The Ctrip/Trip.com GBU thread
 

I've been using Ctrip for ages, mainly because they've swallowed up so many competitors. The Trip.com rebranding is confusing (good sub-discussion point, though), so let's try to stick with calling it Ctrip when talking about China.

I tend to lean towards Ctrip for hotels because of their negotiating power with individual properties (and not just in China). When it comes to flights, while Google Flights is great, it doesn't always provide the most comprehensive information, and I've found Ctrip to be reliable, especially for domestic flights within China or departing from there.

One of the biggest advantages I've found with Ctrip is their customer service. Dealing with airlines directly can be challenging, especially when it comes to reaching them. With Ctrip, it's far easier to resolve issues or make changes to bookings. Some may argue that adding a middleman is always bad, but my experience has been that it's okay if it results in greater efficiency overall.

I think it's worth having a focused discussion since many of us use it often, despite my general resistance to promoting specific companies in industries I wish were more competitive. I trust that 90% of you guys understand the "GBU" reference.:D

ETA: The reason I finally created this thread today, as opposed to 15 years ago, is because I've been talking with them a lot (i.e. 5x/day) since May 1, so I have an improved understanding of how things work. But, I'm not including these accounts in the OP because I want to keep it generic.

Edit #2: Here are the current China customer service phone numbers I have for them. 95010 and 400 830 6666..and 021 6066 8691 (English).

Edit #3 Here is a link to the other ctrip thread that was started at around the same time as this one:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/othe...-trip-com.html

I still check multiple sources. Trip/Ctrip is weak where Chinese tourists don't go / can't go, for example ctrip's prices for Honolulu hotels and rental cars are higher than American competitors. Also for flights, especially now when creative routing is needed, searching multiple sites is required. Again, for my upcoming flight to Honolulu, I put together SHA-HND / HND-HNL on two separate tickets. Ctrip didn't offer many out-of-the-box solutions. But to be fair, neither did Expedia or other competitors.

Something else to watch out for is that ctrip now offers tickets from sellers other than ctrip itself. This is like the taobao model where there are other sellers, including the airline's official shops (like tmall). I haven't run into any issues but just flagging it.

One thing that Ctrip doesn't have is the no-hassle 24-hour cancellation of flights, even for non-refundable tickets. I find that to be a useful feature when using American apps like Expedia.

But you are right in that in China, it's still very easy to get a human on the phone with almost no wait. This applies to Chinese companies. Different story when I tried calling Royal Caribbean for my upcoming cruises out of Shanghai, and was hung up on by the system after waiting 20 minutes.

God Bless You? Global Business Unit?

Why is trip.com confusing?
 

Trip.com mostly works like a charm for me. My biggest bugaboo about it is that its search interface sucks (generally, I try to use websites that allow me to edit the slug for faster searching). For trip.com, everything has to be manually clicked to confirm (e.g. if I'm flying from Guangzhou to HK, I have to click both a second time). Same with hotels. Inefficient.

I also like how it offers hotel confirmations in two languages.

Diamond users (the highest level) can get two free airport lounge passes (through Dragon Pass). Whaddya know ... it's a QR code. Had to acquiesce there;)

Anyway, just tried using ctrip (Chinese language). I put in Singapore for hotels ... showed me points of interest with Singapore in the name, but not the location itself. Then, all hotels resulted in "?¥". Sucked.

Have no experience with customer service for the above. But flying in China is still painful. Queuing is still a romp, security is extra sensitive about everything from umbrellas to coins, delays happen without an excuse given, and men's restrooms double as ashtrays. But the flight attendants generally are decent.

The only clue I'm going to offer (for now) is Carmel by the Sea.


I only mentioned "outside of China" in order to highlight the point that they can be useful for places like NYC. As such, I often include them as a resource (alongside others) when doing hotel searches.

Yeah, I don't get the "confusing' part either.

We ought to use both terms when describing our experiences, as they are different enough from each other, IMO.

I use trip.com almost exclusively now for flights to-and-from China, flights within China, and hotels in China. Even railway tickets within China.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Within Europe just changing the country/language (both have a separate effect btw.) changes the prices, availability etc. Currently France/French offers quite good discounts compared to .at, .de. and .us

Yes, trip.com in Europe is selling more and more third party flight-tickets and Hotel reservations under their umbrella on their website. With Hotels it is easy to find out, because the reservation no. starts with e.g. EXP for Expedia, the reviews are from Hotels.com which is part of the Expedia group etc.

With flight reservations it sometimes sucks, because the Trip.com own flights are reserved for 20-30 minutes once you start the booking process, the third party are only reserved once you hit the pay button...and by then they are sometimes already unavailable and one has to start all over again.

Sometimes searching via Skyscanner, which is now also part of Trip.com, on a PC offers the same discounts like searching via the APP.

When it comes to searching for cheap flights worldwide (except China) in Europe nowadays idealo and jetcost (again depending on the country you chose) beat Trip.com most of the times. However, like trip.com, they move the marketing budget from country to country on a regular basis, and with Jetcost you might sometimes need a Diners Club or Mastercard Viabuy creditcard to avail of the cheap offers.

I stumbled upon the following when I was scanning my spam yesterday, and called them to make sure I didn't accidentally pay for a lounge visit (I didn't)
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5a8f2f2e5c.png


Two groups of people are looking after you, and only one of them has Chinese communication capabilities, so it serves as the crutch of the other.

Well done! I was nearly positive that YariGuy would chime in with the correct response after I posted the Carmel hint, but you beat him to the punch.:D

No idea what that means.

You chat with someone in English, she tells you that she is at an impasse, the callback comes from 携程 (caller ID).

Well yeah, CS of ctrip is in Chinese, CS of trip.com is English or Chinese. So?

Well, after reaching the Diamond status with one account, it does not hurt to open up another one with a different E-Mail address. :) To receive even more free Lounge Pass.

Same like with Amazon and free prime etc.

When it comes to customer service, if possible, I prefer to contact them during Berlin hours and communicate with the German speaking staff....not because of the language, but the English speaking Global Team is sometimes incompetent.

I did think of Clint Eastwood, but was not familiar enough with his movies to make the connection.

Speaking of status, how does trip / ctrip rewards compare with other OTAs? Expedia / hotels.com used to be straight forward -- stay 10 nights get 1 free, but that was gutted by expedia. Now it's earning expedia bucks... at a terrible rate.

I've had diamond status for a while, since my travels generally revolve around this part of the world. Besides those aforementioned airport lounge passes (proferred upon booking a flight with them, although not so easily found), one also earns Trip coins through purchases and hotel reviews. Coins can be redeemed on hotels and flights (and maybe elsewhere).

I'm not going to comment on diamond-level discounts, because I don't know the veracity of them (i.e. maybe every Trip.com member gets the same, but because I'm diamond, how could I compare?)

I receive emails from multiple 客服 units on the same case numbers. These message chains are almost completely disconnected from each other. As an aside, the Chinese units seem to be far superior wrt communicating with hotels (e.g. they don't simply bow down to "talk with 顺丰 about the 快递 the hotel signed for" logic). That having been said, I can't really complain about the trip coins that the English units have flooded me with.

I'm actually interested in how to best game these. It's pretty easy to spot good values in cities that I know well, but when visiting new (to me) places, more research is beneficial. I took the bait on the Savoy Hotel in Manila for later his week because their (diamond) rate is far superior to Expedia, Priceline, and Agoda, but there's a decent chance that it's a crappy hotel they are simply trying to prop up. I'm happy to take the risk, in this case (we're only talking about $50).

When it comes to the Airport Lounge Access for diamond tier users - strictly speaking for European Trip.com accounts here - it makes a difference which country/language you chose in your profile. Some countries/languages might offer the flight for one or two USD less, but then the Airport Lounge Access for free does not show up.

Same with many other promotions like Air China and China Eastern intra China flights for free if you book the international leg via Trip.com etc.

With the "more expensive countries" (if one can call them like this) the Airport Lounge Access perk basically appears almost every single time one tries to book a flight.

The value of the Trip coins change on an almost daily basis.

More mainland shenanigans.

Here's a one-way (nonstop) from BKK to PVG for this Wednesday, 22 May:


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4e61f3fb19.jpg
Now, the flight to Wenzhou (WNZ) for the same day, with the MU (China Eastern) flight:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...5d67a1c634.jpg
Here are the "cheapest" flights to Wenzhou, availint of trip.com's free MU ticket through PVG:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...ab8353510a.jpg


Just like when you see good reviews on amazon, or alibaba, don't be a sap, folks.

To be fair the options that include the "free flight" are different flights than the ones you show on top. These flights (MU542 and MU8644) are better in my opinion (arrive in Shanghai at a reasonable hour). For apples-to-apples, you need to price out MU542 and MU8644 separately.

Figured someone would (suggest that). [mod edit per rule 12.1]

Anyway ...

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...6e7845d0f8.jpg

Yes, I agree the China Eastern offer on Trip.com sucks, however on the same note the Air China offer with the international return flight and two intra chinese flights for free rocks.

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No kidding ... I should look into that. Is it through any CA hub, or just PEK?

ETA: from trip.com:The "Buy One Get Two Free Tickets " offer is available for a limited time and applies to select flights operated by Air China. The offer is valid for economy class tickets, and passengers can get two free domestic flights (tax included) when you book a round-trip flight to China. Why wait, book flights to China on trip.com and choose the 'Multi-city' to customize your preferred itinerary.

The promotion period: By 30th, April, 2024

Travel period: By 30th, June, 2024

Departure cities: London, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Rome, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, and Geneva
--- wouldn't want to fly long-haul.on a mainland carrier anyway.

You might be able to find a current Air China promo on trip.com by simply switching countries in your account settings.

They used to have BUD-CKG in the list of flights to chose from as well.

When it comes to flying Air China Long-Haul with ratted/worn out Triple Seven, A330, B747 I am with you, but the A350 and the Dreamliner are fantastic.

Btw. somehow Trip.com manages to offer really steep discounts for international flights starting in the semi-official 17. federal state of Germany, also known as Palma de Mallorca.

How they manage to achieve that in the background is beyond me, because one does not have to return to PMI, but can finish the trip in Germany, Austria etc. and the first leg is with Ryanair, Air Europa or Eurowings to either Germany, UK or Mainland Spain.

Interestingly, I was able to reserve an intercontinental flight on CZ on their official website and pay with my foreign bank card (Mastercard) without problems, a first. Last year, it errored out on the payment page and I ended up forced to use a third-party to reserve the flight.

I looked up the same flight on trip.com, and it was 25 EUR more expensive.

For sure, your results may vary with other carriers, and perhaps domestic flights are a different story. But maybe still worth a glance to see if direct résa is more efficient and cheaper than through trip.com

Cool!
But have to ask: how is it more efficient than booking on trip.com?

Which sounds like the average OTA fee. When it comes to booking a flight with trip.com, it really matters which language/country you chose. A price difference between the different countries/languages of 25-30 EUR is not that uncommon. As with all the other OTA, it depends where the marketing budget of that day/week/month is currently allocated to.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...637fb84064.png
Same flight, same Browser session, only a few seconds apart.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...758d30ca37.png
For comparison

The same reason I book direct with any other air carrier : I don't want a third party managing my résa unless necessary.

I do all my travel bookings direct whenever possible- flights, hôtels, hire cars. Only if there is a substantial price savings or other technical issue do I revert to an OTA.

Even when the carrier's own staff is hopelessly incompetent and/or impossible to reach?

Luckily, I haven't had to deal with that. My only interaction last year was when I called them to assign my Flying Blue number to the résa, and that was painless. Just called their mainland China office and since I am of Chinese origin, language is not an issue.

I wasn't referring to language, but competence in the general sense. I should also add that switching between airlines or cancelling when things go wrong is far easier when you don't have to interact with an individual carrier.
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AIRLINES:
I like moondog's answer here. I also MUCH prefer direct flight bookings when it comes to airlines for ANYTHING other than China, as I found trip.com far easier to deal with than the [Chinese] airline directly.
It's almost like the good old days where you went through a travel agent (late 80's early 90's for me); the real good ones took all the headaches away from you and provided a great service. Trip.com is like that to me nowadays, and I'll gladly pay a few dollars more for that convenience. As soon as they drop in the service they currently provide, I'll move away from them and likely also book directly with the airlines.

HOTELS:
Hotel booking I almost always found better to be booked through a third party like trip.com or booking.com.
With the exception of the chains I am a fairly high ranking member, such as Marriott, I only very rarely book directly with the hotel.
I remember a motel in New Zealand telling me to "book with us directly next time"; yeah: because you don't have to pay all the fees, but the actual cost-per-night was more than what I paid for: No.Thank.You.

CAR HIRE:
Always book direct - again because of high membership tiers. President's Club & Circle.

I don't need ctrip/trip.com for hotel stays in China because I always book them direct to take advantage of statuses and ease of cancellations. But for intra-China flights and particularly high-speed rail, trip.com seems to be a good platform. What does ctrip provide that trip.com doesn't? In terms of prices, payment conveniences, etc.?

I guess the Customer Service in the US is better then, because dealing with Lufthansa InTouch Brno etc. (previously known as Lufthansa Global Telesales), AF/KLM - which is mostly handled by BlueLink in Prague - is a royal pain in the back. Even Singapore Airlines has outsourced its Customer Service to Teleperformance Hellas in Athens and the service provided sucks most of the time.

Regarding Rental Cars: I used to book via Hertz with my CDP No. (CDP Name: : HERTZ EUROPE SRVC CNT LT), but nowadays it is only 15 % discount. Used to be 50 % back in the days, more than all the VIP's with their management invitation etc. got. Nowadays I prefer a broker like Sunnycars with all the insurance etc. included.

I'm a little confused as to how you inferred narvik thinks customer service from US airlines is somehow praiseworthy.

The way I read his post is that he feels, in places other than China, it is often more efficacious to deal directly with airlines. I agree with this idea, for the most part.

When it comes to booking flights in Europe nowadays it is better to deal with Trip.com, even E-Traveli via Chat etc. than with the Airline customer service. LH InTouch, BlueLink, TP Hellas are on a race to the bottom of whats possible.

If one followed the issues with Saudia and rebookings after flight the Seoul flight cancellations, that also seems to be the case for some of the MEA Airlines.

Back in the days, when I used to work for Hertz in the European Service Centre in Ireland, (mind you that was almost 20 years ago) we told Airline staff to deal with their issue once they are back in the USA...because back then, at least compared to Europe, Service/Customer seemed to be King....but I do not know how it is nowadays. I am out of the loop for ages so to speak.

For Marriott and Hilton hotels in mainland China, is it worth the hassle to go through Ctrip or Trip?

I'm pretty sure Marriott doesn't award points for third party bookings (Hilton seems a little more lenient but there is fine print), and I know that both Marriott and Hilton guarantee that their official channels will have the best rates. Ctrip does frequently undercut official channel rates though, so it might be worth checking their rates for due diligence purposes and possibly to use as ammo for a price match claim.

I have not used a TA (online or otherwise) for years. If one books a flight with Trip/CTrip, would the airline status work? Would you get miles?

Sounds like at least for Marriott, it is better to book direct.

I see these Chinese Youtubers travelling in Mainland China getting really cheap hotel rates at local hotels that seem decent. I guess those might be those who are NOT officially "equipped" to handle foreigners?

Airlines and hotels work very differently with OTAs. Airlines pay very little in commissions to OTAs, but passengers who book their flights with OTAs will generally earn frequent flyer miles and enjoy their statuses with the airlines. Hotels, OTOH, pay much higher commissions to OTAs, but guests who book their stays with OTAs generally won't earn frequent guest points, or enjoy their elite statuses (with some rare exceptions).

For Hilton Gold, overseas properties seem to honor the benefits better than the US properties. Do you still get upgrade and free breakfast in China if you book through Trip.com?

Hotel brands set their minimum standards for elite benefits and Hilton sets a low minimum standard, compared to Hyatt or Marriott, but individual hotels can go above and beyond those minimum standards (and many in China and elsewhere in Asia often do). In the US, there're simply too many guests with elite statuses (particularly Hilton, because Hilton Gold, for example, comes automatically with a $150/yr AmEx card).

Generally speaking, you wouldn't get elite benefits (upgrades, free breakfast, etc.) when you book through a third-party OTA (some premium credit cards offer their own specially curated hotel collections that provide similar benefits if you book hotels in those collections through such channels). Again, some (few) individual hotels may provide some elite benefits to their frequent guests even though they aren't required to do so.

I generally don't book stays at hotels where I have elite statuses. Because hotels in Asia (including China) tend to provide better elite benefits (and more of them provide executive lounges), booking through an OTA (including trip.com) almost never makes sense if you value those elite benefits (or stay credits or hotel points), IMO.

The easy to reach Diamond-tier status will be a thing of the past starting at the end of October.

To reach the Diamond-tier status afterwards you have to have 12 bookings. The eight bookings after one has reached Platinum-tier status have to have a minimum value of USD 1.000 to be eligible for the new Diamond-tier status.