Hot Link: The Battle of Beijing Airport



Having recently taken an Air China flight from Sydney to Beijing that took 35 hours (instead of the scheduled 12), I can sympathize with the passengers on a China Eastern flight earlier this week. According to shanghaiist, passengers decided some "direct action" was in order when their flight from Beijing to Nanjing was delayed by eight hours. Fortunately cameras were on hand to capture the action...

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Living in China for more then 4 years and flying across the country every week I can tell you endless stories. Worst case was a night at Shenyang airport after several delays followed a cancelation. Responsible airline staff left already so there was no hotel voucher or any other support. People got really angry and almost beat up the checkin manager when she arrived the next morning. Passengers got about 150 RMB compensation to keep the crowds quiet.
Second incident was a bare knuckle fist fight in the airplanes aisle next to my seat. After boarding some drunk passengers beat each other up for some stupid reason. It took airport police about 20 minutes to arrive. The officer was overweighted and not wearing his hat. They arrested two guys. After another 30 minutes on the ground the officer returned, still not wearing his hat and checked the seats to find the one rioting passengers ID card. That guy try to hide it in the seat pocket. According to airport security regulations everybody had to leave the airplane for re-boarding.
I am not complaining about the normal weather related delays in summer. Those are for everybody's security. But then the airlines should have some concept how to react.
Since this summer I prefer to take the new CRH speed trains (to Shenyang, Tianjin, Taiyuan) which are always on time. There is less trouble and the stations are easier to reach.

the delay is nothing more than the ordinary during summer. no great sympathy for those who aired dissent, perhaps just as selfishly inclined as those who drive massive cars in small streets and park and beep the horn with impunity.

i will say though that airport theatre is fun to watch, especially the one bag in the cabin policy, and the "look i've got a seat number, but i don't want to sit there..so how about i take your seat"....the whole time the cabin staff saying...sir i can do nothing about it...oh, excuse me i have to take my cell phone call....oh, you're our gold customer...that's ok....i'm sure you'll enjoy your 'b' seating!

home of darktrunk music

i am reminded of my only experience with China Eastern, where we were removed from our flight back from LA to Beijing because we had failed to call back two days prior to the flight to "confirm" our flight ... and we were told we could get on the waiting list for future flights, but they had no idea when a seat would become available. no overnight compensation was offered.

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