strange call from Ctrip
 

I just booked my first flight on Ctrip. A few hours after booking, I received a call stating they were canceling my booking because I entered the details of my credit card wrong. I'm not sure exactly what the issue is. It is a bit difficult since the formatting of the website's fields for data entry doesn't match the formatting of my U.S. address.

The card was approved and I can see the pending charge online.

Any suggestions or should I just book on another site?

Also, I have received this e-mail:

hello,I'm from ctrip. I checked you have booked tickets in ctirp.And you want to pay with your international credit card .But maybe some informaiton of your card is different form that bank offered us ,So your card can not pass our system.Please could you eamil me the copies of your card in case we check whether there is problem of your card!
Or could you pay in cash today in beijing?
please reply me as soon as you can ,otherwise we can not keep your tickets! thank you

If you have any questions, please contact:400-820-6666 or 800-820-6666.

It's China, so in this case (relatively advanced financial transaction), I would bet its a legitimate claim on their part. Keep the email just in case for potential dispute purposes. Then I would say, call them and tell them to cancel the booking.

You can make bookings on the ground in China (at the airport where some English will be spoken) or at the hotel where you stay (for a nominal fee but similar price) or if worse comes to worse, on the phone with ctrip where a delivery dude will come and deliver your ticket by hand.

FYI, paying in cash at their office sucks. It's in some small building in XiCheng District right on XiZhiMen and was very tough to find.

I advise giving them a call ---- I've found that they are very helpful and speak excellent english.

If you are located in the U.S. and are concerned about the price of the call, I've looked back at my Skype records, and note that calls to them are denominated in tens of pennies, nothing more.

Unlike others, I've never received a response to emails sent to them ---- to ensure that you have no ongoing misunderstandings, I recommend that you pick up the phone.

Sounds like a scam to get your card info IMO.

Sounds a little dodgy. Only call phone numbers on their website (or you can google the numbers to see what comes up). In this case it looks ok, so give them a call.

Rule Number 1: Everything in China "sounds a little dodgy" to those of us from developed countries. Everything.

I might be a tad biased since I lived there for a year and a half and was on a student's budget and therefore couldn't really always afford stuff that wasn't (and was priced at a high premium).

Call the folks at ctrip, they speak English very well, and figure it out. You'll be fine. Also, calls to China are no longer expensive. If you are worried about the cost, feel free to buy a calling card, which will make the call cost something like 2.5 cents/min or something.

Good luck and let us know how this turns out.

Since those are the numbers from the website, it makes sense. Personally, I would just go to an agency in person. Flying in China is very, very different than in the US. Ticket issuance is pretty laid back.

E-long had an odd procedure last year - I put in that I would pay on their website with a CC, they called me, told me "pay cash, it's cheaper." I replied that I didn't have that much cash on me at the moment (something like 5500 RMB or USD, which since the largest unit of currency is 100 RMB, would be 550 bills... ). So they sent me an email with a form for me to fill out and fax back to their office.

Then, they sent me an email and said everything was OK.

A couple hours later, a man speaking in heavy Beijinghua dropped off my ticket from his motorcycle.

I was a bit confused by the process, but my credit card was safe, my tickets worked ok, etc., etc.

Would I do it again? No... I'd just deal with someone face-to-face. Far easier!

At the risk of stating the obvious, they legitimately need the OP's card info in order to charge him for his ticket(s).

I too booked my air tickets online @ ctrip for the first time. Thanks for the help offered by many of you on this thread & other threads, I succeeded in my booking. To say the least, the experience was a bit nerving. First, it only works with IE browser, NOT firefox. In checking for credit card info, the system refused to accept the actual billing address (which is PO Box). In desperation, I plugged in my home address. To my suprise, it accepted.
Then came the 1st email - confirming my reservation.
Then came the 2nd email - issuance of e-ticket

I am glad that they issue e-ticket now.

The whole process wass soooooooo different. Stodgy? Yeah.

Three emails from CTRIP today, increasingly frantic (and increasingly bilingual), about my upcoming ticket. The last one said I needed to call them asap. I was a bit worried so I called - they do indeed speak good English. The urgent matter - change of flight time by 5 minutes (and 5 minutes later, not earlier).

Yeah lots of sites in China only work on IE and not Firefox...

Well, that may explain my problem:

1) I was using Firefox and 2) I was using my PO Box address (which is the billing address of my credit card)

Of course, since this failed booking, the fares have gone up for my preferred flight times.

Too bad that the fares have gone up. You know what, I'd continue to check the site and you might spot one that you like.

While in China, I had a very pleasant experience with Ctrip. I simply telephoned them, booked with an agent who spoke very good English, and they dispatched a courier who dropped my e-ticket receipt off and picked up my cash payment.

I think my preferred booking method is to just purchase at the airport upon my arrival into China. Next would be through Ctrip by telephone while in China.

The next time I attempt to book in advance from abroad, I will perhaps try eLong.

I've used both eLong and Ctrip without any problems before. I think Ctrip's facilities are probably a bit better, and some of my friends have had nightmares dealing with eLong before.

FYI, founder of eLong, Justin Tang runs a private equity firm, Blue Ridge Capital...