many consumers are used to booking air tickets on Ctrip, qunar, Ali Travel and Tongcheng, but these websites are full of tricks.

On December 15th, The Paper reporter learned from the news briefing held by the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee that the above four online platforms either set various conditions to prevent consumers from refunding their tickets, or deducted the refund amount that consumers should get back, or packaged ordinary air tickets into promotional products, or changed the travel itinerary of e-tickets.

Tang Jiansheng, deputy secretary-general of Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee, revealed that in recent years, with the way of booking air tickets online being more and more accepted by consumers, complaints about air ticket consumption have also increased substantially. In 213, Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee received 153 complaints about air ticket consumption; In 214, the number rose to 4,86; Since 215, this number has reached 7874.

Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee: The four major online platforms are all fishy

According to the survey of Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee, consumers tend to choose the sales agent platform to purchase tickets. The data shows that 67% of consumers choose Ctrip and Qunar to purchase tickets, 11% choose Taobao and Ali to travel, 6% choose WeChat and Tongcheng, and 16% choose the airline official website to purchase tickets.

in the survey of the primary factors to consider in purchasing tickets, the price of air tickets is the most important factor for consumers, accounting for 79%, followed by airlines, conditions for returning and changing tickets and space. At the same time, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee pointed out that most consumers recognize air tickets with low fares but high return and change fees, but only if there are obvious tips.

since consumers like to buy tickets through the platform, and recognize that the ticket with low fare can be refunded to the ticket with high fee, how do consumers experience in the process of ticket refund?

Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee recently launched a consumer observation on online booking of air tickets, and purchased air tickets in two ways. One way is to sell air tickets through agents, and four well-known online platforms, Ctrip.com, Qunar.com, Ali Travel.com and Tongcheng.com, were selected. The other is to purchase tickets through airlines official website, including Spring Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Jixiang Airlines and China Southern Airlines. Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee purchased 16 air tickets through the above channels, and immediately refunded them. By simulating the process of consumers purchasing tickets and refunding tickets, it investigated the current situation of booking air tickets online.

After inspection, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee found that compared with the airline official website, the online platform for selling agent tickets has a poor experience, and Ctrip, Qunar, Ali Travel and Tongcheng, which are popular with consumers, are more or less hidden in the refund process, which harms consumers' interests.

Ctrip: Packaged products can't be refunded

People from Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee randomly bought a ticket from Guangzhou to Shanghai on December 11th on Ctrip. The airline is Spring Airlines, and the ticket price is 52 yuan. After clicking "Book", the order shows a total of 645 yuan, including an adult ticket, 52 yuan, Civil Aviation Development Fund (airport construction fee) 5 yuan, insurance 4 yuan, hotel coupon 25 yuan and delivery fee 1 yuan. The order also shows that the product does not support unsubscribe. After paying for the product, the Consumer Protection Committee wanted to refund the ticket and found that the button for refund could not be found on the page.

At the same time, members of the Consumer Protection Committee immediately logged into official website of Spring Airlines and booked a ticket for the same flight and the same cabin, which cost 61 yuan, including the ticket price of 56 yuan, airport construction and fuel costs of 5 yuan. According to the official website Refund Rules, if a flight applies for a refund 24 hours before the departure time, it is required to pay a refund fee of 1% of the original fare. The Consumer Protection Committee successfully applied for a refund and got a refund of 538 yuan.

why can official website, an airline, refund tickets, but Ctrip. com can't?

Ctrip's public relations staff said that the above-mentioned air tickets purchased on its website are package travel products, and besides the air tickets, there are also hotel coupons. If consumers want to cancel their reservations, they must return the air tickets together with the hotel coupons. "Once the consumers have paid for the package products, our website will send an electronic code to the consumers, which is the hotel coupons, and consumers can go to the hotel for deduction at any time. However, if the consumer unsubscribes from the package product, the air ticket is refunded and the hotel coupon can still be used. Therefore, we are clear that such air ticket package products cannot be refunded. "

The package price packaged by Ctrip also includes airport construction fees, insurance fees and other expenses. Why can't this part of the expenses that haven't happened be refunded? Where did the money go?

Ctrip. com said that Ctrip. com provided a platform, and the air tickets were purchased by Ctrip from suppliers, and the rules for returning and changing the air tickets were also directly entered by suppliers, and all the capital flows arising from returning and changing the air tickets were also collected by suppliers.

Ctrip added that although the air ticket package products can't be unsubscribed on the page, Ctrip will still monitor the use of customers. "The validity period of air tickets is one year. If customers don't use the air tickets in the package products within the validity period, our customer service will take the initiative to remind customers who don't use the air tickets one month before the expiration of the validity period whether they need to change them or refund them later."

In addition, Ctrip said on the spot that the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee observed that the ticket package products could not be refunded, which was indeed a flaw in the product design, and would optimize the pages of such products to ensure that consumers could refund some money in the future.

where to go: package ordinary air tickets into promotional products

People from Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee bought a ticket from China Southern Airlines to fly to Chongqing on December 15th on Qunar.com. According to the product tips, this ticket is V-class, with the original ticket price of 7 yuan, and the price of Qunar.com is 42 yuan. Together with the airport construction fee of 5 yuan and the invoice express fee of 1 yuan, people from Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee always paid 48 yuan. However, after the ticket was issued, the Consumer Protection Committee found that the cabin printed on the e-ticket travel itinerary was R cabin.

People from the Consumer Protection Committee also bought a ticket with the same flight and the same R class in official website of China Southern Airlines, but they didn't find a ticket with the fare of 7 yuan. To buy tickets on China Southern Airlines official website, the above-mentioned people * * * spend 47 yuan, including the ticket price of 42 yuan and the construction fee of 5 yuan Airport.

People from the Consumer Protection Committee want to refund the tickets purchased by the two channels. After comparison, it is found that Qunar.com calls the products purchased as reduced promotional products, and only the airport construction fee and fuel fee are refunded. According to the rules of official website of China Southern Airlines, the fee for refunding tickets two hours before departure is 21 yuan, so consumers can get more refunds than Qunar.

Since it is the same ticket, the price of Qunar.com and the price of China Southern Airlines official website are both 42 yuan, why are the refund rules completely different? Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee questioned Qunar.com's over-packaging products, packaging ordinary airline tickets into promotional products to attract consumers to buy them, and therefore added obstacles to the refund link, which harmed consumers' interests.

in this regard, qunar. com people argue that qunar. com still follows the airline's rules for ticket refund and change. However, Qunar.com is only a third-party platform, which is used to display the products of various air ticket agents, so the data entry of products is completed by agents, and it cannot be ruled out that individual agents have exploited loopholes.

in response to the suggestion of Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee that the ticket purchased by Qunar.com was marked with "self-operated", Qunar.com responded that the so-called "self-operated" ticket was actually provided by the agent, but compared with other products, the "self-operated" product provided the key service guarantee of Qunar.com, such as the agent didn't issue the ticket within 15 minutes, and passengers could enjoy a full refund.

Ali Travel: You can't specify the rules for returning and changing the ticket before purchasing the ticket

People from Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee ordered a ticket of Eastern Airlines from Yanji to Shanghai on December 16th on Ali Travel's website, which was sold by the agent Baiyi Airlines. The website page shows that the ticket price is 5 yuan, and the ticket price purchased on the website is 492 yuan, in addition to the airport construction and fuel costs of 5 yuan. It also stipulates: "This cabin is a special cabin, and the specific rules for returning and changing the ticket are subject to the airline. If you refund or change the ticket, please contact the airline or merchant for confirmation first."

Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee pointed out that from the website page, consumers can't know the rules of ticket refund and change before purchasing tickets. After that, the consumer protection Committee personnel operated the refund, and they still didn't know how much the handling fee for returning and changing the visa was. After the actual operation, it was found that the refund amount was only received from 5 yuan airport construction and fuel costs.

People from the Consumer Protection Committee bought a ticket with the same flight and the same cabin in official website of Eastern Airlines, which cost 55 yuan. According to the official website rules of China Eastern Airlines, the refund fee of 8% of the actual ticket price will be charged two hours before the scheduled departure time of the flight, and the consumer protection committee will pay the refund to China Eastern Airlines in 15 yuan.

In this regard, China Eastern Airlines said that there will be rules for returning and changing tickets for all classes of each flight. The return and change of the normal class will be given to the agent, and a small number of special class agents may not know it.

the person in charge of Ali Travel explained that the ticket purchased by the Consumer Protection Committee is a special class, and the standard of returning and changing the ticket will not be known until it is purchased. In order to avoid the agent from harming consumers, Ali Travel reminded consumers to contact the airline to consult how to return and change the ticket after issuing the ticket. The person in charge also said that there are about 2% ticket products on the website, and Ali Travel doesn't know the rules for returning and changing the ticket. This part of the refund is directly contacted by the consumer and the agent. "If we receive a complaint from the consumer that the agent fails to refund the ticket according to the airline's standards, our company will fine the agent every time in 5 yuan and compensate the consumer 5 yuan."

Tongcheng: Changing the Electronic Ticket travel itinerary

People from Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee saw a ticket product of Air China from Tianjin to Chengdu on December 15th, with a face price of 387 yuan. However, after clicking on the reservation, it was found that it was a package product, and passengers were required to buy supporting insurance products, otherwise they could not buy it. In addition, the page also reminds consumers that if they want to refund their tickets, they will voluntarily accept the fees generated by the refund and will not provide refund invoices.

After paying for the ticket, the Consumer Protection Committee found that the e-ticket found on Tongcheng.com in travel itinerary was an O-class ticket with a fare of 375 yuan. People from the Consumer Protection Committee inquired about the e-ticket verification of China Civil Aviation Information Group through the ticket number, and found that the ticket space of the ticket number was E and the fare was 33 yuan.

In this regard, Tongcheng explained that the statement that refund invoices are not provided is incorrect, and this website provides refund invoices to all consumers. As to whether Tongcheng.com is suspected of tampering with the e-ticket travel itinerary, the Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee suggested that the O-cabin and E-cabin belong to economy class, and there is no grade difference, but the seating areas arranged are different, and there is no difference in the ticket itself.

however, the reporter found that the prices of different cabins marked by each airline are different after consulting the information. Taking the air China ticket purchased by the Consumer Protection Committee as an example, the customer service staff of Air China told the reporter that the O cabin represents the first-class mileage exchange cabin, that is, the free cabin that the airline members exchange with mileage points, while the E cabin represents the special cabin of economy class.