CX841 from hell
 

Had a blast on 841 yesterday coming back from JFK. . .got to sit on the plane 25hrs straight.

The fun started at JFK when we taxied out and quickly towed back to the bridge because of a mechanical problem. We proceeded to then, over the next 4.5 hours, taxi out two more times only to again return to the gate. They were good about water/snacks in J (where I was), but eventually by 7pm (departure time is 3:45pm) they decided to serve dinner onboard. That went over splendidly, with the chief purser starting a yelling match with the passenger next to me because he put his tray on the floor. They timed it perfectly so dinner came out right as we taxied out for the fourth time, when apparently all was fixed so we got to actually go. Chief purser went nuts again, freaked out and started grabbing everyone's trays and running up and down the aisles.

Unfortunately at that time they also announced that since crew duty limits were 20 hours max, we couldn't do go HK anymore - we instead would route to Beijing and get a new crew. More on that in a minute. After we taxied to the runway, CX (and us) got really lucky, actually - we taxied right around the massive line of 10+ aircraft that always is at JFK in the early evening and straight to the runway. Credit new US ATC rules. Anyhow we finally departed JFK around 8:30pm, nearly five hours late.

We get to Beijing a little before 10pm Beijing time (10am NY time), new crew comes on, etc. etc. but they leave the lights on the entire time and kept turning AVOD on and off so that was useless. A few people wanted to get off but that wasn't okay, because CX doesn't have flight rights from JFK-PEK regardless of whether or not some of us have visas. Then the new pilot comes on and tell us the same mechanical problem that grounded us five hours in JFK has returned. In the meantime, they leave the lights blaring, have maintenance staff running up and down the aisles and keep messing with AVOD. So after nearly 5hr delay at JFK and routing to Beijing instead of HK, we get stuck for nearly 4 more hours at Beijing until 1:30am. The ONLY good thing of the whole mess was a.) the junior flight staff was incredibly kind b.) the pilot kept us informed and c.) there is so little air traffic at 4am that you can drive right out of Beijing and into HK without bs'ing any lengthy approaches. We got back to HK at 4:30am this morning, hardly beating the JFK-Vancouver-HKG flight that had left JFK 7 hrs later and had to go the slow way.

CX, after all this, offers nobody anything. . .just basically apologized a lot. I really couldn't believe it I didn't say anything to the flight attendants because they're pretty much the last people who need to be yelled at, but I'm sure I wasn't the only person who missed a breakfast meeting this morning and was rather inconvenienced by the whole bit, not to mention hanging out 25 hrs on CX metal eating airplane food isn't exactly my idea of fun. Can't imagine what Y was like. Should I write a letter?

The 841 service hasn't even started yet. :rolleyes: You're talking about 831 aren't you?

Sounds like the tech-prone A340-600 strikes again! No wonder CX wants to replace them with 777s.

I can imagine another reason why you couldn't get off at PEK is that they would need to sort out your baggage as well, further delaying the flight for others.

831, right.

Gotcha, but no we were just seeing if we could go out and stretch our legs in the terminal or somewhere. Apparently even that wasn't okay

Flew up to PEK from HKG on Sunday night and sat next to the ISM who was flying up to Beijing to get on 831 for PEK-JFK. She seemed to be dreading what she was about to walk into to.

i assume she was going to do the PEK-HKG leg?

Does sound like an awful experience. :(

Yea, I felt bad for the new crew they got it really hard in J. There were some real POS in J who were just harassing the new crew about stupid stuff, stuff they obviously didn't have the answer to and then they'd make really obnoxious sighing sounds and saying "S*$T" every few minutes out-loud with a sigh so everyone could hear them. The junior staff was awesome, but overall a horrible flight. Again, people in Y I can't even imagine. . .25 hours in Y without being allowed to deplane.

Yes. CX remains one of my favorite carriers, but when they screw up, IME they screw up big (mechanical failure is purely on CX), and they don't own up to it. Write a specific and non emotional letter stating the facts of the flight and that it was unacceptable. They should have made a gesture to pax, which they don't do. I feel sorry for the cabin crew in these cases, as pax turn really really ugly. My 'worst' flight ever was on CX where we were held on the aircraft for 5 hours at HKG of all places. The airlines performance was crap. My partner had a similar experience in paid F. In both cases instead of "customer service" CX stuck their head in the sand.

Quite agree.

When CX are good they can be great, and when they are poor they can be downright appalling. The spectrum of treatment can range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Especially when dealing with mechanicals.

And heaven forbid HKG gets some bad weather or a typhoon. They just seem to go into complete meltdown when it comes to providing info and sorting out pax. And that too at their "home".

Compare to BA @ LHR and AA @ ORD during a snow storm etc....

I have only been on one flight with mechanical problems, and that was x-HKG - lucky me!

We already boarded. I already had a glass of wine. Then came the announcement. Fortunately it was a 744 and we were in HKG. It took CX a short time to prepare another 744 for us to get on. There was only a 2-hour delay!! I can imagine what happens for another aircraft in an outpost.

In this case, the only place passengers can deplane because of a mechanical problem, except in very unusual situation, is JFK. So all passengers get stuck in PEK.

Ooops. Yep, PEK-HKG.

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 :td: 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.:D

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.

Suddenly I am dreading my 831 coming up before the end of the year. :confused: