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Efficiency secrets from Shanghai Airlines
reported by James Fallows the Shanghai based Atlantic Monthly writer. The most surprising to me is this one about buying tickets online:
Buying tickets is easy – you can walk into the airport and pay in cash, or order online through a unique high-tech/low-tech process I’ll describe some other day.*
* OK, I’ll describe it now. C-Trip is a popular online booking service that covers most of China’s airlines and is faster and easier to use that most US sites. You choose your flight, push “buy now” – and two hours later, a courier shows up at your house or office to hand you your ticket and collect the exact-change fare, in cash.
Interesting. Looks like the Chinese version of an e-ticket is a "c-ticket" as in "courier"…….! I guess the booking fee collected by U.S. online travel agents eliminates this option.
JEB @ September 13, 2007