[...] Chinatrvl: I noticed you are "Ctrip Platinum VIP". what benefits that gives you - and how to reach that? I can not find the information at Ctrip website (BTW: I love their service. Good english, fast response, friendly and pro service).
Off topic, but...
It's rather a joke to put it on here
Nonetheless, you'll get 'status' with ctrip after a certain amount spent there. I am not sure about the thresholds and couldn't find it instantly. You need to activate your status level using the chinese site (or probably calling customer service)
There are two things that make it interesing for me:
1) You earn more ctrip points and hotel/flight credit. Although they're not worth much, my yearly volume at ctrip is so high that it pays back.
2) As VIP customer they issue tickets without payment: Within 24 hours of a flight, you cannot make a reservation with foreign credit card, and you can only pay cash within 2 hours of the flight. As VIP, they will issue the ticket and you can pay and pick it up at the airport. Convenient for me, when I just need to call ctrip and they get me on the next flight.
Edit: Here you go:
http://pages.ctrip.com/commerce/prom...xstc/page1.htm