Online Service Quick Review Ctrip for flights and hotels Part 1

Its highly likely that you havent heard of Ctrip unless youre working in Asia. Travel industry analysts, however, sat up when the Chinese travel company acquired Skyscanner, a veteran UK online service for booking plane tickets. However, even if you have no plans of flying from China to a city in Europe (or domestically in China), Ctrip is worth a try over more well-known booking sites such as Orbitz and Expedia.

Although Ctrip is a Chinese company, Ctrip has a surprisingly good English user interface, and even allows Facebook as a login option, which is unusual considering the American social networking site is banned in China. Ctrip is currently most advantageous if youre buying tickets for trips around Asia, but if youre flying from either Hong Kong, or a busy hub such as Beijing or Shanghai international, the plane fares are pretty good for trips to San Francisco, San Diego, Paris, and cities in the EU. Thanks to the glut of middle-class first-time Chinese travele rs, Ctrip receives some pretty large discounts from airlines ready to pocket some Chinese yuan. Moreover, despite the US recent xenophobic policies, a timely visit to Ctrip during non-Chinese holidays will merit competitive plane tickets to New York or California via airlines such as Delta and United.

For the adventurous, there are a few things to take note of when booking flights from Ctrip:

1. Ctrips prices are closely linked to Chinese holidays so check the lunar calendar before booking. Looking for plane fares during Chinese New Year, for example, will get you unreasonable prices even from American and Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates and Qatar Airways.

2. As with all booking sites, the earlier the better. Both hotels and flight bookings get steep and tempting discounts when you book mont hs ahead. The prices arent terribly awful if you book a few weeks before your trip, but the price range is largely dependent on where youre coming from and your destination.

3. Ctrip is somewhat biased towards Chinese users. Mainland Chinese get additional discounts (sometimes amounting to $50 dollars) if they book using the Chinese Ctrip app. You can actually compare the price difference if you have a friend who can read Chinese characters. On the other hand, multilingual foreigners can benefit from these discounts too. If you work in China and have a Unionpay debit card, you also get additional perks on top of the discounts.

4. Ctrip prioritizes Chinese airlines such as China Southern, China Airlines, China Eastern, Hainan and their member airlines in their search results. Dont let this put you off.  Chi na Air and China Eastern, for example, are affiliated with Deltas SkyMiles. Hainan Airlines, on the other hand, is a member of the Oneworld Alliance. Moreover, Chinese international airline services have improved over the years and unlike their Western counterparts, havent tacked on unnecessary baggage and seat charges (they havent really caught on to that trend yet). In fact, you can get away with a pretty cheap plane ticket and lug around an unreasonable amount of carry-on luggage on your flight.

Note: Domestic flights in China are at rock bottom prices using a Chinese airline, but the quality of the service isnt on par as their international services. As with most airlines, the domestic service just isnt very good unless you booked a Business Class seat. Rest assured, though, that Chinese international flights are mostly comfortable in addition to being affordable. However, dont expect a cabin full of Caucasians and burgers and fries during the flight.

Continued in Online Service Quick Review: Ctrip for flights and hotels Part 2