I just PMed you with a draft for your email (just fill in the details and fire it off). I predict you'll reach an acceptable resolution in the end.

Just had a chat with Trip.com, they apply for a flight change refund, but regarding the WUX flight they have asked me to get in touch with Juneyao myself. Lets wait for the flight change refund result.

UPDATE: Already received the confirmation that they will refund 9,93 EUR.

Another topic, I have booked the internatilnal NZ flights Melbourne-Christchurch-Wellington....online checkin in English etc. all good.

But I have also booked the domestic NZ flight WEL-AKL, and the whole check-in process, seat selection, paying for seats on the Air New Zealand website is in Chinese only, cannot be changed to English....

Assuming you bought the new HO ticket through Ctrip, you should make it crystal clear to them that it's their responsibility to sort things out with HO (i.e. this is the primary value added of travel agents).

I did not buy a new HO ticket at all, I bought a China Eastern Ticket from PKX to WUX.

HO would have had a free seat from PKX to SHA 24 hours later, too late for PVG-MEL.

To add insult to the injury a chat message just popped up in the Trip.com app, stating that they are unable to refund even the 9,93 EUR tax....

Now escalated to 2nd Level.

Since you already initiated the new chat session and I was less clear about your situation when I PMed you the email draft, you can ignore that message.

But, now that it's at level 2, you're probably (hopefully) going to get replies via email from now on.

If you update us (private messages are fine) after they get back to you, we'll opine wrt the next move. Don't feel pressure to respond to them quickly. They'll keep the support ticket open until you explicitly agree to a resolution.

Well, "Diana" (always the same name is being used) from the German customer satisfaction team reached out to me. They will refund the taxes to my bank account, but this will close this case for them.

End of story I guess. I have accepted the refund to my bank account.

With Cheaptickets.ch / Travix and the cancelled Xian-Beijing Daxing flight the day before I am not even getting the tax back, because the handling fees are higher than the tax.

Any experience of apartment hotels (at least that's what it looks like) without a check-in desk, which are advertised on trip.com as 'homestay'? Do they typically do police registration on my behalf?

I will of course message the property to verify, but I'm curious to hear if it's common or uncommon that trip.com 'homestays' do police registration?

Yes, I stay in those places all the time, much better value and a better residential feeling.

They are supoused to do it, but don't always do, so I sometimes go to the station myself or do it online (in the cities where possible eg: Shenzhen, Shanghai, Haikou/Sanya) just to be on the safe side if it's my first night after entering China.

Do you really get into trouble if you don't register with the police upon entry? This policy seems to be pointless (as your info has already been collected at the border) and contrary to China's desire to encourage more tourism.

Basic answer is yes, you do get into trouble.

All overnight accommodation and long distance travel within China needs to be registered against your ID. It's pretty much transparent for hotels, trains, planes, but when renting private accommodation you need to ensure that your host is doing it for you. If not you need to do it yourself and that's complicated as you usually need paperwork relating to the accommodation.

The consequence is not likely to be immediate but you may get asked awkward questions upon exit if it's noticed that you have incomplete overnight accommodation or long distance travel records. But more likely is that the next time you attempt to enter China you will get a lot of questions and maybe denied entry depending on the circumstances.

And in case you think this is a special policy for foreigners, it's not, you're getting equal treatment as the locals.

I didn't know that. Do you mean the locals also need to register with local police when they return from their trips abroad?

There's no separate registration process with the local police unless your visa requires it. Tourists don't have to register with the police IF you're staying in hotels that do your overnight accommodation registration for you. You can assume that hotels will do the registration for you unless it's some really dodgy or small place in the middle of nowhere, in which case you should ask.

The debate here is AirBnB type accommodation and whether the host is doing the overnight accommodation registration for you - in which case you have nothing to worry about, but you need to assure yourself that it's been done - but if they don't it's not a simple process unless the host is going to help you do it.

On the apps I've used, the process is nearly idiot proof. But, if you make a trek to the PSB, it's best to be over documented.

Is there a good list somewhere of local websites/apps/miniapps for PSB registration in different cities/regions?

Or is [insert favourite search engine] your best friend?

Your friends probably already have them bookmarked (so ask), but searching within the Miniprogram interface for 海关 + <city> should also work.