What's the route? TMK, the current domestic airport tax is y50 and fuel surcharges range between 0? and y50. The total is y100 in most cases.

The route I cited above was XIY-CTU. There was an extra 20 RMB that I could not find an accounting for.

It's $3US and I'm not troubled by an additional fee, especially as the fares are significantly cheaper than full Y, but I'd sure like to know what it is.

¥50 is for the People's Republic of China Airport Fee (fixed)
¥20 is the YQ or YR surcharge charged by the airlines (same for MU, CZ, etc) on this route.

ctrip shows both charges (50/20)

Here is a XIY-CTU flight I just pulled from ctrip.

On the 'select flight' page it shows ¥280 + ¥70.

On the 'book flight' page there is a line stating:
'total per person (all taxes and fees included): ¥350 (airfare:¥280/ taxes and fees:¥50)'.

It is this latter info that drew my inspection. If the extra ¥20 is YQ so be it, but I'm still not finding where that is stated.

Did you notice my last post, in which I bolded the "20"?

its been said before, use the Chinese ctrip (of course, given you read CN, but even if you don't, its pretty straight forward). prices are better and interface is more detailed (splitting tax and YQ surcharges).

eg.
Chinese Ctrip: MU2341 10/03/31 210 RMB + 50 + 20
English Ctrip: MU2341 10/03/31 440 RMB + 70

Sure did, after I submitted mine.

Thanks for the info. :)

Thai & Lao no problem. Khmer a little. I don't have plans for CN (just yet).

Again, thanks for bringing info to light. :)

Expedia issued e-tickets and the credit card charges were from the airline that we're flying on (Air China, China Eastern)...

ctrip also issued e-tickets, but charged the credit card appears to what appears be a local agent (HUACHENG XINAN) - not sure who they are...

Huacheng is a travel agency based in Shanghai. Ctrip acquired Huacheng back in 2003.

Thanks!

I tried to buy a ticket on MU's website this morning because their fare was y40 less than ctrip's (small potatoes, I know; but, I my goal was to score the lowest possible fare).

Though I have a Chinese bank card that would have gotten the job done, I was intent upon using my Schwab card in order to bill my client in transparent manner.

After a bit of back and forth with MU's phone people, I learned that the cheaper fare was ONLY available via flychinaeastern.com.cn (i.e. no workarounds), but that I could buy the more expensive fare from them without paying the CC surcharge.

Slightly off topic (i.e. this belongs in the "dual pricing" thread, which I'm too lazy to find), I walked into a TA yesterday with a friend who is flying SHA-TAO tomorrow and the agent told him that there was a y300 fare available only for PRC nationals, but y480 was the price for the rest of us (same as ctrip). Since the guy was born in China (and now holds US passport), I encouraged him to roll with the cheaper ticket, but he chickened out.

In any event, he'll be one of the first passengers to try out T2 tomorrow morning.

Unless he still has a Chinese identity card or passport, he'd probably be knocked back at check-in with such a ticket.

Circa ~1997, pricing schemes that favored PRC nationals were abolished tmk. This was the first instance I've seen of such during the past decade+. Were I to purchase a ticket of this nature, you can bet that I'd try my best to get it honored.