My Chinese colleagues continue to use Taobao and Qunar (both are just gateways to actual sellers) for airplane tickets because they like saving us money.

The savings are rarely more than Y50, they still end up buying BS insurance, and when they are hung out to dry, they are pretty much screwed because the actual seller has no pull with the airlines.

I will continue to endure Ctrip because, scam charges or not, their customer service remains exemplary.

But, today, I am flying Spring (booked directly from their extremely annoying website) in order to save Y350.