海关 is Customs. Maybe 公安 will work.

I realize that, but all of the registration MPs I currently have saved contain 海关 somewhere in their titles.

In my experience out of roughly 20 police stations, only one asked for a lease contract, etc, and I had to call 12345 to resolve it. All others did it within 5 minutes once I gave them the address, passport, and phone number, and were super nice and friendly.

The thing about locals having to be registered is that the property owner has to report to the local PSB who is staying in (and not that they have to register when they come back from overseas) and from what I understand every city has different systems (from the IT point of view) whereby in some cities the actual app is the same for foreginers and locals and in some cities there are two distinct systems. Some local apartment bosses showed me the systems and they are confusing as hell :D

For me as someone who cares about having no problems in the long term with the country I prefer to overprotect and just do the registration anyways and while technically you need to do it at every place where you spend >24 hours, it is the first one after the entry that is crucial.

Good tips, thanks! I didn't find anything for Yanbian/Yanji, but I'm very bad at searching for stuff in Chinese (translation and copy/paste is my only way).

Well, hopefully the owner of the homestay will do the registration properly. I'm just curious to see if there is an easy online backup.

Good to hear!

Sharing my experience of handling a schedule change for a ticket purchased through Trip.com.

I maintain a policy of booking directly with airlines unless there is a huge price difference. However, sometimes the difference is too much to ignore, and I take the risk knowing that there can be hassles when there are flight schedule changes.

• I bought a ticket for two connecting flights. Some months later, there was a schedule change which saw the flight date being delayed by one day (23 hours). The route doesn't operate daily and the new date didn't suit. It would work for me to fly 2 days earlier.
• Their self-service rebooking allowed rebooking +/-1 day of original date which meant I couldn't rebook it myself.
• First chat agent also said that rebooking was +/-1 day only. Kuwait Airways said their policy is +/- 7 days for a schedule change of this magnitude.
• Second and third agent confirmed it is +/-7 days and lodged the change for me. For some reason the change was cancelled (they later explained it was due to the airline's request to hold off in case of further schedule changes).
• Fourth agent didn't want to get into the permissible date change period but re-requested the change for me.
• At that time, I was frustrated enough to start a new chat to initiate a complaint. There was no separate complaint phone number or email so all I could do was initiate one through their regular chat. To my surprise, they were really sympathetic and escalated it quickly with an apology received within 24h with a USD15 credit to my account. They also confirmed the correct +/- 7 day delay.
• The change was finalised a few days later, delayed due to the airline's request to hold off because they were in the midst of further substantial schedule changes.

OVERALL:

Cons:

• Variable customer service experience for handling schedule change rebooking.

Pros:

• Very cheap prices not obtainable directly from the airline.
• Pretty good escalation and complaints process.
• Chatbot passes me to live chat quickly. No waiting for live chat in all instances, serviced once in English and other times in Japanese or Indonesian with live translation (impressive technology)
• The date change request was trackable with estimated completion time being updated a few times. Got the assurance that it was being managed rather than forgotten.

What do you reckon? Was my experience worse or better than yours?

Why didn't you call them? It's much more efficient than chat and the agents are more useful (I wouldn't necessarily say more knowledgeable, but they can do more things, and escalate to bigger fish, if needed).

IMO/IME their customer service (over the phone) is better than every other OTA I've used, as well as most airlines and hotel groups. In fact, I'd even pay a small premium to book with them instead of directly with sketchy airlines.

I like things in writing. They were able to review my interactions when they reviewed my complaint. I know that conversations are recorded and they would have reviewed it too, probably. Perhaps, just my preference.

And definitely, when it comes to Chinese airlines, I prefer Trip.com over Chinese airlines' websites which are rather hopeless.

But my mixed experience with them means that I would still book direct if dealing with airlines that I know well.

They send you tons of emails that are far better organized than chat transcripts if you initiate contact by phone or move onto phone after giving up on chat.

Even though off topic here in the Trip thread, I thought I would update on my experience on police address registration. I had booked an apartment through Trip.com. It was listed as a Homestay on Trip and I knew there was no reception.

After getting the host's Wechat with the help of Trip's customer service I asked the host if they would do police address registration on our behalf. They said that it's not required for B&B. I said I think it is but that I will do it myself instead.

After arriving and checking in I went to the nearest police station. It was the wrong police station.

- "You stay on the other side of the river, you should go to this other police station".

After a short Didi ride I'm told this is also the wrong police station.

- "No, we handle the area on this side of the river, you need to go to this other police station" (This is another river than the first one!)
- "Are you sure, police station X told me to go here and that other police station is so far away?"
- "Yes sure, but go tomorrow instead." (As time was getting close to 5pm I guess it was a good suggestion).

At the third police station the next morning they confirm that I'm at the correct place. They understood what I wanted to do, I think (all communication is through translation apps), and it seemed like they started some process on their computer. Or they were only looking up information, who knows. However, after some discussion between the police officers, and verifying with me that I only stayed for a short time, they said that registration was not required. I asked again to verify, pointing to the arrival card stub where it says as the first point that foreigners who "reside or stay in domiciles other than hotels" shall go through "the registration formalities with the public security organs in the places of residence". The officer confirmed that registration was neither possible nor required and said that I should only do registration if I'm renting an apartment for a long time.

OK I thought, can't do more than this. Anyhow, no one mentioned anything about improper address registration when going through exit procedures at immigration and, fingers crossed, it won't cause any other problems in the future.

What city was that? Electronic registration is the norm in most tier-1 and tier-2 cities. You can still go to the PSB if you prefer, though.

Yanji!

Yes, you have to register with the actual station that is responsible for that area, others cant do it.

This is an apt place to mention the "stay at a hotel for night 1 because they can do it on your behalf" strategy. Even if you don't stay there, think of it $30 to avoid the PSB drill.

Which I did in the end, but the correct station couldn't (wouldn't?) do it.

Agree! Mental note for future trips.

Sounds like incompetence on their end.

I only had a problem with one station, and the rest would do it seamlessly in like 5 minutes upon showing them the adress and the passport. That said I did not tell them it's an airbnb or something, and they did never asked.

Btw, In Shanghai, i stayed at a friend's house and so did the online registration (it was my first night after arriving) and it was approved on the spot. The police then came to friend's house like 3 days later when I was long gone and they then called me and asked where am I etc. Was not a problem, but its just intresting.

I am not confident that every single hotel knows how to do it/ does it.

You can always request a confirmation, if you are in doubt.

Well, the other day a place in SZX said they could not print the confirmation, and they said - here is the system, you play with it, and try to print the form. It was a PSB system for both - citizens and foreigners and I did not see any option to print the document. I still don't know if being in that system equates to being registred with the PSB or not.

I don't know how many people got to take advantage of the Fall Mega Sale Trip.com had last week, but I was lucky enough to get the 65% off discount for a flight from LAX to the Philippines! I wasn't planning on traveling again this year, but Trip.com made it possible to travel on what is possible the best flight deal to Asia I will ever get.

So, the 2 websites operate independently with different user and inventory databases? Should one sign up and check both for each trip?

Thanks.

For high speed rail reservations within China, what is the markup for CTrip/Trip? Should one use the official 12306?

Thanks.

Yes, it pays to sign up and compare. My hotel in Rome near Termini station was about half price on Trip.com compared to Agoda, Booking.com and Hotels.com. It was an extreme example though. Some were slightly cheaper on Trip.com in the case of Rome and a few European cities. In some cities, it isn't competitive at all and have very few hotels available which limits the choice.

It varies by route or cost of the ticket. Around USD1 to 5. Perhaps around 10% of ticket value or more. I used it quite a lot to request tickets before it opens at 2 weeks before the travel date, and at that time it is booked for me. Very handy as I was travelling with friends. Don't need to be afraid of missing out.

The official site seemed painful to set up but I eventually did it. Will be using it for the first time in two days.

Trip.com posts the commission separately, but yes, around that value. Ctrip does not charge a commission and sometimes gets a few RMB cheaper if you book together with a hotel.

Crazy how much I use and rely on trip.com nowadays over other booking sites. I always compare, but trip.com is usually cheaper, at least in Asia.

Customer service seems to be pretty decent too. Unfortunately I had to cancel a trip because an immediate family member passed away, and I contacted Trip's customer service to see if it was possible to cancel a non-refundable hotel booking and get a refund considering the circumstances. They didn't ask for any proof (unlike American Airlines), and they granted my request and refund. They definitely gained a loyal customer that day.

I would say the only OTA coming close (or even beating) Trip.com at this point is Agoda. However, I would say that the good customer service from Trip makes it worth the small price increase over Agoda in those cases where things don't go as planned. As someone who loves traveling while being on a budget, Trip definitely saved me a lot of money this year and I have yet to experience anything bad with them.

Agoda is great for hotels in SE Asia, and their customer service is arguably even better than ctrip's, but they definitely don't have as much muscle when it comes to negotiating with hotels.

If prices are comparable, I'll sometimes go with Agoda because most of the time Rakuten has better cash back rate with them (e.g 6x) vs Trip which is usually only 3x the last few times I looked (I choose to get Amex Membership Reward points instead of cash).

Most OTAs, including Agoda and Trip.com, quote different (and higher) prices when you use a cashback referral site such as Rakuten, so you may be paying more than you'd get back from a cashback referral site. This doesn't apply to some referral sites (e.g. TripAdvisor) that apparently don't get a meaningful cut from their referrals

How are you able to tell if the pricing is different?
Normally I just go to website. Compare prices before activating Rakuten. Then I activate Rakuten when I'm ready to check out. The prices don't normally change when I do this.


I do occasionally see different prices if I use their respective mobile apps to search and book though.

The best way to know the price difference is to use a different device to check the price, then try again with the cashback site you plan to use. I have found that with Trip.com (and Agoda) it is almost always cheaper to book directly with them (especially with coupons) than with a cashback deal, unless you have a great promo above 7-8% CB.

You can use a different device as another poster mentioned, or you can use a browser with cookies for the specific OTA deleted. I just booked on trip.com (via a TripAdvisor link) yesterday for a stay that cost about 10% less than from a Rakuten link, even after factoring in the value of its cashback.

Have any of you guys successfully gotten IHG, Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott to match a ctrip/trip rate? If so, what chain, and what was your secret? I've tried Hilton twice and Marriott once...all strikeouts based on de minimis differences (e.g. pool view v resort view). I might give up on chasing status altogether this year unless I can crack the code (for even one chain) because the price differences are typically far greater than the cost of breakfasts and evening lounge visits, which rarely avail of anyway.

My understanding is that trip/ctrip, along with Agoda, instead of acting purely as agent, buys outright remaining inventory of rooms of particular type at some hotels/resorts more often than other OTAs, in order to offer more competitive rates at these hotels/resorts. When they offer significantly lower rates than competing OTAs, that's probably the reason. In such cases, price matching probably wouldn't work.

My understanding this that, less so in the case of Agoda, they negotiate directly with hotels in top markets where their customer base gives them pricing power.

Regardless, price match guarantees are worthless if the brands reliably find loopholes which they exploit in order to deny claims. The price match thread in the Hilton forum explains this part fairly clearly (i.e. you need an EXACT match). Apparently, if you're not logged in and ensure that all variables are completely aligned, it's possible to win, but sometimes you actually need to put down money at Hilton/Marriott/Hyatt first in order to start the match process...or else match two fully refundable rates (this at least removes the refundability element from the equation).

First time using trip.com because of their "Trip flex" add-on which for 20eur allows for free canx or flight change.

Originally booked MU, but I then needed to change dates, and for the new dates CX was cheaper, so used the TripFlex to refund the MU ticket, eating the 20eur, but that's already much cheaper than buying a flex ticket on MU direct...

Booked CX on a new ticket, got the PNR to MMB and on login CX asks to confirm the contact details - trip.com doesn't put in pax phone number and the email is some sketchy a°°°[email protected]; I would have thought trip would have some @trip.com for their bots to monitor emails from CX...oh and put in OW FFP when making the booking but trip left it out, CX policy is if FFP isn't put in at the time of booking you can only later put in a CX FFP but not other OW FFPs which means no OW status free seat selection....

Did you supply the FFP number in the original CX booking sequence. If trip had the number but failed to apply it ask them to fix it with CX. If they can't will they give you a refund for the seat fee?

Yeah ask trip.com to add the FFP and/or to get the seat booked.

Yep the trip.com booking sequence even has a fancy GUI that when you select your FFP it even displays a mini logo if your airline...alas it's literally just for show..

Interesting suggestion on self paying then asking trip for a refund of it....maybe if you moan enough they will select the seat you want for you but never let you pay and get a refund...

Make the problem theirs to solve. Either get your FFP in the booking or sort out your seat reservation. I don't suggest you book and pay for it unless they give you a credit for the cost upfront, trying to claim it back might be hard...