Shanghai with Virgin

[ddd]

I'm travelling to Shanghai soon and am having difficulty booking flights.

I'll be in the US first so I'm flying Delta to the US and then again from the US to Shanghai. I want to fly Hong Kong Airways to HKG and then Virgin back to Sydney.

My issue is that I can't seem to book a one-way PVG-SYD flight - I get an error saying there are no flights available on this date (and the entire month shows the same). The flights do exist, because they're available when I search for SYD-PVG return flights.

Anyone run into weird problems like this before?

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

I have tried what you plan, mine (my plan) is TPE one way back to Au/have also looked into NRT/HND to HKG to Au, all one way.
Plan is to get CI with a QF code one way up to TPE/or JL one way up to NRT/HND or ADL - HKG one way with CX.
It seems that booking Au to HKG to China is possible, via VA online bookings, but not the other way round.
Not that I have a solution.
Maybe phone up VA on their 13xx_x phone number, and speak to them first.
Other than that, is to see if Flybuys Travel will let you book one way, Hong Kong Airlines from PVG to HKG, and put in your FB #, you earn little FB points, 1:1, but at the least, that FB point can then be converted to VFF later on.
O/t, I am looking at CI from AKL to BNE, their J fares across the "ditch" are quite good, cheaper than the others, (am not interested in joining Skyteam, so) am looking at booking CI AKL - BNE with FB Travel, and earn the small number of FB points from it.
Later on, down the track, will look into flying CI from Au to TPE.

 

[odysseus]

These are serviced by code shares with Hong Kong Airlines. There are normally restrictions on code shares, which I suspect is causing the issue here. I.e. They can carry Australian passengers to China, to encourage tourism/trade there from our market, but the agreement does not have the rights to sell to passengers out of China on a VA codeshare, to protect their carriers.

While the craft operates, it cannot be sold in that way. A similar, though slightly different limitation is how there is a Qantas flight LA-NY, but it can't be sold only for that sector.

 

[CPMaverick]

If you buy the ticket ex-China, it needs to be priced ex-China (not the same as HKG). I suspect VA doesn't have the agreements/IT in place to do this.

You may be able to book the same flights as a Hong Kong Airways coded through ticket? If not, I'd just book them separately, with a long connection in HKG to see the city.