Tuesday, May 10, 2005

China Eastern This morning the Shanghai Daily had a half-page ad for the best international airline of the year in China. One of the participating airlines is China Eastern. I would be seriously surprised if they would win, because based on my latest experiences with them I have decided that on international flights I will avoid them from now on. We took China Eastern from Pudong to Bangkok and back, and did not have the best experience with them [^] and that[base ']s an understatement. Rude ground staff in Pudong that tell you they cannot check you in more than two hours in advance (I was early for once) and refuse to give a reason for that. Lousy cabin staff who ignore passengers, hardly any legroom on board (OK, that[base ']s normal in economy), and horrible food (also not un-normal for Chinese airlines). On the way back I was quite hungry because I had no time to eat at BKK airport, but they did not even serve dinner on the flight, although it left at 18:50 Bangkok time. Luckily I managed to grab some bread and French Cheese from the Air France lounge just before boarding. The snack they served on board came from China, so they probably try to save on costs for catering by bringing their own food, instead of buying it from Thai catering services. No check-in for the transfer in Bangkok was possible in Koh Samui, although most other airlines could do that. The seats I had reserved were not in the system. And checking in at Bangkok was extremely slow: although the flight was fully booked only 2 check-in desks were open and they seemed to have problems with every second person. I finally got tired of it and went over to the business class check-in, where they helped me without complaining (OK, that[base ']s good about Chinese airlines, wouldn[base ']t work with most foreign airlines). During the flight I tried to concentrate on preparations for work, but because of turbulence they continuously had the same annoying and disturbing loud announcements warning about [OE]a little turbulence[base ']. People who tried to get some sleep woke up every couple of minutes because of the announcement. After a while I knew both the Chinese and the English version by heart! 11:50:55 PM    comment []