Techtravler
Jun 17, 12, 1:40 pm
So this may get a bit long, but I am curious what others would have done here.
On June 2nd my wife, 10 year old daughter started out on our summer vacation. We were flying to Hong Kong for the 1st time. I booked the whole trip on US Air using points, but none of the actual flights were on US metal.
We fly out JAX-IAD-YYZ on UA 1 night stop over than YYZ-HKG on AC. Outbound was great all the way, especially the AC YYZ-HKG leg.
Our return was HKG-PEK-IAD a stop over in IAD than IAD-JAX.
The HKG-PEK was on Air CHina, the rest on UA.
About 1.5 hrs into the HKG-PEK leg they make an announcement (in Chinese) that gets some very strong gasps from others and even crying from the person behind us. They make what I assume is the same announcement in English saying due to bad weather in Beijing our flight is being diverted to another airport.
My first thought is, not ideal, but may be interesting. We ended up landing in Wuhan China. Apparently a fairly large city. The first thing I notice when we land is no International carriers planes. Okay, so probably not catching a US bound flight from here and I was correct of that.
The next couple of hours we sit on the plane as they make a series of announcements basically deplaning everyone that would legally be allowed to stay in China. People that have PEK as a final destination, people that would be transferring to another Chinese city, etc.
Finally after about 3 hrs they have all of us get off and are bussed to a bldg that when entered are at a China immigration point. Most of us cannot enter because we have no Visa for China. There was a Visa counter there, but frankly I did not want to even get the Visa, I just wanted to continue to PEK. Well after a bit of arguing between the flight staff and local Airport Staff we were told to go to the Visa counter. Then about 1 minute later told not to and see some guy standing in the corner.
In the end, we were given some type of Visa good until the end of the next day. From here we all collected our luggage(never a good sign) and were brought to the main terminal were we waited some more. By this time we made friends with a very helpful guy from Toronto that spoke Chinese and played interpreter for us and a couple of others.
They really were disorganized, even with someone that spoke the language getting answers was almost impossible.
Finally after a couple more hours we were all put on buses and told were going to Beijing. Well apparently they meant by plane and bused us to another terminal where we were told we are taken another flight to PEK.
When we got to the ticket counter everything looked good, they printed boarding passes and everything, then they tore them up and said the flight was canceled PEK was closed.
So here we were in the middle of China, no Chinese currency, just US$ and Hong Kong$, no cell service(I had a Hong Kong SIM card and US SIM, neither worked) and not much direction. We looked around for ATM, but couldn't see one. We could not move far from the group because when things happened they happened fast. I was able to get WIFI access from the airport and text my brother in law so someone knew where we were.
After this, there was more waiting another hour or 2 and then we told to board these buses. We were pretty sure we were being brought to a hotel. After about a 45 minute ride we were dropped of at a hotel in a downtown area. At this point it was around 10:00pm our flight had landed at about 1:30pm. After a bit more confusion we were asked to give our original boarding passes and given a key to a room. The hotel was not one I would chosen to stay at, but I have stayed at worse. We were told dinner would be supplied, which after 10 minutes someone brought us 3 giant Ramen noodle bowls and 3 cokes. Since I had no money and frankly was not that comfortable roaming around outside, this worked just fine.
At 4:45am we we given a wake up call and told we were leaving at 5:30am. We were than brought back to the airport, and actually boarded our same plane as before.
We flew to PEK and around arrived around 10:00am.
Well from here, it is where I wonder what others might have done.
I first went to the Air China counter, this was the airline we were delayed on, so it is my experience they need to rebook the rest of the trip. The agent here took our info and gave us 3 certificates that basically said sorry for the delay and told to see the United Folks. They are the carrier we had flights on from PEK on. At the United counter we sat there for 45 minutes with an agent as he did who knows what and finally gave us three stand by passes and told us to come back at 5:00pm. The flight was at 6:25pm. It was about 11:30am at this point.
The flight he was trying to get us on was PEK-IAD, I tried to explain I could care less about IAD as long as we get to JAX in the end. This is where we had a language barrier I believe. I could not get him to look at other carriers either, he seemed to think I had to be on the PEK-IAD flight because this is what I missed.
We started to do as he said and just wait, but the longer I thought about it the more this did not fly with me. I still had limited communications, I was able to get some wifi access and tried calling United Customer service via Skype, but the connection wouldn't stay up. I was able to get online, and it appeared to me there were seats to purchase for this flight. I went back to the counter and told them, they still said it was full and standby only.
I was finally able to buy a China SIM card for my phone(I did get Chinese currency) and called back to United again. I called United and the agent I got said call US Air since I booked with them. Since United had been working the problem already I did not want to get US involved. I hung up, not so nicely and called right back. I got this great agent that was very helpful. She did not think it was likely we would get on the PEK-IAD flight, so she started looking for alternative flights. I mentioned I knew there was a flight to SFO that was delayed by many hours and maybe that would worked. This agent worked her tail off and got us on that flight, but when I tried to get boarding passes they said no, it was too late and we would not make it in time.
Luckily I still had the agent on the phone and she went back to trying for the PEK-IAD flight, she was able to confirm 2 seats, but was still working on the third. About this time, the call dropped. This was after 1.5hrs on the phone with her. Luckily I was smart enough to make sure the agent had my email address in case the call dropped. She immediately email me to 2 confirmed seats. I called back to United and tried to get this agent on the line, but was told it is not possible. I explained she was just working my record, but they said not possible. So now I needed this new agent to help get the last seat, she was not as helpful. She said there was not one available. I asked if there was first class available and she said yes, but I would need to pay with extra miles. I said first my miles were US Air and 2nd I did not have enough anyway.
She kept trying to explain how I only paid for a coach seat. I said United is going to let us stay stuck in China before you give me that seat. I said upgrade someone else and give me a coach seat. Nothing. I went back to the counter yet again(they were tired of seeing me) and explained we had 2 confirmed seats, she kept saying only stand by, I put the confirmation number in front of her she pulled it up and says, 2 seats are confirmed.. After this things moved fast again. Now after a bunch of fast typing she gives us 3 boarding passes with seat assignments, checks our bags and were told to run.
It was about 5:15pm, the flight was departing at 6:25 and we had not started leaving China. We had immigration, customs a train and long run. We finally got on the plane, after flashing my gold card to expedite boarding only to find our seats were double booked. We were not together, but everyone of our seats had someone else assigned. We were not the only ones though. I was given another seat right away, which had someone in it too, but the one next to that was free, so I took it. In the end my wife and daughter got to sit next to each other, but this ending took its toll.
I am really disappointed how things went down. Air China could have had better communications, but they did try and get us out to PEK, they did put us up in a hotel and did finally get us to PEK.
United though, other then the one helpful agent I am not so sure about. Would you really leave a passenger in China when there is first class seats not being used? I am *Gold at that. Does that not factor in at all?
Well that is all, except to say Hong Kong is awesome, but if I ever go back, it is direct in and direct out. Pretty sure my wife will never go back anyway.
TT
On June 2nd my wife, 10 year old daughter started out on our summer vacation. We were flying to Hong Kong for the 1st time. I booked the whole trip on US Air using points, but none of the actual flights were on US metal.
We fly out JAX-IAD-YYZ on UA 1 night stop over than YYZ-HKG on AC. Outbound was great all the way, especially the AC YYZ-HKG leg.
Our return was HKG-PEK-IAD a stop over in IAD than IAD-JAX.
The HKG-PEK was on Air CHina, the rest on UA.
About 1.5 hrs into the HKG-PEK leg they make an announcement (in Chinese) that gets some very strong gasps from others and even crying from the person behind us. They make what I assume is the same announcement in English saying due to bad weather in Beijing our flight is being diverted to another airport.
My first thought is, not ideal, but may be interesting. We ended up landing in Wuhan China. Apparently a fairly large city. The first thing I notice when we land is no International carriers planes. Okay, so probably not catching a US bound flight from here and I was correct of that.
The next couple of hours we sit on the plane as they make a series of announcements basically deplaning everyone that would legally be allowed to stay in China. People that have PEK as a final destination, people that would be transferring to another Chinese city, etc.
Finally after about 3 hrs they have all of us get off and are bussed to a bldg that when entered are at a China immigration point. Most of us cannot enter because we have no Visa for China. There was a Visa counter there, but frankly I did not want to even get the Visa, I just wanted to continue to PEK. Well after a bit of arguing between the flight staff and local Airport Staff we were told to go to the Visa counter. Then about 1 minute later told not to and see some guy standing in the corner.
In the end, we were given some type of Visa good until the end of the next day. From here we all collected our luggage(never a good sign) and were brought to the main terminal were we waited some more. By this time we made friends with a very helpful guy from Toronto that spoke Chinese and played interpreter for us and a couple of others.
They really were disorganized, even with someone that spoke the language getting answers was almost impossible.
Finally after a couple more hours we were all put on buses and told were going to Beijing. Well apparently they meant by plane and bused us to another terminal where we were told we are taken another flight to PEK.
When we got to the ticket counter everything looked good, they printed boarding passes and everything, then they tore them up and said the flight was canceled PEK was closed.
So here we were in the middle of China, no Chinese currency, just US$ and Hong Kong$, no cell service(I had a Hong Kong SIM card and US SIM, neither worked) and not much direction. We looked around for ATM, but couldn't see one. We could not move far from the group because when things happened they happened fast. I was able to get WIFI access from the airport and text my brother in law so someone knew where we were.
After this, there was more waiting another hour or 2 and then we told to board these buses. We were pretty sure we were being brought to a hotel. After about a 45 minute ride we were dropped of at a hotel in a downtown area. At this point it was around 10:00pm our flight had landed at about 1:30pm. After a bit more confusion we were asked to give our original boarding passes and given a key to a room. The hotel was not one I would chosen to stay at, but I have stayed at worse. We were told dinner would be supplied, which after 10 minutes someone brought us 3 giant Ramen noodle bowls and 3 cokes. Since I had no money and frankly was not that comfortable roaming around outside, this worked just fine.
At 4:45am we we given a wake up call and told we were leaving at 5:30am. We were than brought back to the airport, and actually boarded our same plane as before.
We flew to PEK and around arrived around 10:00am.
Well from here, it is where I wonder what others might have done.
I first went to the Air China counter, this was the airline we were delayed on, so it is my experience they need to rebook the rest of the trip. The agent here took our info and gave us 3 certificates that basically said sorry for the delay and told to see the United Folks. They are the carrier we had flights on from PEK on. At the United counter we sat there for 45 minutes with an agent as he did who knows what and finally gave us three stand by passes and told us to come back at 5:00pm. The flight was at 6:25pm. It was about 11:30am at this point.
The flight he was trying to get us on was PEK-IAD, I tried to explain I could care less about IAD as long as we get to JAX in the end. This is where we had a language barrier I believe. I could not get him to look at other carriers either, he seemed to think I had to be on the PEK-IAD flight because this is what I missed.
We started to do as he said and just wait, but the longer I thought about it the more this did not fly with me. I still had limited communications, I was able to get some wifi access and tried calling United Customer service via Skype, but the connection wouldn't stay up. I was able to get online, and it appeared to me there were seats to purchase for this flight. I went back to the counter and told them, they still said it was full and standby only.
I was finally able to buy a China SIM card for my phone(I did get Chinese currency) and called back to United again. I called United and the agent I got said call US Air since I booked with them. Since United had been working the problem already I did not want to get US involved. I hung up, not so nicely and called right back. I got this great agent that was very helpful. She did not think it was likely we would get on the PEK-IAD flight, so she started looking for alternative flights. I mentioned I knew there was a flight to SFO that was delayed by many hours and maybe that would worked. This agent worked her tail off and got us on that flight, but when I tried to get boarding passes they said no, it was too late and we would not make it in time.
Luckily I still had the agent on the phone and she went back to trying for the PEK-IAD flight, she was able to confirm 2 seats, but was still working on the third. About this time, the call dropped. This was after 1.5hrs on the phone with her. Luckily I was smart enough to make sure the agent had my email address in case the call dropped. She immediately email me to 2 confirmed seats. I called back to United and tried to get this agent on the line, but was told it is not possible. I explained she was just working my record, but they said not possible. So now I needed this new agent to help get the last seat, she was not as helpful. She said there was not one available. I asked if there was first class available and she said yes, but I would need to pay with extra miles. I said first my miles were US Air and 2nd I did not have enough anyway.
She kept trying to explain how I only paid for a coach seat. I said United is going to let us stay stuck in China before you give me that seat. I said upgrade someone else and give me a coach seat. Nothing. I went back to the counter yet again(they were tired of seeing me) and explained we had 2 confirmed seats, she kept saying only stand by, I put the confirmation number in front of her she pulled it up and says, 2 seats are confirmed.. After this things moved fast again. Now after a bunch of fast typing she gives us 3 boarding passes with seat assignments, checks our bags and were told to run.
It was about 5:15pm, the flight was departing at 6:25 and we had not started leaving China. We had immigration, customs a train and long run. We finally got on the plane, after flashing my gold card to expedite boarding only to find our seats were double booked. We were not together, but everyone of our seats had someone else assigned. We were not the only ones though. I was given another seat right away, which had someone in it too, but the one next to that was free, so I took it. In the end my wife and daughter got to sit next to each other, but this ending took its toll.
I am really disappointed how things went down. Air China could have had better communications, but they did try and get us out to PEK, they did put us up in a hotel and did finally get us to PEK.
United though, other then the one helpful agent I am not so sure about. Would you really leave a passenger in China when there is first class seats not being used? I am *Gold at that. Does that not factor in at all?
Well that is all, except to say Hong Kong is awesome, but if I ever go back, it is direct in and direct out. Pretty sure my wife will never go back anyway.
TT