I know what horrendous means, when the airline's website doesn't work, errors arise but it doesn't say what the problem is, all the way to trying to get a boarding pass with 4 flights of irritated people shouting they'll imminently miss their flights, me included.

Sure, the experience on board was fine, and the infamous delays that once plagued China's skies are now gone, but it was a miracle I was able to get on the plane in the first place, and I'm a very experienced traveller who got to the airport quite early for this trip. It definitely wasn't a business as usual many people are flying again so it's crowded issue. The awful ground experience is due to the airline shutting off its technology and forcing a thousand people departing within a short time span to get a piece of paper each. It was entirely preventable, and I haven't flown with another major airline in recent memory where there is no online check-in whatsoever.