I would imagine a lot of J pax were having nicotine withdrawal symptoms by then so that might explain their bad behavior.

Say AMS which is far enough to even think of relocating a plane and they only have 1 service a day- Wait for the flight comin in the next day! and you might make the service of the next day delay for 1 whole day. Although, it's better than getting stuck on a non-daily service...

Also that PRC requires expen$ive visas for US citizens to enter the country while HKG does not. ^

There are two reasons:
* Reciprocity
* Supply & demand

However, they are now handing out multiple-entry visas now. So if a US citizen plans to go to China after the JFK-HKG segment, he/she may already have a multiple entry visa.

I believe the price doubled (up to $100) since last yr. Not sure that's what you mean by 'reciprocity'... :-) The US has to worry about people showing up and not leaving - that's not the case on the other side (no matter what the PRC says - many would come and get lost in the US) - I'm happy to visit China and COME HOME!

I have no problem with some fee bump up before the Olympics - the doubling just seems excessive we already help their economic growth quite a bit. But it does show the Chinese are learning Capitalism.

And you are right - with the new one (high) price one can enjoy as many hops at desired - that's nice - but not for those of us doing just one entry.

To the OP: sorry for your predicament - I'm 50/50 on whether you should get compensation - mechanicals are tough. Would like to see 'holding areas' at major int'l airports so people could get off and walk around - not holding my breath...

US visa is high to citizens of all countries/regions not on the visa-waiver programme, regardless of the visa violation records from these places. But yes, they are not just learning capitalism, they are becoming experts too.

If you write a complaint letter to CX, I'm sure they will give you some sort of compensation...

Interesting on the compensation, I'll keep that in mind don't have my fingers crossed. I'll write a letter though, regardless.

Regarding the Chinese visas, actually it is pretty reciprocal - Chinese are charged extra (up to around $300) for a visa to the US. For countries that don't charge that amount China has lower rates; non-US nationals getting visas to China pay half the price that US citizens do. I end up going to China usually once a week and lived there for three years: the visa situation to the US for Chinese is pretty embarrassing as an American, no really any other way to slice it. Chinese citizens would like to visit no other country more than the US, yet it seems virtually impossible for non-business people to visit. The worst time was last year, when my friend in a small city about 300 miles from Shanghai got into Stanford. . .and couldn't get a visa to the US, no matter that Stanford vouched for her. For those who can afford the plane ticket to America there is a huge reason to return to China; China is growing at an insane rate and opportunities abound. I'm from San Francisco originally; the sentiment in Asia right now is akin to the 90s in Silicon Valley. Not using it as a predictor of some crash in the future, but just the excitement and feeling that anything is possible right now. China is hardly decoupled from the US, but it still has an extremely insulated capital markets and less than 40% of its growth is currently tied to US exports - a number that is increasing as US spending slows due to subprime and the housing crunch, the RMB appreciates against the dollar and labor/water/raw materials cost rise in China. Further, t he Eurozone just passed the US as the major area for exports for China. As the RMB appreciates against the dollar more and more people really want to just go spend money in the US and return, but conveniently we've nearly shut the door on all Chinese tourists. It's one of those things that I just shake my head at, not sure if others share my sentiment but it's painful to see from this side of the Pacific.

We can respectfully agree to disagree. I've been going back and forth for the last serveral years. Almost all the young people I talk to would do anything to come to the US and stay. As much as things are improving economically in China, the goverment still interferes in their daily lives - e.g. restricted speech, shutting down access to innocuous Internet sites, etc.

Appreciate the feedback. I've had a different experience though, are you speaking English or Chinese to them? My Chinese friends don't speak great English, and while they would like nothing more to visit or study there, they feel the future belongs to Asia and China.

I completely agree with your sentiment: lack of free speech and govt interference makes me nuts. I have had the luck of spending (aggregate) about half my time this year there and have to use the internet constantly. Indeed the internet there has to be the most annoying thing to man. . .but (and this is not exactly a good thing) most of my Chinese friends are dumbfounded when I tell them the internet is not supposed to have zillions of pages that come up empty, or be randomly really slow, or have gmail crash all the time, or not be able to access BBC, or not be able to get to Wikipedia, that just kills me. What's even worse is you really don't notice though if you're surfing in Chinese, the sensors are a lot better and smoother (again, not a good thing but they're less obvious). And if you've ever had the (dis)pleasure of watching CCTV world news in Chinese and knowing what they're saying, news coverage makes you (as presumably someone who can read a variety of news sources that aren't state-owned) want to tear your hair out not because of what they say in Chinese (usually always factually true), but because of what they don't say (usually something important). It's like only have Fox News or Al Frankin's radio show but not both. Painful. . .but it also has really created a bit of a patriotic culture in the last few years that has been gaining steam. Am I a fan of that? Definitely not. But alas, I just have to shake my head and trudge through getting kicked out of VPN like twice an hour. Ahh, I can't wait for Beijing next week.

I'm not sure if the discrepancy in opinions is partly because of the word "young". With my experiencing now doing recruiting for an international professional services firm - many "young" people (e.g. undergrads) would prefer to stay in US (I don't know their longer-term intention) and you can very often see their geographic preferences to be US instead of China/HK offices, or at least rank US higher than China/HK; while for the "older" people (e.g. MBAs, PhDs, candidates with family, etc), esp those who have worked in US/Europe for a while, a much much bigger proportion of them would prefer to come back to China (or I'd say way more than half of the Chinese candidates I'm looking at). My guess is that the younger people would prefer to stay in US at least for a few years to try things out first, "to get some international experience", while the relatively "older" ones who are looking for a more long-term career or want to settle down somewhere for a longer time would actually prefer to come back.

It is good that people discussed the above hear without being too emotional. Otherwise we may all get suspended. Perhaps I can attempt to return to the topic.

I hope that airports can have areas to accommodate people getting stuck in such a situation. It may be easier for the passengers instead of being in a metal tube for so long. It is not just for comfort. It is also for health reasons too.

I started this post after spending 26 hours on CX831 without being allowed off. . .and in the mail today arrived US$75 in vouchers from CX. I never ended up writing a letter about it because I was so swamped, and was indeed pleased when I saw this. Kudos to them. It doesn't quite make up for the missed meetings or lack of sleep, but at least it's effort.

It is an effort, but CX is really losing it. About 4 years ago, I was on a QF flight NRT-SYD in J. The plane went tech after boarding, and missed the NRT curfue, so we had to stay the night in an airport hotel. I received $A600 in travel vouchers from QF without prompting. So the $US75 pales in comparison...and your flight is kind of a similar situation.

Try writting a letter. That's the same thing I've got as a silver getting stuck at AMS grounded for 24 hours when i was in Econ. Not sure if your status mattered tho.