For whatever reason, I told the travel consultants that I would find my own airfare to China. So if you know me at all by now, you know that this has become an all-consuming project for me. At work all day Wednesday and Thursday this week, I researched flights and immediately identified United as my carrier of choice, only because I can purchase an additional 5 inches of leg room in coach. I figure with 13+ hour flights ahead of me, 5 inches could feel like a mile, right?
On Thursday I was playing on the United site and figured out that if I booked each leg individually (say, Boston to Chicago and Chicago to Beijing) that was coming up with cheaper fares than if I'd done Boston to Beijing. As in $300 cheaper. But I didn't book that, and haven't seen that fare again, damn it. I'll return to work next week and check periodically during the day, hoping that I'll nail that fare again on Wednesday or Thursday.
My other bit of randomness is that I learned that China requires that your US Passport be valid for 6 months after your visit to China (most European nations require that it be valid for just 3 months). My passport expires in January, which means, you guessed it, I will have to renew my passport before I get my Chinese visa this summer. Argh, that's like paying for a 10 year passport and only getting 9 1/2 years out of it! Oh well...
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