booking with CTRIP
 

anyone who has booked with CTRIP I hope can offer some information. I am state side trying to book a rt from Shanghai to Guangzhou. Do they do e-tickets? They ask where to deliver an e-ticket invoice - is that just my bill? Can anyone whose booked with them tell me how they work.
thanks

We booked with Ctrip by calling them and being online at the same time. They walked me through a difficult process. No extra charge.

In most cases, you need to get the voucher in order to check-in at the airlines' desks. So, it's actually not really "E-" ticketing. But ctrip has counters at most major Chinese airports. Or they can even deliver to your hotel in some cases.

In my case I had C-trip deliver tickets to my hotel in Beijing.

Aloha!

We booked entirely electronically and only used the print out of our itinerary.

Not to beat a dead horse, but should I book my intra-China flights now or would I really get a better price if I wait?

Now that Peter N_H is off the board, only nice replies please!

IMHO if saving $5-15 dollars is a big thing to you then wait till you get there. If peace of mind is worth a few dollars to you then buy with C-Trip now. All depends on how YOU like to travel, no one else. Have a nice trip!

Aloha!

So there are a couple of conflicting replies. (Or at least to me they sound conflicting....maybe I'm just not understanding?) Gpanda is saying (I think) that he used a print out of his itinerary, which I'm guessing is a print out of a confirmation email, and did not need a voucher. rkkwan and HT are saying they had vouchers. Or maybe there is just more than one correct way?

I'm planning a 2011 trip to China and am the sort that does not care about saving a few bucks, I'm the rather-have-peace-of-mind sort. So when the trip gets closer I'd like to book from home here in the US. So my question is, will I get an email confirmation that can be used, or will I need to have ctrip drop off vouchers to my first hotel in Beijing?

Also I'm wondering how many months ahead of a travel date is it possible to book? (Or to at least see the schedule for a travel date.)

Thank you!

bniemand-if you use my telephone/internet method, you can inquire of the Ctrip representative what documewntation you need and how to acquire it. Yes, we just used the E-mailed confirmation.

Yes we had vouchers which were actually a paper receipt with the itinerary and not the actual tickets(I don't think any airline uses paper tickets any more)they also had on it most importantly the reservation number which is what the tickent agent at the airport used to pull up our reservations on their computer at check in. Pretty simple really.

Aloha!

It may simply depends on the airline, route (and more specifically originating airport) and fare class you're booking on ctrip. In some cases, maybe it is actually e-ticket which you just show a printout to get checked-in with the airline. In other cases, a voucher has to be presented to the airline, and that requires picking up at ctrip's airport counter or have it delivered.

Thanks everyone!