We haven't used Ctrip to book ticket from HKG; we only used them for china domestic trips. The ticketing process is quite quick. Once they approved your credit card, the eticket is usually issued w/i one day. Although you can go to ctrip office at airport, they give you same receipt that you will receive via email. But, if you are leaving from HKG, you may want to buy the ticket either w/ an agency in HK or w/ the airline directly (since I don't think you get a good discount on Ctirp w/ one-way international ticket ).

FYI, Ctrip is traded on the Nasdaq National Market with symbol CTRP. Market cap is in excess of $5b. In 2009, their before-tax profit was close to $700 million. This is not a tiny little company!

Need to watch out flight schedules posted at Ctrip may not be the most up-to-date.

I was checking a domestic China flight price and availability recently and the flights at Ctrip differed from the airline's web site. Airline's web site is the same as the one posted in Expertflyer, so the Ctrip one was obviously wrong.

So make sure to double check with another source.

Ctrip is as legit as you get. Though there are reports of lower airfares on the company websites, in general ctrip (along with elong/travenzen) will have the lowest fares.

Keep in mind that the gov in China sets the fares, and airlines are allowed to offer them at certain % discounts so it is unlikely you will find a price spread between several websites.

It may seem odd or sketchy for many of those who haven't used it before, but if you use your CC you get emailed a receipt. Then another email comes when the ticket is issued. Then you simply go to the airport with your PP (you have to put your PP# in when you buy the ticket) and the airline will print out your BP. Ctrip is pretty great these days. English call service in China is great and they take great care to help you. I've never had
a problem booking airfare or hotels, so can't speak highly enough about it.

+1 for this post on Ctrip
 

Great comments here on Ctrip. Also Ctrip on the domestic china flights has a 'Dealfinder calendar'. You can find the cheapest day to fly, + or - 6 days from a selected flight day. Kinda nice if you are flexible on the day of the week, but it changes daily as you get closer to the needed flight day depending on the city flying to & from.

According to Ctrip, foriegn students studing in China DO NOT QUALIFY for these fares.

We wanted to go back to Canada, ctrip passed us around to various supervisors and in the end, denied us. Interestingly, when we contacted Air Canada directly, all they needed was a copy of our student ID / registration papers and pretty much matched the price. (I say pretty much due to currency fluxuation and extra fees AC charges)

Sorry, discover your post just now. Might be too late for you. Hope it might help others.

I can only describe my experience as I booked air tickets on ctrip for travel within China. I'm USA based and use USA issued CC.

Typically, I choose and book my flights online. I enter personal data per their questions (nothing unusual). After CC data is entered and approved. That completes my online booking. (I opften make a screen capture). I will received almost immediately an email acknowledging (not confirming) my booking request. Within 24 hours, I receive another email that confirms my reservation. I make a copy of this email for keep-sake. There is usually NO seat assignment until I get into China. I then call them 24 hours prior to my flight for seat assignement (others may do it differently).

Re their airport desk: I find them in some airports. Depends on what service you may need, they can be helpful or not. My experience is mixed.

I think their office in Beijing is quite helpful. One time, I received an email from them that a flight was cancelled and they arbitrarily assign another flight via an email alert. I called their 1-800 # (can't recall now, but on web site) from US to Beijing (be sure to know their their office hours there). An English spoken CSR on the line took down my flight equest. She said she would get back with me via email with my flight request. Long story short, got what I wanted. I considered this a good experience (by Chinese standard).

I have been using CTRIP now for the past 6-7 years and have been generally very happy with them however I have found that they have some limitations.

For destinition to destinition domestic travel, they are great. Reasonable price and great service.

However if i involves multiple legs, domestic-international tickets, multi-carrier or specialty ticket trips you cannot rely on ctrip to assist you in making the best bookings. You need to be already fully aware of all the options.

For example, ctrip lists student fares. We spoke to 5 different agents at ctrip and they cannot come with a concensus of what a student is. One agent said this is not ctrip policy but carrier policy so we contacted the carrier (AC) and they said all they needed was reasonable proof (Student ID with photo, Letter of Registration) When we contacted ctrip again to book tickets, new agent said this is now ctrip policy. One agent said no problem and we booked the tickets however they cancelled the tickets a couple of days later citing proof of student is not enough. Finally, we contacted AC directly and they got us the tickets we wanted. Ctrip contacted us 2 days before our flight to ask why we did not complete the the final part of the ticketing process. This is not necessarily ctrip's fault but they can really improve the process if you have one agent to communicate with throughout the whole process. The contsant explaining of the situation from scratch many times over (5 times) is frusterating.

My experience with Ctrip is similar to Ed's. Domestic point to point is great.
But with the possible exception of a simple domestic-Hong Kong routing, I have yet to find Ctrip my method of choice for outbound international air tickets. I have in particular learned not to get excited about too-good-to-be-true listed intl fares, as they invariably end up "not available."

CTrip Question
 

Hi - I tried to find this question by searching the old threads and came close, but nothing definitive....

I've made a couple of CTrip bookings - never used it before, but have heard only good things about it....anyways my question: I booked a flight SHA-CAN and was only given the option for ticketing of pickup in Shanghai or delivery to an address. I just decided to pick it up at an address centrally because I didn't want to worry about arriving at the airport and could do it whenever I am free...However, my other flight didn't require me to specify a pick-up address, and both of the flights didn't give me any kind of e-ticket # or anything besides a CTrip confirmation number.

Do I just need to go to the airport on the day of my flights and show them my passport and everything will go smoothly? Or should I pay the CTrip office a visit?

Thanks!

If you are in the US, try calling ctrip on their US toll-free number and pose your question. Every time I have done this, I have found that their English was fine and they also solved whatever problem I called them about.

Indeed, there are a lot of travel providers that could learn from ctrip!

Basically, yes. However, if things don't go smoothly and you fancy flying on a different airline, then those pieces of paper (eticket receipts) can be useful.

Why can't you log in to CTRIP and print off your orders?

Then you have some paperwork if paperwork is important to you.

Last time our flight was cancelled, CTRIP found a flight for us. It was great service. No worries what so ever.

It's not about the paperwork - I can see that, in my email and on CTrip. I'm just wondering if I have to show up at this office to officially get ticketed or if I'm already ticketed and can just go to the airport.

I guess I can just show up........

As long as it's an e-ticket you'll be fine. If you want the actual ticket number just call up Ctrip and I'm sure they'll be happy to give it (and the record locator) to you over the phone.