Villavic

So I can't either choose my seats previously? Or may I ask ctrip thru email to check my seats according to my preferences?

moondog

Generally, no.

ckjmglee

Trying to book some flights for early April travel within China...

Went to ctrip and e-long to look for April 3 SHA-KWL flights.

FM9333 was there on Tuesday evening and it's not there today...

Same thing for Apr 4 KWL-HKG flights... China Southern 3031 was on ctrip and elong on Tuesday, but it's not showing up anymore (it does show up on Expedia)...

OU 4402 wasn't there on Monday, but now it's back (and cheap too!)?

Any insights?

(FM does not show up on Expedia)

Jiatong

call c-trip, & do not trust e-long,
another option is to call China southern & buy it directly as an e-ticket.

ckjmglee

Just booked a few flights within China and although ctrip clearly offers more flights and more discounts, Expedia seems like it's catching up (somewhat)...

I booked two sets of flights on Expedia instead of ctrip as:
- Pricing was similar but Expedia does not have 3% US credit card surcharge
- On one of the flights, I could select seats (who knows if they'll actually show up!
- Expedia allowed me to put in my frequent flyer info (it'll be interesting to see if it shows up too!)
- Expedia also allowed to book my whole family (spouse and three kids) at one time, ctrip forces two different bookings

In the other trips, Expedia wasn't close in terms of flights offered or the discounts offered...

Just a data point for those searching...

moondog

There is rarely any point in booking domestic China tickets through non-Chinese agents. The only possible exceptions to this rule are full fare scenarios (which are increasingly common). But, even then, an Expedia reservation ties you to Expedia, which means you're bound to get hosed if/when your flight gets canceled and you need to make a change on the fly.

I use ctrip around half the time, and physical TAs for the other half. In both cases, I keep their phone numbers on hand in case things go awry at the airport. Ctrip is exceptionally good in this capacity, and local TAs also perform admirably... as long as the flight time coincides with their working hours.

But, Expedia -- even if you manage to catch them on the phone -- will invariably attempt to take $50 from you and still fail to get things done in time for you to catch the other flight to your destination that is operating on time.

In closing, I have no problem at all with ctrip's cc service charge; if I buy tickets from them, I earn the right to pester them when I'm at the airport and my flight is delayed for x hours. Given that this is a frequent occurrence, those extra $5 are well spent.

HKtraveller

If you have a history with them, you could try to do what I do. I have flights booked over the phone and pick up and pay the tickets at the airport 2 hours before departure (cash with no extra charge). Even should I be a little late, calling them again helps.

jiejie

No real mysteries here. Could be computer glitch, could be things winked out briefly while new flights/fares are being loaded into the system, etc. As for flight options disappearing entirely and staying gone, it could be because their information is showing the flight has been cancelled for that day/time, or the flight is sold out. If a flight has disappeared on more than one booking engine, then changes or updates from the source (airline provided info) is probably the cause. April 3-5 is a 3-day holiday in China, and flights into KWL are not that plentiful, so it wouldn't surprise me if flights on the 3rd fill up. I wouldn't trust or use Expedia.com for domestic China bookings, and real-time updates to their system may be lagging behind.

I have had success with both ctrip and elong, you can also see if travelzen.com has the flight you are looking for online. Call ctrip's English line for US customers and do a phone booking.

tauphi

I've always had my FF details on ctrip bookings. In fact it's saved in my profile so I don't even have to type it in.

ctrip does this too. It even remembers the details of each person booked so that the next time you do a booking you can just select the right name and it'll fill in the rest.

tauphi

I take that back. The FF field is only available on the Chinese version.

moondog

I was thinking about this thread when I was out tonight (can't explain why). I guess I just wanted to say that ctrip is extremely useful. In spite of the fact that I prefer hotel TAs when they're available, ctrip is only a hair less convenient (i.e. you call them, make your reservation, give money to concierge, and receipt shows up in your room ~1 hour later).

This Expedia talk perplexes me because I don't think that's a conversation we should be entertaining... at all.

Simply put, ctrip works exceptionally well and Expedia won't be able to beat its prices for at least 5 years ... i.e. the only events that would allow this to happen are: 1) WTO measure; or 2) Chinese company takes over Expedia.

In light of ctrip's market cap, #2 wouldn't surprise me.

Jiatong

+1 for this on Ctrip. I use them most of the time, & sometimes the hotel travel desk for the quick 1 day ticket, when i need a hard copy ticket.
Only once have I needed to use Expidia, & that was for a 1 way BKK to PEK Int. ticket that Ctrip would not sell me.

dsquared37

For an upcoming trip I've been keeping tabs on several flights using Ctrip. They do have the best prices I can find so far, however since when does a fare of 280 RMB + 50 RMB (in taxes and fees) equate to a total price of 350 RMB?

This extra charge is present to some degree on each city pair I've been looking at. Why and what is it for?

ckjmglee

Almost all of my travel is US domestic and on United Airlines and I book all of my travel on united.com. For better or worse, I'm used to United's website, systems and ways of doing things. In fact, I've never booked on Expedia or ctrip prior to this trip.

My perspective is perhaps very different from many who use ctrip on a regular basis. I'm a very infrequent traveler to China, this is more of a personal trip, I'm with my family of five (much less flexibility) and I'm relatively uninformed about air travel in China. Net, I'm a seasoned US traveler, but a "noob" about China.

In fact, I only found out about ctrip by browsing through these helpful forums. And, I only checked out Expedia because a flight I found on ctrip one day wasn't there the next day... For what it's worth, I found many suggestions to use ctrip or elong, I really didn't find anyone saying why it might not be best to use Expedia to book air travel within China.

As for selecting Expedia on some of the other segments, the decision wasn't really about price, but more about a few areas of convenience.

I did book some flights on ctrip and I made a dumb mistake by entering the wrong credit card expiration date... The credit card company rejected one ctrip booking, but approved another one (go figure) and I called ctrip to see what could be done. They were extremely helpful on the phone and canceled and re-booked one of the segments just so things would process correctly. The customer service and problem solving were wonderful.

Would Expedia's service be the same? Well, it's the first time using them so I don't know and I hope I don't have to find out!

Honestly, I didn't think about the potential hassles of canceled flights in China perhaps because I'm just used to United automatically taking care of the re-booking. I'll probably think twice about this issue for any future travel within China...

moondog

Almost certainly not. I've had some truly dreadful experiences with Expedia (e.g. shown up at hotel on prepaid reservation and been turned away... twice!).

Did Expedia mail you any receipts (or actual tickets) yet? If you get paper tickets, then you should be in pretty good shape (since I'm presuming you booked full Y, they are basically cash). For etickets, I'm guessing that Expedia outsources to a local agent. Chances are, communicating with this local agent would get you much further than calling Expedia. I hope your flights go smoothly.