Lots of news about this breaking over the last couple of days in both Chinese and English media. One such source (there are many including official Chinese mouthpieces):
http://gbtimes.com/china/ctrip-invol...ht-tickets-row

The eyebrow raising quote for me in the above link is in the body of the article:
"Ctrip.com, apart from a travel service provider, is also an open platform for more than 5,000 independent travel agents."

I had not realized that ctrip had become a platform for other agents, though the appearance of those "special promos" and oddball ticket fare conditions when pricing out a domestic flight, should have alerted me that something had changed a while back. Obviously I missed this from December 2014, just over a year ago, and prescient that things might get out of control:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/2778...ersight-needed

It seems that just as with the hotel side of its business, the decision of ctrip to essentially outsource supply and some of the mechanics of procurement to innumerable external agents, has left it open to some big problems. The business reputation is only as good as the weakest link---and there are a lot of weak links out there in China's travel marketplace.

I'm not sure about recommending this company as a first line provider anymore, for anything.....at least until there's more clarity on the situation. If one or two of their source agent/suppliers are pulling shenanigans, you know there's got to be more doing the same thing, just not yet caught.

Then again, the conspiracy theory side of me thinks that perhaps some powerfully-connected player in China has purposefully set Ctrip up for a fall and loss of public confidence.

Yep, it's a big scandal on the Chinese interweb.

What amazes me is the bad crisis management -- no big mea culpa from a senior person.

I use ctrip 95% of the time for plane tickets and 50% of the time for hotels.

Their aggregation strategy doesn't surprise me; customers want other options. Amazon followed the same path.

Only stupid people fall for the scams.

Ah, but consumer protection and quick resolutions if one transacts with a turkey on Amazon marketplace is rather different compared to having a problem with ctrip, especially if one encounters the problem in China during real-time travel where alternatives may be few and/or painful.

I'm not sure only stupid people fall for scams, but for discussion's sake let's say that rather uncharitable thought is true. My perspective tends to a different direction: why should Ctrip, a (formerly) respected upright company, even be hosting scams at all? People purchasing through Ctrip only see that name, not whatever faceless dumbsquat travel agency behind it, that is using the platform. So I'd definitely say that Ctrip has a problem here, now a PR problem as well as an operational control problem.

This is not a case of a naive traveler falling for a scam. When you buy a ticket from Ctrip, you do not expect to be turned away at check-in because your ticket is fake.

Let's agree to disagree

1. When you book airplane tickets via ctrip, the default option is ctrip itself

2. One DOES need to be stupid in order to fall into third party hands

3. I'll readily admit that customer service is lacking these days, but maintain that it is leaps and bounds better than the airlines themselves (e.g. good luck changing your CA flight to a CZ flight via CA; ctrip can pull this off easily)

The thing is, you don't know you are dealing with a third party. Everything has the Ctrip signature. That's the problem.

To be honest, I have yet to see a third party offer on ctrip...so I don't know how they are marketed. Perhaps you can show us an example?

I've stopped using Ctrip for airline tickets since the Chinese airlines managed to get their websites usable for domestic tickets. Why bother to book via a Travel agency when I can book with the airline direct? (and I compare, they're always the same prices, or the airlines are cheaper due to no fees slapped on)

Flexibility

As in? I can change my tickets that I bought direct with Air China via their website, at airport counters, and by phone. Same applies for Ctrip, isn't it? But generally I thought flexibility is always GREATER when buying direct with an airline, not smaller? Or do you mean when buying via Ctrip that I can swap to another airline more easily?

Negative! When you book via an impartial agency, all airlines are fair game. When you book via a single airline, they will try to keep you on their own airline. I'm cool with paying an extra $5 for flexibility.

I see. My personal experience with flight delays and cancellations (mostly outside China, though) is quite the opposite - if booked via the airline, more flexibility, if booked via a travel agency alwaysget told "the airline refuses to put you on another airline" and a lengthy discussion occurred. But I guess in the end it's different on each personal preference. I've had one case (booked via Ctrip) when Air China cancelled an evening flight, the earlier afternoon flight was really awkward to take, and Ctrip refused any cooperation to put me on the Eastern flight at a similar evening schedule. As the Eastern flight at that time was MUCH more expensive, and the Air China afternoon one cheaper than the original one booked in the evening, I had them to fully refund me, and rebooked the afternoon one. Guess it's really down to each situation what would have been best (or not) - well at least I could invest the saved 300 RMB or so into liquid funds

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...l#post26031596

Naturally, it be a bit challenging to get them to approve or lobby for changes that theoretically coat them money, but ime persuading ctrip to switch me from CA to MU is a LOT more straightforward than requesting the same from CA itself. And, in the event of cancellations or significant delays, they are very good about timely refunds.