While your paperwork is being shuttled back and forth to process your visa, you will be asked to make arrangements for your transportation to China. Book with the Footprints travel agent. Save us incredible headaches and potentially huge expenses for you by booking with the expert in teacher flights to China.
In all cases, you will be asked to pay for your ticket up front, and will be reimbursed for this in your first month.
If you purchase an e-ticket, it means the travel agency will send you your itinerary and a password. You need to print this and bring it with you to the airport on your day of departure, along with two forms of picture identification in order to pick up your tickets at the airport.
If you have a one-way ticket AND a legal WORKING VISA you are eligible to enter China. If you do not have a WORKING VISA you are required to have a round-trip ticket or onward itinerary. If you encounter problems we highly recommend going to Cathay Pacific and getting a fully refundable electronic ticket to Thailand or Hong Kong and then go back to check in again. Once you get to China, cancel that ticket. If you book with the Footprints Travel Agent they will provide a 24 hour emergency contact number so you can get their assistance immediately if you encounter issues at the airport.
About 10% of teachers going to China do encounter problems at the airport. Most times this is because of mis-informed staff at the airport. Here's the best approach, if you only have a one-way ticket, follow the instructions above. If you do have a working visa, whether F or Z, ask CALMLY to speak with a supervisor. Ask them to review their information. Explain that it makes no sense that someone who was legally entitled to work in China would be required to have a return ticket. At this point you are not sure how long you'll be working in China and when you'll be coming home, it could be 3 years. If they still present issues, I hope you booked with our preferred travel agent and if so, get to a pay phone and call the worldwide toll free number and speak to them. They may make a call to the airport or they will book you the onward ticket and provide you with an e-ticket reference number and itinerary. They may require a fax number for the ticket agent area so that you can "prove" you have onward itinerary. Then, ten minutes into your flight, they will cancel the ticket and you'll never have to worry about it. WHEW. Disaster averted.
If you're not a Footprints teacher already, isn't it starting to make sense that you should only go with Footprints.
The most common method schools use to bring their teachers to China is to have Footprints Recruiting assist with booking your ticket to China. In this case we will reserve your ticket from the nearest international airport to China after consulting with both you and the school. As the school is typically covering the cost of your airfare, Footprints will seek authorization by the school prior to confirmation of a ticket.
If your flight is a one way flight, and the cost of a round-trip ticket is provisioned in your contract, the school will reimburse you for the full cost of your original one-way ticket as per the stipulations in your contract and then at the end of your contract they will work with you to book your return leg. If your ticket is a round trip ticket the school will reimburse you for half the cost of your ticket when you arrive, and reimburse you for the other half of the ticket at the end of your one year contract.
At the risk of being redundant, here are the important points:
- Book with the Footprints travel agent only.
- If you are entering China on a Z visa, you have the option of buying a one way or round trip ticket to China. If you know that you are going to be returning to your home country after one year then a round trip ticket is often the cheapest option in the long run. However, the airlines will not be able to book you a return ticket a year in advance. You will have to select an arbitrary return date and change it at a later date (be sure to ask for a ticket that allows changes for no fees).
- Footprints Recruiting Incorporated strongly suggests that if you are buying your own ticket to China, buy a one way ticket. The reasoning behind this is the majority of teachers who go abroad to teach English decide to stay abroad for longer than a year or travel to a third country before returning home. In this case your return ticket is useless, and due to heightened airline security cannot be sold to another person. If you purchase a one way ticket to China, your school will reimburse you shortly after your arrival for the cost of this ticket and buy you a one way ticket home at the end of your contract.
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