I just booked a domestic plane ticket (CA, SHA-PEK return) using the Alipay iOS app and hope this might serve as useful reference to others who may be considering it. (Note: Presently Alipay might be suitable more for residents of China than short-term visitors due to the hassle involved in setting up a verified account. Also, some Chinese language or at least help from someone who knows Chinese is assumed, as is a China mobile number.)

Prior to booking, I compared fares on the CA website, Ctrip and Wechat Pay. The fare on CA was CNY220 higher than that on Alipay for identical booking classes. Prices on the rest were more or less similar to Alipay's. I went with Alipay cos it seems the most secure, and I hadn't had a Ctrip account set up.

Searching for the tickets was a breeze, and the app allows you to use filters for airlines and airports and sort by price and timing with ease.

To make a booking, a name, passport number and date of birth are required. They don't allow you to enter your frequent flyer details and when I checked with online help they said I'd be able to do that during check in.

After hitting confirm, money was taken from my Alipay account, and I got a screen showing the booking details. But the ticket isn't issued immediately, and Alipay says it takes on average 60 mins for issuance. At this stage I was given only a booking number (订单号) as reference.

After exactly 60 gripping minutes I got a text message alerting me that the ticket has been issued. No discrepancies there with what I'd booked, but I still wasn't provided with an eticket number, which is the norm for all online ticket bookings. When I checked I was told that booking volumes were high, but that mine had been forwarded to the airline and was guaranteed. They told me to wait patiently and that I could contact them Tuesday the following week (I booked on a Friday evening, and CA's office is presumably closed during the weekend, but I'm not sure why they can't get this done by Monday) to get the eticket number.

The seller is not Alipay/Alibaba itself but a third party agency (一达商旅 in my case). Alipay is therefore acting like a Taobao for travel, and your purchase is made from the agency. They also prompt you to download the Alitravel (阿里旅行) app for full functionality.

I still don't have an eticket number and am hoping things don't screw up. Will report back with updates.