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So I'm given to understand that the following "scheduled charter" flights between Taipei-Taoyuan and Ishigaki (Japan) exist and are open to the public:

Mandarin Airlines

AE7334 TPE1140 – 1335ISG E90 36
AE7335 ISG1430 – 1425TPE E90 36

TransAsia Airlines

GE686 TPE0900 – 1055ISG 320 47
GE685 ISG1200 – 1200TPE 320 47

However, I'm unable to check prices/availability for either on the respective company websites, much less book online, and my usual stalwarts (ITA Matrix etc) don't even acknowledge that these flights exist. I'm even having trouble confirming the dates of operation. Are there any Taiwanese (or other) travel websites etc that would have this info? English/Japanese preferred, but I'll can puzzle out Chinese if needed.

My ultimate goal is to get a price for a SYD-TPE-ISG-(NRT/HND)-TPE-SYD loop, but I'd like to understand my options first.

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    I was looking at these exact flights a few months ago. It's a great example of how all the flight search/aggregator doohickeys see different subsets of what's out there. I can't remember which ones found the flights, but I tried momondo, skyscanner, matrix, and my current favourite adioso. I didn't end up booking the flights though so I'm not sure if those sites will get you all the way through or just end up sending you to the useless company websites you found.
    – hippietrail
    Nov 3, 2013 at 5:09
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    Thanks for the pointer! Looking at your other answer, Momondo comes through for Mandarin at A$283/458 one-way/return in April 2014. That seems a bit steep though, and I can't get TransAsia to show up.
    – lambshaanxy
    Nov 3, 2013 at 10:26
  • Momondo for Mandarin sounds right and I belive I found TransAsia via SkyScanner or Adioso. Good luck!
    – hippietrail
    Nov 3, 2013 at 13:09
  • Have you tried Flightfox? You may find some of their regional experts have sites that we aren't aware of.
    – Mark Mayo
    Jan 10, 2014 at 2:30

1 Answer 1

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So there turned out to be a rather pedestrian reason for my problem -- I was looking for seasonal April flights in November, so they weren't loaded into the system yet. But handily enough, this Japanese site shows future schedules as well, and a few months later, they show up normally in ITA Matrix etc. (At least the AE flights, that is; GE may not be running those flights in 2014.)

On the downside, China Airlines at least here in Sydney refuses to book them, you need to deal with Taipei directly. Worse yet, there are no combination CA+AE flights, it's full-price TPE-ISG at around US$400 one-way (or ~US$700 return) or nothing. So we ended up booking our flights via Tokyo, which makes no sense geographically, but comes out a lot cheaper thanks to the JAL Visit Japan fare that offers any sector in Japan for ~$100. Sigh.

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