A Ctrip.com ticketing scandal came to light recently after a Chinese passenger was "held back" at a Japanese airport after the ticket he purchased on China's largest online travel agency was found to have been illegally exchanged for airlines' mileages.
The passenger said he was not allowed to board the flight at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Thursday because his flight ticket from Tokyo to Beijing — bought on Ctrip.com — was invalid.
The airport police asked him to "cooperate with the investigation" because his ticket was illegally exchanged with other passenger's mileages, the passenger said on his microblog account.
He contacted Ctrip.com, which asked the agent who sold the ticket to solve the problem. The agent offered a new ticket on another Japanese carrier, but the passenger was denied the boarding pass again for the same reason — illegally exchanged with mileages.
"I felt humiliated after being investigated for three hours at the Japanese airport and was almost detained," the passenger said. "I want Ctrip to apologize and remove the negative records made by the airport and airlines."
The Shanghai-based Ctrip.com claimed one of its ticketing agents had erred in selling flight tickets that were exchanged for mileages illegally.
The website has apologized to the passenger and helped him get new ticket. It said it would offer triple compensation and full refund to customers who encounter similar situations in future. The website said it will boost supervision on agents and punish the violators.