On July 20th, Huang Yuanpu, the founding partner of 36Kr EqualOcean, posted an open letter to Liang Jianzhang, chairman of Ctrip's board of directors, on his Moments, criticizing the big data killing problem of Ctrip.
Huang Yuanpu said that at 11:30 noon on July 18th, he used the Ctrip app to book a flight ticket from Beijing to Astana, Kazakhstan on July 22nd. At 7 o'clock in the morning, the price of the tickets for China Airline's flight was displayed as 3868 yuan. After clicking to order and filling in the information, he was prompted that the ticket was sold out, and then the price was refreshed to 4408 yuan. However, the total price of the same flight on China Airlines official website was even cheaper at 4328 yuan, which is 80 yuan cheaper than Ctrip.
Based on saving time and effort, Huang Yuanpu chose the more expensive Ctrip flight ticket at 4408 yuan, and he claimed to be a true fan of Ctrip. However, the price of the same flight ticket on Ctrip quickly returned to 3868 yuan after he bought the ticket. Ctrip's explanation for this was that ticket prices were changing according to the airline's demand.
"As the most important sales channel for airlines, you are the reference for the airlines' own demand," he said. "This explanation absolves Ctrip of its responsibility."
"Who wouldn't be upset to see the ideal price, fill in all the information, click the next step and find out that it is sold out, and then immediately raise the price by more than 500 yuan?" Huang Yuanpu questioned. "And why is Ctrip's ticket 80 yuan more expensive than the official channel (and even more expensive than Fliggy)? Is it because the official channel gives extra subsidies?"
He said he randomly searched for several domestic flights (as of 14:36 on July 20th), among which the Ctrip price for MU5166 from Beijing to Shanghai Hongqiao on July 22nd was 978 yuan, Fliggy was 965 yuan, and Meituan was 969 yuan.
"Not all flights have price advantages on Ctrip," Huang Yuanpu said frankly, and most of the international flights departing from China that he searched for on Ctrip were priced higher than those of competitors.
As the highest-level "Black Diamond Member" of Ctrip, Huang Yuanpu raised a "soul question" to Liang Jianzhang: Do the highest level members of Ctrip really have price advantages, or rather, pay higher prices? As the largest sales channel, does Ctrip really have price advantages over its competitors?
"Could Chairman Liang and friends from Ctrip please help me answer my confusion?" Huang Yuanpu asked.