Good1 stop · 10h
HOU to HNLUnited States
Honolulu
$593
usually $825
−28%
Most monthly lows $726–$825. Cheaper than every other month on record (3).
Flights · HOU → SHA
Houston to Shanghai
Best fare, round trip
$1,496
Too little price history on this route to compare — the fare is shown as found.
Found
- Depart
- Tue 17 Nov
- Return
- Wed 18 Nov
- Stay
- 1 night
- Flight
- 1 stop · 18h
- Airline
United
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
ChinaShanghaiThe Bund on one bank, a science-fiction skyline on the other — and a visa-free transit window worth checking.Best windowMar–May · Sep–NovAirportsPudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)Every route into ShanghaiFare seasonality
When this route gets cheap.
The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 18 hours outbound, on a 1-night trip — ticketed under United, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $1,496 for 12,194 km each way, that works out to about $61 per 1,000 km flown. That is above the $42 per 1,000 km typical of ultra-long-haul fares here. Across the 17 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Shanghai, this fare ranks 16th — 3.1× the $481 we hold from San Francisco. For context, the middle fare among the 31 routes of similar length we watch out of Houston is $894. We have 1 month of cached prices for this route so far — not enough to call a fare cheap or expensive, so we publish the price without a percentage. Fare history here is still too short to name a cheap season. The best time to be in Shanghai: Mar–May · Sep–Nov.
The one day we hold a cached fare for
Press a date to compare its fares
The median cached fare across this calendar is 41% higher than when tracking began on 8 Aug — $1,063 then versus $1,496 now, across 8 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $760, on 16 Sep.
These are the only days we have a cached price for on this route so far — not the only days it flies. The search above covers any date.
Cached fares · checked 09 Oct 2026
We are still collecting this route's months — 1 month of cached prices so far, too few to chart.
Route facts
- Airports
- Bush (IAH) · Hobby (HOU) ↔ Pudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)
- Flight time
- ≈18 hours outbound
- Distance
- ≈12,194 km each way
- Airlines on the board
- United
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Mar–May · Sep–Nov
Good to know
HOU → SHA, answered.
How far in advance should I book HOU → Shanghai?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. Our guide Why flight prices change covers the levers we can measure.
Are there nonstop flights from Houston to Shanghai?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under United. We hold no nonstop fare on this route right now, which does not mean none flies — search your exact dates to see what does.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on 11 October). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Shanghai?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for 17–18 Nov · 1 night.
Browse hotelsMissed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next HOU → SHA drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
Follow this route’s feedKeep browsing
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