Originally Posted by
GS8101
This is nothing. Next time, fly to HKG and take a train. UA flyers should experience CA, seats, ontime performance, delays, MX, etc. and be thankful and praise SMI/J.
Last Oct, I had to fly CA in C back home with a non-functional seat and no compensation. They made me sign a waiver or miss my flight and be delayed because it was the national day holiday.
To be fair (at least in my experience) MOST of the CA delays I've had weren't really CA's fault. This is a plague that affects virtually all flights originating/departing from mainland China airports. Chinese ATC is horribly capricious, and the military arbitrarily declares flight routes, no-fly-zones and other holds and delays, basically, at-will. Anytime you see a Chinese flight with "unspecified delay" or "traffic control delay", that's pretty much the reason. Chinese ATC has been the subject of more IATA complaints and pilot frustration than pretty much anything else in that region, for at least a decade.
What really sucks is that CA (and other Chinese airlines) will frequently cite mechanical, weather, act-of-god or pretty much ANY other reason to delay or cancel flights, to avoid saying "the military has closed our route today".
So, I agree it sucks royally... but I have a hard time blaming CA directly. For the stuff within their control, they're a pretty good airline.