Flight Purchase Instructions – CHIN 215

Step 1: Finalize Your Summer Plans

Read through Extending Summer Dates page

Step 2: Compile a short list of potential airports (talk to your classmates

  • Why not just stick with the one I always use?
    • Some airports have cheaper trans-pacific flights than others
    • If one student lives in the vicinity and has room for other students to crash, they can travel together to the airport.
  • Use a travel agent, or a website like flights.google.com, kayak.com, expedia.com, etc.
  • Make sure your arrival and departure dates are correct. Notice that the day you depart from the U.S. is usually the day before you arrive in China.
    The program dates will be published on our summer program website.
  • Arrival airport: Taoyuan Int’l – Airport (Code: TPE, which stands for Taipei).
  • Unless you are arriving one or more days early (and taking full responsibility for your lodging and logistics), choose a flight that arrives in Taiwan no latter than 7-8pm that evening. Past that time you won’t be able to catch the last high speed train to get to Chung Cheng University that night.
  • IMPORTANT: if you are receiving a flagship scholarship this summer, you must exit the host country and return home within one week of the program end date. If you wish to return to the country or travel elsewhere in the world, you must purchase your own travel and any required visas.
  • Look for REASONABLE flights
    • Reasonable layovers (3 hours is ideal; less than 1 hour is too risky)
    • Total travel times of 20 hours or less; anything longer is rarely worth it, unless you’re on a very tight budget and everything else is much more expensive
    • Acceptable arrival and departure times
      • You MUST arrive at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) between the designated hours of the official arrival day (see docs from pre-departure briefing) if you want the university to pick you up and transport you to campus; otherwise you need to plan to take a taxi
      • You must depart from Taiwan within the designated departure hours on the official departure day (see docs from pre-departure briefing, listed for download on the summer program website.) or arrange your own travel to the airport
      • If you arrange your own travel, you must arrive and leave campus on the correct days. The university will NOT be able to accommodate you for additional days.
        You can stay in a hotel, but you will have to arrange those on your own.
      • Failing to plan properly and creating an inconvenience for the local university or for our resident director would be culturally inappropriate.
      • IMPORTANT: Students with dual citizenship must travel to their overseas programs on a U.S. passport and be recognized as a U.S. national for the duration of their stay in the host country.
  • IMPORTANT: if you are in ROTC or are otherwise receiving federal Flagship funds, you may be limited to American carriers (American, Delta, etc.)
    *** Do NOT buy your ticket unless you’re sure. ***

Step 3: The Purchase

  • Inform Nate that you will be buying your tickets in the next 24 hours so that he knows to be on the look-out for your communications.
  • Show your itinerary to Nate before purchasing. You don’t want to be wrong about a date or an airline and lose hundreds of dollars in change fees.
  • Take a screen shot of your itinerary as soon as you buy it.
    Send it to both Nate and the resident director
    Make sure it includes the following:

    • All airports from start to finish
    • Airline name and flight number for each leg of your trip
    • Arrival and departure times for each leg
    • Entire cost of your ticket (this allows us to determine an average for the summer and give more accurate estimates for next year)
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