Originally Posted by
Peter_N-H
Prices quoted for air tickets by all agents large and small are predicated on the idea that you will be paying cash. IF they accept foreign credit cards, then a premium is charged. This in most cases includes tickets bought through even up-market hotels, who will be themselves passing on cash, and will prefer that to charging the ticket to your room (which, if done, will also possibly attract further charges).
The presence of credit card signs is no guarantee whatsoever that your card will be accepted (often only domestic versions of Visa and Mastercard are accepted, for instance), and nor does the absence of logos mean it won't be accepted: the connection between arranging to accept foreign cards and remembering to put up the logos is not fixed.
It should be added that if you are wise you certainly won't be shopping for souvenirs anywhere that does accept foreign cards as this will add significantly to the already high chance that you will be massively overpaying.
Cash is what you need.
Peter N-H
China
Ctrip is the most famous travel agent in China. It does not charge the premium for instance. There are a lot of travel agents in China, like elong.com, mango travel ect. The intense competition keeps them from adding the premium to the air ticket. But in hig-end hotels, you might be charged a premium if you do not the market price of a particular air ticket. So you need to compare the price yourself.
Most of the Master/Visa terminal in China accept the credit card issued only in China because they do not use Master/Visa line, they use the Unipay line. All the credit card/debit card issued in China are automatically unipay supported.