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Published: June 24th 2006
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After a scare with pregnancy diabetes, one Monday at 4am, we decided to leave Shanghai and come to Puerto Rico to have the baby here. We would be close to Omar's family and if something went wrong with the childbirth or with the baby we could at least easily communicate with the doctors and it would be easy to go to the US for special care.
We thought it was going to be our last trip as a childless couple so we decided to say "good bye" to our easy life by flying First Class. We expected lots of champagne (for Omar) and lots of ice cream (for me). We expected a really nice meal and seats together so we could hold hands while watching a movie and yes! of course! lots of movies to choose from!!! Trying to avoid the connection in Tokyo (which I hate because there is NOTHING TO DO OR EAT at that airport) we were travelling from Shanghai to San Francisco (so we could buy See's Candies😊 from San Fran to Atlanta (so we could see some friends) and after 2 nights to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Omar's family would be waiting for us
with a homemade "bistec encebollado and habichuelas" (I guess that would be fried beef steak with onions and red beans) Omar's favorite puerto rican meal which I have tried to cook but have totally failed... It always tastes like something Italian... In total, we would be flying around 30 hours.
Anyways, we got to the airport with my most comfortable/decent looking bright pink shoes (I thought I needed to add something fun to my all-black attire) and after very gracefully approached the First Class counter, we learned that our tickets were Business Class because they did not have space on First Class. WHAT??? But we paid for First Class!!! So there goes Omar trying to fix the problem... After half an hour, he comes back with the problem solved only to find that Air China had sold somebody elses First Class seats to us and now they are complaining that how come they don't have first class seats.. This is unbelievable... After another half an hour, we think we have lost ouf flight, we are still waiting in line but then Omar finds out that THIS IS A DOMESTIC FLIGHT! WHAT???? WE ARE SUPPOSE TO BE FLYING NON-STOP TO
SAN FRANCISCO! Oh, no, sir, I am sorry, this flight goes to Beijing and from then we go to San Francisco..But... that itinerary is not mentioned anywhere! it says it's a non-stop flight!!! Of course there is nothing we can do and after waiting 2 more hours (because it turns out the flight was delayed) we are off the Beijing.
We arrive to the airplane and even though we had bought tickets on Air China, believed to be the best airline in Mainland China (and official airline of the Beijing 2008 Olympics -scary thought) our boarding passes say: China Airlines (different airline) and the airplane says Dragon Air (yet another airline) I guess it's Ok since all the airlines are owned by the same people (that is the government) so now we are confused... Are we really going to get to San Francisco? is this the right plane?
We get in the plane and the crew is from Air China (I guess I should have been comforting?) Of course because it is a one hour flight First Class is inexistent and we have to settle for orange juice and not peanuts but fried squid or something like that (we are in China, right?)
Got to Beijing and they made all the passengers stay next to the airplane on the road and the crew started distributing boarding passes for our connection to San Francisco right there. This is like 100 people around the airplane with no security at all and one little Chinese girl handing our boarding passes... Aren't they suppose to do that INSIDE the airport? While Omar and I were doing a risk assessment of being standing there... another airpline landed NEXT TO US! I have to tell you. I have worked in an international airport for 3 years and what they did is first of all, totally illegal, irresposible and I can not believe it happened in the capital of China!
After a few minutes, 2 Chinese people sat on the ground (between the 2 airplanes) opened their carry-on baggage and started having lunch. Omar and I laughed. I mean, WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?
Of course the flight to San Francisco was also delayed. The reason, according to the crew was that there were 2 important passengers that could not find their suitcases... So they made 200 passengers wait for 2 hours. Very natural and logic. Half of those 200 passengers had connections to other cities (like us) and we all lost the flights. 2 hours later, the stupid couple showed up saying "Duibuchi, Buhaoyisi" (sorry, sorry) I just wanted to smack them on the face.... Not only that but we were not offered a single snack during those 2 hours!!!! AND WE WERE FLYING FIRST CLASS!! AND IT'S SUPPOSE TO BE THE BEST AIRLINE SHARING CODE WITH UNITED! Plus of course, they could not give us seats together.... Which Omar fixed.
Our flight started and I was already nervous, we had been in airports for 6 hours and we hadn't even left China!
Ok, so let's forget about it and watch a movie together, proposed Omar (very calm) Ok! I said. Our options were basically 2 last year movies and 20 movies from the 70's, which of course we had seen, were not interested in seeing or were in Chinese only. Now Omar is pissed off.
Suddenly, to entertain us, First Class passengers, a Chinese guy sitting next to me decided it was too much trouble to use his headphones and started watching a movie in his portable DVD player with no headphones. After a few minutes (we thought he will put on the headphones later) i stood up and in a very polite English asked him to please use the headphones, that we wanted to sleep or just enjoy some quiet time. He looked at me like I was speaking in some language from outer space, so I tried to say it in Chinese... Still, the guy looked at me and smiled AHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!! So I got closer, grab his headphones and show him how to use them and said very clearly: TOO NOISY! he still smiled but at least lowered the volume.
An hour later, the meal came... nothing fancy, just some cold soup, cold duck meat (very bad) some beef with veggies so greasy that if you picked a carrot you could see the oil dropping from it... Dessert arrived and no, no ice cream or chocolate brownies... 2 pieces of watermelon and 1 piece of orange, exactly the same thing you could have gotten for free at ANY Chinese restaurant in Shanghai. BIG DISSAPOINTMENT.
At this point I want to cry. This is my first First Class trip and is a dissaster!
2 hours later, we started to smell smoke... Yes,no big deal, there are no passengers smoking, ITS THE PILOT!!!!!!! but according to the Chinese girls in the crew, it's Ok because he is in the cabin... But wait? Isn't this a NON-SMOKING FLIGHT? IF IT IS OK WHY IS AN ALARM BEEPING? DOES IT MEAN WE WILL HAVE TO SMELL THE CAPITAIN'S SMOKING FOR 15 HOURS???
Omar complained and complained and threated to take them to court but still "I'm sorry, I'm sorry" and half an hour later, smoke again... it happened 3 times.
Finally got to San Francisco and we had to wait 8 hours to connect to Atlanta, United could not offer us a lounge to wait because they just "share codes" with Air China and Air China said they had nobody in San Francisco so they could not offer us anything but US$20 (for dinner and breakfast for the two of us). We ended up sleeping on the floor for 2 hours but have never been happier to find a Starbucks!.
Finally, we got to Atlanta and yes, the rest of the trip was fine. And I had ice cream.
The way Air China treated us was terrible, I felt they lied to us, abused us and to make things worse, they did not even want to take my United Airlines Mileage Card (even though they are supposed to) so I feel our First Class tickets were a waste of money (lots of money) we didn't even get miles for them!!!!
Now we are happy in Puerto Rico and working on our next travelblog. Stay tuned!
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paola ordonez
non-member comment
NO WAY
There is only one thing I can tell you guys: UNBELIEVEABLE!!!!! But you better forget about it, you are finally in Puerto Rico so enjoy it. Hopefully you'll have a better trip back to China next time........I guess! Well take care guys and good luck.