We literally almost lost Lydia due to the incompetance of our travel agent.

[copper653]

We did use the agency that was recommeded and had no issues. We wanted to stay at the Victory because it seemed a better choice, but our adoption agency said that we would have to make those arrangements. Anyway, we decided it wasn't worth the hassle and stayed at the White Swan. I thought it was nice, but not worth the HUGE raves everyone gives it.

The travel agency used United, we were lucky that the nonstop flight out of Dulles began a mth before we left so we flew nonstop to Beijing on the way there.

Good Luck!

[KarenInCa]

We tried to do our own. Some airlines have discounts for adoptions, but the discounts are on their last minute rates. However, we got the adoption rates from an airline and were able to return them for a full refund after we got info from our agency's travel company.
Most likely, the agency does a lot of business with the travel agency, so they get a better discounted rate than we could do on our own.
The biggest obstacle is that you have to buy your tickets with only a 2 week or less notice to the airlines, so you end up paying more anyway...UGH

[Trace7]

Hi Karen - I answered you in our google group, but I will answer you here, too.

We made our own reservations from and flew Cathay Pacific, which I HIGHLY recommend (unless their prices are outrageous when you make your reservations - we got a good deal at the time we flew on them). NWA is one of Cathay's connecting airlines or whatever, so our Cathay reservations included MSP to SF on NW, and then Cathay from SF to HK, then Cathay from HK to Shanghai (as we did sightseeing their first for a few days). Then our agency arranged the Shanghai to Beijing flight and all inter-country flights until they brought us back through HK on our way home, where we stayed for a few days with my brother. Then our return flight on Cathay brought us through SF and we then took NW from SF to MSP. So Cathay is not direct from MSP to HK, as you have to go through a major U.S. city and then through HK, but the benefits of flying on such an awesome airline are worth it. I recommend trying to fly home in the afternoon, as it will probably help your baby sleep more on the flight than taking a morning flight home. Charlotte slept about half of the flight home, which was awesome.

I have flown Cathay Pacific to and from Asia (and around Asia) twice as well as NW and United to and from Asia, and the experience was so much better on Cathay than on NW or United. That being said, if it came down to a huge price difference to take NW or United, then of course you could suffer And who knows - it may not be bad for you. I think I have been spoiled with Cathay (and I would even take Cathay coach over United business class).

[jbzanie]

We made our own reservations to get to our Port City of Hong Kong. We did use our agency recommended travel agent to do this. However, we got price quotes from 3 different travel agencies before deciding on it.

Personally I'm glad we used a travel agent because we had a delay which caused us to miss our flight in NY. The travel agency was right there with me through my anxiety on how we were going to get to Hong Kong. They even offered to get us a room for a couple of hours in NY free of charge so we could rest.

We flew Delta to NY then Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong. Once there, the agency took care of all in China travel plans.

[richard p.]

We made our own arrangements directly with Continental for the round trip to and from China. We did so because we wanted to use credit card points points and frequent flyer miles - most agencies do not want to deal with that. I will say that the leg room on Continental was pretty bad. We chose them because they have direct flights from Newark, NJ to Bejing and Hong Kong. We did not want to deal with transfering , especially on the way back.

[Lissa]

P.S. About United. They were awesome to us. We had to make our reservations with only 24 hours before scheduled travel during trade fair. They seriously worked with us in an emergency situation during the busiest and most difficult time to travel to China. I am forever in their debt. The prices were great and as I said they saved us. We were in serious jeopardy of not being able to adopt Lydia. (We would have had to accept another child instead.)

[Trace7]

Originally Posted by Lissa

P.S. About United. They were awesome to us. We had to make our reservations with only 24 hours before scheduled travel during trade fair. They seriously worked with us in an emergency situation during the busiest and most difficult time to travel to China. I am forever in their debt. The prices were great and as I said they saved us. We were in serious jeopardy of not being able to adopt Lydia. (We would have had to accept another child instead.)

I am glad ot hear that you had a good experience with them, as I find it rare these days. I can't even begin to tell you what a nightmare our travel experience was on United from Minneapolis to Dayton, Ohio last month. But good to know they can come through in a pinch at times for people, too. I can definitely see why you are forever indebted to them!

[Sheba]

We let our agency do it. They get the best deal and it was one less thing to do. Plus they have our groups fly together as much as possible. So with Kennedy we all flew into Newark and flew to China together with our guide. It was awesome! We flew Continental from Newark straight to Beijing. The leg room was tight but the food was great and I loved traveling with our group! They were pretty good to us!

[prechrswife]

With our agency, we were responsible for all of our travel to and from China, and the agency handled all of the hotels and in-country travel. We used a travel agent who works frequently with adoptive families and flew United.

[dannysgirl]

Thanks everyone for the info! It's been very helpful.

[jasonsmom]

Our agency's travel agent made most of our arrangements. They took care of our getting to China and getting home from Hong Kong as well as the hotels in mainland China. We took care of the hotel at HK Disney and the train tickets from Guangzhou to HK.

Paula

[dannysgirl]

Thanks Jasonsmom

It's my dream to go to Disney HK, did you think it was worth it?

[jasonsmom]

Originally Posted by dannysgirl

Thanks Jasonsmom

It's my dream to go to Disney HK, did you think it was worth it?

YES!!!!! My son and I are Disney fanatics (DH could take it or leave it) and there was no way I was going that close to HK DL and not going. You can see some pics of it on our blog (Bringing Meimei Home) Jess liked the parade and the rides like Winnie the Pooh. She did not like the characters at all.

Paula