Sitting in the middle of a college dorm room in the US, Shuo Fang is anxiously waiting to see if he will be able to fly back to China next week.

Shuo, 22, has been buying a lot of air tickets in recent weeks in the hope of returning home quickly to avoid a booming outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States but has been largely contained in China.

Like many Chinese students in the United States, Shuo struggled with airlines to get reimbursement for canceled flights.

"I received a refund for three flights but it took four to six weeks of waiting and was completely confused about my money information. The airline has never contacted me until today.

Studying statistical probability at the University of California in Davis, Shuo is just one of a series of Chinese international students in the US who are stuck in the vicious cycle of booking - canceling flights.

According to Shuo, someone has bought up to 9 airline tickets and they feel that the amount of the refund is held only to help the airline maintain operations.

Shuo said many of his friends had struggled to book tickets since April but were eventually canceled.

According to data from the International Education Institute, in the 2018-2019 school year, there were about 370,000 Chinese students in the United States.

"You sometimes give up hope of getting a refund because the United Arlines website always announces 'refund requests'. It's not fair," Shuo said.

A United Airlines flight attendant in San Francisco said he had witnessed airlines selling tickets "for flights never taking off" since the US imposed a blockade to contain the disease.

"I think it was a mistake by the airlines," he said.

The flight attendant said it all started after the US delayed flights to China, initially until April 24.

After checking, the flight attendant noticed that on the flight schedule the company updated with the crew had no flights to China on that day.

"I continued to check the internal booking system and was shocked to see that the flight from San Francisco to Shanghai on May 19 was still there. This means that customers can still book that flight even if it is.

He speculates that the airlines are still selling flights to the blockaded places because the bet that travel restrictions will be lifted before the time the plane takes off.

"Technically, there is no rule banning them from doing that," he added.

For his part, Shuo only worries when he actually sets foot on the flight to his homeland later this month.

"I heard that United may not be able to open flights until after May," Shuo said.

Three days after the interview with SCMP, Shuo's flight on May 26 was also canceled.