Air China - CCA > Reviews > Nightmair China

Author's product rating:   

Food Quality	Poor
Customer Service	Unhelpful
Punctuality	Satisfactory
Space	Fairly Comfortable
Value for Money	Poor

Advantages:	errr???
Disadvantages:	See Opinion

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I am writing this for you on behalf of my brother who recently came to vist me in Sydney over the Christmas period and I don't mind if you don't rate it very highly I just wanted to share the experiance.

We booked this flight with him through our travel agents, it was very expensive for an economy seat at around 1000 pounds but this was mainly due to the time of year he was traveling. He was flying via Bejing and the travel agent called Air China to confirm any visa requirements, a nice lady called Rebecca advised him that the only thing he needed was his Australian Tourist Visa to travel through Bejing.

The day of the flight my brother checked in and there was no problems, this was his first ever flight and they went through everything with him, and told him wher to go. There were no delays in take off, and the first part of the flight went smoothly. The plane was a 747 and he told me that inside was fine, his seat was a bit uncomfortable a kind of strange faux leather ensemble, the film was bad and repeated twice and the meals were "Gross" some kind of glutenous pasta dish and a chicken noodle thingy.

When he arrived in Bejing he and about 8 other English passengers were shuffled around, told they had to pick up their luggage and go through customs and re check in paying a charge in Chinese currency!!

They went to the check in desk and tried to re check in, the woman staretd having an argument with my brother saying that he didn't have a visa for Australia, he tried telling her his visa was electronic and all she had to do was scan it but she wouldn't listen until her supervisor stepped in and told her it was ok. All this nearly made them miss their connecting flight and they had to run through customs to the plane.

They just took off when they landed again, this time in Shanghai, there was no mention of this on his schedule. The flight from Shanghai went smoothly, some more "Gross" chicken noodles and another bad film. They then landed again in Melbourne much to the suprise of the English travellers, another unmentioned stop!

He arrived in Sydney a little jet lagged but in one piece and on time. He was due to return at the end of January, so we packed him off with his didgeridoo. He was just checking in and given his boarding pass when he was told he couldn't fly as he didn't have a transit visa for China!!!!

We explained that their colleagues in England advised us this was not necessary, and they said this had happen so many times over the past month and that there was nothing that they could do. They sent us to the Chineese Embassy in Sydney but as it was Chinese New Year it was closed for 5 days and it would cost A$100

We then went to the Air China offices in Sydney and they told us that they were fully booked for 2 weeks.

We contacted our travel agent in the UK and they contacted Air China in London who said the earliest flight they could get him on was 3 weeks!

With the help of our travel agent my brother is in the process of trying to get some compensation back for the problems Air China have caused him. So far it has been two weeks and they are "processing the complaint". I will update this opinion as and when we hear some news from them.

My advice to you is that you need a transit visa if you are going to China and secondly don't fly through Air China.

UPDATED 5/04/03

AIR CHINA have REFUSED to apologise or offer any form of compensation...we have now been told to go to Thompson Consular Services (but we are not sure who they are).