Just plan on getting a taxi. Even though I've never been to your target airport, I've yet to encounter an airport in China that doesn't have taxi queues

Will follow your advice, get a taxi and hope I will not come across:

https://sethbarham.com/blog/the-tangshan-connection ;)

I have another customer service interaction to report on today. This time I wasn't really expecting anything because their snafu was far more minor than the large undisclosed resort fee in Orlando or them trying to overcharge me in Tokyo by $40 per night. They simply failed to tell my current serviced apartment place that I paid for an additional 5 days, and this took about 30 minutes to sort out. In any event, they tossed me $43 in Trip Coins, which I felt was quite generous.

Was that in China? Typically in China, I split my reservations into 1 night ones, so that I can leave as I please. If I extend the stay, we just communicate in wechat directly with the property and most of the time they just proactively ask if I am extending, or failing that I just send them a screenshot of the app. For most properties, you can cancel until 6 PM on the day and some by 8PM and some even by midnight (that is if you are just arriving, if you are extending, you need to make up your mind by 12-2PM or whatever the check out time is).

Big fan of those service apartments here btw, you get a residential feeling and can check in before you arrive, and you can get a good place for 100-150RMB (more like 200RMB in Shanghai/Beijing).

I PMed you details about the specific property (in Shanghai) in case you're interested in the future. It's now a Home Inn (wasn't last year when I first discovered it). It's at the intersection of Huaihai and Wukang, which is super prime. The nightly rate is a around Y350, and this fetches a room with a small kitchen (including washer/dryer), big living space, and oversized bathroom. I know it's a good value because I tried out 7 other places (between Y300 and Y1500) last year before deciding on it, and it's almost as nice as the long term apartments I've rented in Xuhui and JA in the past. I always book it via Ctrip and then WeChat the front desk lady, who makes sure that I get my preferred room. Booking directly with her would cost a lot more.

As the Juneyao flights first leg from Daxing to Hongqiao Airport has been cancelled I tried to sort it out via Trip.com first. Absolutely useless. Tried it with three different Agents. They are incapable of solving the simplest things.

Same with trying to sort it out with the Airport staff. No joy either.

To save lots of money (for Moondog: 100 EUR ;)) I have booked Daxing to Wuxi for tonight instead of Shanghai, which has now also been rescheduled to 15 minutes past midnight. Now my journey from last year pays off.

Will get a Hotel in Wuxi, catch the train to Shanghai and hope Juneyao will still honor my Pudong-Melbourne ticket of the same PNR/E-Ticket.

Airport Taxi in Tangshan at night is like a Mafia btw., removed license from card holder on the dashboard, everyone refused taxameter...well, they know one has no other choice. Haggled the price down to 100 RMB, but still overpriced tourist price for 20 km. Regular Taxi during the day however is really great in Tangshan.

As you can probably glean from my recent posts to this thread, I deal with Ctrip customer service quite often.

While some of my interactions have been frustrating, being able to talk with a human immediately is pretty nice, and we always reach a resolution that I'm okay with.

But, I've also learned that KISS principles (i.e. minimize the number of variables) are really important.

If I was in your situation (PKX-SHA cancelled), I would have focused on only three things:
1. Get the refund
2. Apply the value towards a new ticket
3. Ask them to bridge the gap between the cost of ticket #1 and ticket #2

Going the distance on point 3 is a waste of time (i.e. settle for the initial offer instead of fighting with them for 3 days to get something slightly better).

If you had dealt directly with HO instead, you would certainly have gotten your money back, but then you'd have been completely on your own.

Hello from Pudong Airport. Have checked in for the PVG-MEL leg successfully. Juneyao does not refund anything, nor pay the 60 EUR for PKX-WUX. They asked me for the cancelled flight no. and the boarding pass PKG- WUX. Less than ten seconds phone call and PVG-MEL was reinstated. Less than a minute later and I had my boarding pass.

Last minute China-Melbourne is expensive and I would have missed the Air New Zealand flights to CHC and WEL. I have only 12 hours in Melbourne.

In my understanding, they should at least refund the airport tax (around 70RMB) for PKX, but I guess this is something to solve not at the airport.

Talking about Wuxi, I have used it a few times when the price difference between SHA/PVG and WUX was significant, quiet painless and there is a train station around 2 metro stops away where you can take a train to Shanghai. Same for Nanjing, Ningbo, and Hangzhou, although those 3 will need a bit more time and movements to reach Shanghai.

Yes, thats one of the things Trip.com could have initiated, but they did not. They cancelled change requests to earlier and later Juneyao flights during the chat already, etc. but as I said absolutely useless this time...even for China flights.

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting case with Trip.com and MU. My flight was delayed by an hour due to flow control. I applied for an involuntary refund on trip.com (really because it was a red eye and I did not feel like taking it anymore), and they said they sent the request to MU, and the deadline is after the flight departure. I contacted MU, who said they did not receive any, but confirmed that the invol refund is applicable.

For some reason, after the flight departed, trip.com rejected the refund, so I contacted them again and attached the screenshots with the MU chat, and they resubmitted the request, which was later accepted and a full refund issued.

As per moondog's concept, in stage 3, what you can do is ask Trip.com to negotiate with HO to issue to give you something, most like in the form of trip coins. It helps if you booked the trains, hotels and the WUX air ticket with them ofcourse.

Unless I'm missing something, you had a 4 segment itinerary and wanted to change the destination city on one of them? That type of thing FAR exceeds my KISS threshold. I would have studied the fare rules carefully before calling in order to formalize my request, and then escalated to level 2 support from the outset.

But, getting a refund for a canceled (by the airline) one way flight and applying the value to the purchase of a different flight is pretty easy, and addressable by level 1 support. That's a breach of contract by the airline. So, I'm left with the Y350 I paid for the cheap HO flight and need to change it to a Y1100 MU flight. Ctrip reliably covers about half the difference without hesitation, and they toss in a carrot like lounge access. If I call HO instead, I'm going to get the Y350, and they'll try to get me apply it to a different HO flight (the fare of new flight isn't especially relevant as long as it has any seats left for sale, but it might be on next day).

That having been said, I'm curious as to why they weren't a little nicer to you. Complex or not, you had a seemingly valid complaint, so letting you hang out to dry is rather disturbing.

As I understand, they were flying PKX-PVG-MEL and had to pay out of pocket for PKX-PVG/WUX to fly on a different airline and want to get a refund on that sector. Fare recalculation would probably lead to an increase (ie PVG-MEL is more expensive than PKX-PVG-MEL).

If this is the case wwtknoyb , I'd initiate a new customer service inquiry via email (as opposed to chat, WeChat, or calling). Stating your case in the initial email shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Then, you'll get a lot of emails over the course of the following 3 days, and maybe a few phone calls. The primary advantages of email are 1: requires less actual time on your part, and 2: a much cleaner paper trail. The primary disadvantage is that the overall resolution time is longer. But, since you already made it to your destination, there isn't much downside to giving it 3 days to work its way through their system.

Greetings from Wellington, well, I have originally booked HO PKX-SHA-MEL but it seems HO has sent the Aircraft, originally destined for PKX, to Datong Airport and cancelled the Beijing rotation instead....leaving lots of people eager to grab any alternative flight to SHA or PVG. While sitting in the train from Tangshan to PKX I have started the first try to get it sorted via Trip.com, chatting with a guy in Asia, no dice, the next two attempts even worse.

The Airport staff in PKX was absolutely useless and rude. My best option was to fly to WUX and take the train to Hongqiao and the new Airport Express to Pudong.

The last Trip.com Agent even insisted with me not taking the cancelled flight I break the fare rules, they will cancel the MEL leg etc. Of course I did not and at Pudong Airport this has been clarified within less than a minute.

I will get in touch with Trip.com again.