The Most Useful Questions to Book Plane Tickets in Chinese

Chinese people love to travel by plane because it’s fast and convenient. Furthermore, many airlines nowadays offer competitive prices when it comes to domestic flights. So, in case you need to book plane tickets in the future, you might want to learn how to ask the following questions in Chinese to make the booking procedure as smooth as possible.

Questions to Book Tickets in Chinese – Booking Tickets

Are there any tickets for Wednesday morning?

有星期三上午的票吗?
Yǒu xīngqīsān shàngwǔ de piào ma?
Are there any tickets for Wednesday morning?

If you want to travel somewhere, you will need to have a clear idea of when you would like to leave before you book a plane ticket. This is the question you need to ask to find out if the ticket that you want is available. “有 (yǒu) ……吗 (ma)?” means “are there any……..available?”. And in this question, “星期三上午” (xīngqīsān shàngwǔ) (Wednesday morning)” can be replaced by some other phrases such as “明天下午” (míngtiān xiàwǔ), meaning “tomorrow afternoon”, or “去北京” (qù Běijīng), which means “to Beijing”.

EXAMPLE:

有去北京的票吗？
Yǒu qù Běijīng de piào ma?
Are there any tickets to Beijing?

Are there any business-class tickets available?

有商务舱的票吗?
Yǒu shāngwùcāng de piào ma?
Are there any business-class tickets available?

Plane tickets sell out quickly during the peak tourist season in China. Therefore, you might come across such a situation where there are no economy-class tickets left for a certain flight. Consequently, you would either reschedule your flight or spend some more money in order to purchase a business-class ticket instead. Here are some other words related to different types of plain/train tickets:

FOR A PLANE:

头等舱
tóuděngcāng
first class

经济舱
jīngjìcāng
economy class

FOR A TRAIN:

商务座
shāngwùzuò
business-class seat

一等座
yīděngzuò
first-class seat

二等座
èrděngzuò
second-class seat

What might surprise you is that when it comes to taking a train in China, a business-class ticket is actually more expensive than a first-class ticket.

Questions to Book Tickets in Chinese – Rescheduling & Returning Tickets

Can I reschedule my flight?

可以改签吗?
Kěyǐ gǎiqiān ma?
Can I reschedule my flight?

Imagine such a scenario, you plan on going to Beijing tomorrow. But, something unexpected happened and you need to postpone your trip. Therefore, you would like to reschedule your flight. To do so, you could ask “可以改签吗?” (kěyǐ gǎiqiān ma?), which means “Can I reschedule my flight?”. In this question, “改” (gǎi) means “to correct”, and “签” (qiān) means “to sign”. So, if you have a clear idea of when you want to reschedule your flight, you could also use the structure “改到 gǎi dào + time”.

EXAMPLE:

可以改到星期五吗？
Kěyǐ gǎi dào xīngqīwǔ ma?
Can I reschedule it for Friday?

Can I return my ticket?

可以退票吗?
Kěyǐ tuì piào ma?
Can I return my ticket?

If you have bought a ticket but decided to cancel your trip before flight departure, there might be a chance for you to return your ticket. So all you need to ask is “可以退票吗?” (kěyǐ tuì piào ma?), which means “Can I return my ticket?”. The word “退” (tuì) means “to return/refund”. And you can also use it when you are looking for a refund in a shop. “可以退吗?” (kěyǐ tuì ma?) means “Can I return it?”.

We hope these phrases and questions will be useful and help you next time you’re booking your plane tickets. To find out more interesting phrases and questions in Chinese, check out one of our blog posts 5 Chinese Phrases For Shopping on Taobao