Flight to nowhere

In the good ol' China days, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) used to be called “China Airlines Always Cancelled”. In those same old days, horror stories were the talk of the expats. Unexplained delays, cancellations, bad food, even worse service, were daily occurrences. In China at least things have improved and are still improving further. The CAAC monopoly has been broken up, several state-owned and private airlines compete to attract passengers with punctual departures, gourmet food prepared by Morel's (in the case of Hainan Airlines) and pretty smiling stewardesses.

The worst I experience myself was a three day delay in 1988 of a flight from Chengdu to Lhasa. The bad experience was compounded by the fact that the flight was supposed to leave at 7 a.m., requiring a 5 a.m wake up call at the Jinjiang Hotel. In those days you still had to validate your travel permit to Lhasa at the Chengdu airport security office. When my colleagues and I arrived at the airport, the flight had been canceled, so we returned to the Jinjiang Hotel to spend one more day in beautiful, sunny Chengdu.

The next day, same story, but this time we preferred to stay at the Chengdu Airport Hotel to avoid the commute into town. Stained bedsheets and leaking toilets awaited us. Third day, same thing, resulting in another night at the airport. The next day we had more luck. When I went to check in the departure hall, not expecting any activity, the check-in was open. But there were no seat numbers on our boarding cards. So I ran like a madman to be among the first on the plane to occupy the first empty seat available. Sure enough, a few minutes later the head stewardess looked around, determined that all seats had been taken and commanded the remaining passengers standing in the aisle off the plane to wait (who knows?) a few more days for the next flight.

Now lets fly to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport for an American horror story, datelined February 15, 2007. (CNN: Passengers trapped on runway for eight hours) Even in the old days, CAAC would have been hard pressed to let a planeload of passengers sit on the runway for 8 hours. The Chinese have been unfairly treated by all these expat horror stories. They also happen in the U.S. of A. And while China is constantly improving, that seems not to be the case on the other side of the Pacific.