Just tried to book a ticket from UAE to China on Air China. Right now there are few flights running hence booking an airline I don't normally take.

Booked on Air China's official website. The booking UI is prehistoric. Entered a middle name making the whole name too long – kicked back to the beginning of the process, despite entering four passengers' details already.

Finally got to the payment page. Only Visa and Mastercard listed as being accepted. Tried three credit cards from three different banks. All rejected. Called the number on the screen. Call centre in UAE is closed, call the China call centre. Called them and waited 20 minutes, agent advises from China they can only take payment in RMB or USD, not AED. They offer for one of the Chinese passengers on the booking to pay by WeChat link, but this would not arrive for 2-3 hours. Alternatively, they can transfer me to the Europe call centre, and I can pay in GBP by AmEx – perfect. Transferred and wait another 45 minutes on hold before giving up.

Next day try to call the UAE call centre when it opens to make a payment against the PNR generated last night. The UAE call centre is actually just agents in China, who tell me they don't know why the payment didn't work but they can only take RMB over the phone. Transfer to the Europe call centre again, who advises they can only take AmEx payments in EUR, not GBP. But even then, they could not make a payment against this PNR because it will auto-cancel and there's nothing they can do to stop it, even if they take a payment now...

My assumption is that the Air China UAE website only takes payment by Chinese credit card, but they don't write this down.

How does a company with this level of difficulty in payment stay in business? Presumably almost all the bookings come through CTrip.

Finally booked via AmEx Travel in the UK paying in GBP. Ticket issued but there is no way to Manage my Booking or complete online check-in for any bookings other than those made directly through Air China's website...

Is this airline stuck in 1995?