How airline ticket scalpers took over the Chinese travel market

When I made up my mind to travel outside of Hong Kong in early March, the city's daily Covid-19 case count had just passed 50,000, with the highest fatality rate in the world.To get more news about shanghai tickets, you can citynewsservice.cn official website.

But I was trying to go to Shanghai, my hometown, for the first time in more than two years.

I knew traveling from a Covid hotspot to an area with a rigorous zero-Covid policy was going to be tricky. I thought I was ready for all the hassles and hurdles to go back - countless Covid-19 tests, approved time off from work and mandatory hotel quarantines, not to mention a sizable cost.
Third party pressures
In late February, rumors emerged that Shanghai was slashing the number of inbound flights from Hong Kong as well as capping the capacity at 50% per flight.

The policy had not been publicly announced, but the reaction was swift. When I checked airline ticket websites, I saw dates for flights in the near future turn gray one after another. In less than an hour, all available slots in the entire month of March were fully booked.

Panicking, I turned to a travel agent I knew. The next day, she called and offered me an option to fly on March 8 to Shanghai with Hong Kong Airlines.
Three days before departure, my flight got canceled. The airline offered no official explanation, but a popular theory was floated that it was the result of Shanghai's further control on inbound flights from Hong Kong as the city was reporting Covid-19 outbreaks. I frantically called airlines and searched for more options, only to find that everything was sold out.

Air ticketing agents in China used to sell deeply discounted tickets from airlines. But as China essentially seals itself off from the outside world and cuts down on the number of incoming travelers, international flights have dwindled to a miniscule 2% of the pre-pandemic level, said the state aviation administration.

However, demand from Chinese people who study and work overseas continues to grow. And the extremely short supply of flights to China has turned these agents into scalpers who resell coveted tickets at exorbitant prices.

I asked the agent how much of a "premium" I would need to pay for a ticket within the month.

"To be honest, it's really expensive these days. I feel like it's beyond the budget of many people," she replied. "I usually warn my customers right off their inquiry."

It's not just about money, either. The tickets are essentially sold on public ticketing platforms and agents aren't given preference. What they can do, however, is keep a close eye on the reservation system and quickly scoop up any remaining tickets.
The agent said there are bots that continuously search for requested flights and seize the available tickets in no time, but the system still needs considerable manual work.

Yu said she had to work overnight to monitor the ticketing system, because the airlines tended to "drop some bookings late at night."

For the date I planned to travel, she asked for 11,000 RMB (around $1,650) for a new booking. It was a ridiculous amount for the 2.5-hour route. The full prices pre-pandemic ranged from $300-450 per trip.

Feeling like I had no other choice, I agreed on the price and paid a $450 deposit, which Yu said would return to me if she couldn't secure a booking within 24 hours.

As the air tickets and Covid-19 test results must work in tandem, she suggested I line up one Covid-19 test per day for the entire week in case she found any last-minute seats I could book, to ensure I'd have time to get tested before my flight, as per the rules.

Luckily, Yu helped me secure a booking on March 8. She notified me just 20 hours before the scheduled departure. Around the same time, my PCR test from the day before came back negative. I was ready to go.