Like Tree4Likes

Ctrip - is it safe ?

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast
  1. #1

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557

    I've used Ctrip in the past to book hotels and flights, without problem.

    The only annoying thing is their promotional emails. Was a pain to unsubscribe from them.

    100LL likes this.

  2. #2

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    7,517

    I've used ctrip for internal China flights, hotels and trains for a number of years now. No problems, and when hotels have been a problem, its customer service have done their best to sort it out. I've not thought of using them for international flights - but maybe time to give them a chance.


  3. #3

    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Hong Kong, from UK
    Posts
    3,838

    We used them for a Air China flight to Canada over CNY - it was mostly fine, with a couple of little issues.

    When I pinged their online chat to try to book a vegetarian meal, they would only reply "we can pass on the request to the airline, but I can't promise they'll follow it", which was weird - they just refused to take responsibility for the request, basically seemed to want to deny any confidence in the airline. More seriously, when I went to check in online, I found that both tickets had been given the same passport expiry date - I honestly don't remember if I put it in incorrectly, or they only asked for one date, or what, but we ended up having to call the airline in China and get it changed the day before we were due to fly.


  4. #4

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    2,879
    Quote Originally Posted by pin:
    The only annoying thing is their promotional emails. Was a pain to unsubscribe from them.
    +1

    How did you unsubscribe? I tried it for a while then blocked them on the mail server.

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    15,557
    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    +1

    How did you unsubscribe? I tried it for a while then blocked them on the mail server.
    sent an unsucbribe email and then numerous live chat messages whereby I changed email address to something else like [email protected].
    100LL likes this.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    6,745

    Ctrip is ok.
    You need to be careful with Air Asia.
    booked ( I know because I had to use a PIN to pay with card )
    Did not get an email
    Went to an office, they called around and initially " saw" the booking
    and then there's was no booking

    528 is good.
    I also boycott AF.......


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    HK
    Posts
    14,624

    used them (mostly for china) never had an issue. Have a good trip.

    Re AF...I do fly them still sometimes - better food than CX but for the rest....no comment!


  8. #8

    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    12,323

    Used them for internal flights in China and hotels in China. No problems. Have also used various other third party suppliers for travel products - agoda/expedia etc - also no problem. I think if you are worried about it, there are international organisations you can check if the company is a member of (international travel association type of thing) which have some protections. Also, some credit cards (although rarer in HK than other places) have automatic insurance built in - thats always useful if slightly unsure of a seller online. Worth having one card with insurance that you use for these purposes (I use Amex).


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Posts
    1,896

    In term of finding the best fare I mostly use Google Flights nowadays, and then book at whatever has the best fare for me. That being said, I so far have avoided CTrip for non-China flights because the only time when they had the best fare, it came with the following caveat:

    Name:  Screen Shot 2017-02-15 at 9.39.13 AM.png
Views: 2344
Size:  108.9 KB

    And I don't know wth that is supposed to mean. My guess is that they use this clause to get around 'best price guarantee' clauses (they do this for the big hotel booking websites - Hyatt/SPG Best Rate Guarantee applies only to 'instantly' bookable reservations and excludes all of CTrip, which often have cheaper prices. But no one on the live chat was so far able to tell me that yes, I will get a ticket issued _for sure_ 72h prior to departure...

    Original Post Deleted
    - just out curiosity, I tested a bunch of destinations (including CDG) in Google vs Ctrip, and the cheapest (flyable) option was always the same - LH via FRA for 4500. 4k on EY is great value.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    12,323

    By the way - on the subject of travel and the few people on here who like to fly business class without going bankrupt... I tried out PAL (Philippine Airlines) business class to the UK over CNY. Being CNY, cathay wanted 45k for seats and actually were full on the best dates (those that required no extra holiday over CNY). My usual "trick" of flying via TPE didnt work because TPE is also on CNY. I was getting desperate. I tried one of those companies that sell you flights where you don't get any frequent flyer benefits (apparently, they keep the points and use them for flights which is why they are cheap) - they could do something half-decent for about 25k HKD. But half-decent and no FF benefits.

    Then I saw PAL on sky scanner looking pretty cheap, so I went to their website and managed to get a business class flight ex-Manila for 15k HKD. (It would have been 18k ex-HK, but I did the HK-MAN leg separately on business).

    So - 1/3 of the price of CX. Timing was perfect - so I went for it. (People who know me know it takes a LOT to shift me off one-world airlines lol).

    The flight was ... well better than 1/3 the quality of Cathay. Not as good, maybe 70% as good. Seats were comfortable and I slept well (not full flat, but angled flat). Service was excellent. Cabin had about 6 people in it (could have taken 20+) in both directions, so it was very quiet and peaceful. Food was dire - I packed snacks for the way home. It was very Filipino (which I dislike at the best of times), not much choice and not much food! (Not enough meals, not enough food in each meal). The entertainment was difficult to use (a wifi-based version which didn't work on my laptop and the staff had no idea how to make it work). The free iPads they gave out if you didnt have your own device were mini-sized, so very small screens. I purchased a book for the return flight and watched my own stuff on the way there.

    On balance - would do it again for that price. Take snacks and your own entertainment and it's fine. I fly business for the seat and the sleep, period.

    jonastainine likes this.

Closed Thread
Page 1 of 3 1 2 3 LastLast