Seattle → Shanghai flights
Fares on SEA–PVG have a 30-day median of $451, with the bottom quartile sitting at $435 or below — book early when prices soften toward that range.
Seattle–Shanghai: target $435–$451 and watch for dips near $405
Key takeaways
- Median fare is $451 across 30 daily snapshots — a reliable central target for budget planning.
- Bottom-quartile threshold is $435: one in four sampled fares came in at or below this level, so it's an achievable — not just aspirational — target.
- The floor was $405, roughly 10% below median; catching a fare that low likely requires flexibility and timing, but it did occur in this window.
- Spread of 26% between low ($405) and high ($512) signals moderate price volatility — enough room to benefit from monitoring fares over days or weeks.
- P75 is $490: if you're seeing fares above $490, you're in the pricier quarter of observed rates and may want to wait or adjust travel dates if possible.
30-day price trend
See full numbers and stats on the SEA → PVG price history page.
The full picture
Seattle to Shanghai Pudong (PVG) is a competitive transpacific corridor, and the 30-day fare snapshot reflects that balance: a median of $451 with a relatively tight interquartile range of $435–$490. A 26% spread between the observed floor and ceiling is moderate for a long-haul international route — it means prices aren't wildly unpredictable, but there is still meaningful money to be saved by timing your purchase well. Fares in the bottom quartile ($435 and below) appeared regularly enough across the sample to treat that band as a realistic target rather than a lucky outlier.
On routes like SEA–PVG, fares generally tend to soften in two windows: roughly 6–8 weeks before departure when carriers adjust unsold inventory, and occasionally in the 10–14 day window when last-minute seats get discounted — though the latter strategy carries obvious schedule risk on a transpacific itinerary. The $405 floor observed here likely reflects one of those inventory-clearing moments. Setting a fare alert at or near $435 (the p25 level) gives you a data-grounded trigger: when a fare hits that threshold, the data suggests you're in the cheaper quarter of what this route typically offers.
No dominant carrier pattern is identifiable from this dataset alone, so it would be misleading to steer you toward a specific airline on price grounds. One honest caveat: 30 daily snapshots capture cheapest cached fares at a single point each day — they may not reflect every sale or flash discount that appeared intraday, and seasonal shifts (holidays, Golden Week, summer peaks) can push fares well outside this observed range. Treat these figures as a current baseline, not a guarantee of what you'll find when you search.
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Related travel pages
Why we regenerated this article: Price spread tightened by 59 points. We only rewrite when the underlying price index actually moves — stable weeks keep the previous take.
AI-authored from this route's 30-day price index. Article last regenerated Aug 8, 2026. Fares shift continuously — confirm at booking.