Chinese airlines were never famous for being very good. At least for Western standards. Still, among the many Chinese airlines there are better ones and worse ones. Of course, by far the best ones are the Hong Kong airlines like Cathay Pacific. But that's also because HK is a piece of China that has been governed by the English until very recently, and the city has it's own peculiarities that differ from mainland China.
I've taken so many planes in China that I can't remember how many airlines I've flown with. But I will never forget my experience with China Eastern in 2011, by far the worst airline ever!
My wife and I were living in Beijing, and decided to take a 10 days holiday to visit Laos and Cambodia. Being these two countries very cheap, we pre-booked a package that included 1 day and 1 night in Vientiane (capital of Laos), some few days in Luang Prabang, and 5 days in Cambodia, all in 5 star hotels, that were comparatively very cheap.
We were flying by China Eastern, of course. After we checked-in at the Beijing Airport, on a beautiful sunny day, our flight got delayed. For some unknown reason, the airline couldn't be kind enough to let us know of the delay and it's reasons, and there was a halo of mystery around everything. So we had to ask some few times until we understood we'd better stay quiet and just call our agent to let the our hotel transfer know of the delay. We were worried that we wouldn't miss our connection in Kunming (Yunnan), where we should change plane before flying to Vientiane.
When the airplane arrived, and we boarded, we were on a very tight schedule not to miss our connecting flight in Kunming. But in this situation, since we would be arriving at Kunming with a window of just 30 minutes before our next plane would leave, the normal thing to do is to talk to the flight attendants and let them know that we have a very short window before our next flight, and they simply contact the airport to ask them to wait 15 or 20 minutes more (as we had already waited more than 2 hours for the first plane). The flight attendants were helpless enough to insist that that was not possible, and rudely made us sit down and shut-up. All we could do at the end was expect that we could go reach the next plane in just 20 or 30 minutes after descending.
The flight attendants didn't even show any sympathy for our urgency (caused by them), and didn't even allow us to leave the airplane first (as any other airline in the world would have done).
Once at the airport, we were denied any kind of help to speed-up our process to get to the next plane. We explained we just had one night at Vientiane, hotel included, etc, etc. But they simply didn't care, and took it with particular insolence because we were foreigners.
Nobody willing to do anything to ask the staff to hold the plane for some minutes, we missed the flight for just about 5 or 10 minutes. So, we had to go out again, and queue-up to complain and get a solution.
At the beginning they just wanted to intimidate us saying that there were too many people, and they were busy, so I should go back the next day. But I was so stressed that l insisted I wouldn't leave until I spoke to the highest manager there. They just made me wait and wait, and said they would bring somebody…. In the meantime they would attend the complains of the locals (Chinese) that got there after me. And then, talking to another passenger, we realized that they were giving seats for the next flight only to the Chinese people, regardless of their having queued first or not, and regardless of their sense of urgency. It was just sheer discrimination. I complained, but at the end they just said that there were no more seats for that day, and that I would have to wait three days to take the next flight. But fortunately another passenger explained to me that they were trying to put only the Chinese clients in the next-day's flight, and leave the foreigners for the last. So, after I complained quite a bit, I managed to be put in the next day's flight. But it took me a long time waiting and insisting.
It took another long while to be arranged into a local hotel until the next morning. Fortunately there was one more person, a Chinese, in our same situation, and he helped us with translation. And we followed him.
Once the hotel (a very crappy one) and the transfer were arranged for us, the airline assistant (from China Eastern) said (and I had him confirm it at least three times) that next morning we should not move from the hotel, but just wait for the transfer from the airline to pick-us up. Not to take a cab, because they would go!
That evening, at the hotel, the Chinese guy that was in our same situation said by experience that he didn't believe that the airline would send for us. So next morning he just disappeared in a cab towards the airport.
We waited for 25 minutes, until finally we understood that nobody would come us up, and that we'd better go get a taxi ourselves to get to the airport. Once there, we could take the airplane and flew to Vientiane. However, we had already lost our hotel booking and the day that was to be spent for the capital city. So we just had to take the next plane to Luang Prabang.
Never before and never after did we have a problem with an airline. And never again did we take that crap of an airline: China Eastern. And I hope I don't even have to again.
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