I must say, the whole experience with China Eastern Airlines flight is awesome. Flight attendances are very nice and helpful, in flight meals are delicious and legroom is comforting. A+ when it comes to the services on the plane but D- when it comes to dealing with the ground staff

I always love to try out different airlines and hence this time, choosing between Cathay Pacific and China Eastern Airlines, I chose China Eastern Airlines. Not to say purposely choose CEA, reason being Cathay Pacific arriving time to Seoul is kind of late in the evening whereas CEA arriving time is before evening and plus point I have never travel with CEA so yea, thats the decision. However I used Cathay to Hongkong few years back and the experience is excellent! Highly recommended!

So back to the topic. I am flying with CEA to Seoul transiting Shanghai. Flying to Seoul is somewhat smooth and happy, problem came when you are heading back to Malaysia from Seoul. So initially the ticket went like : 

China Eastern Airlines:
Seoul 4.20pm depart and reach Shanghai at 5.30pm
Transit Shanghai 1h55m
Shanghai 7.25pm to Kuala Lumpur 1.10am

Airasia:
6am flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching

Our flight delay from 4.20pm to 5pm boarding. I was worried like we have to rush or run for the connecting flight so I seek advise from the flight attendant at Incheon Airport, they said should be ok but if I missed the flight, then I can go to the counter and change to the next flight back to Kuala Lumpur. So after settled and 5.20pm its ready to fly. In flight service is awesome and we finally touched down at Shanghai around 6.30pm. (Pls be noted Seoul is one hour behind Shanghai and the flight from Seoul to Shangghai is 2h10m) I was like thinking ok we just need to rush to the counter, and we are good to go but unfortunately i think the airport land is kinda crowded and the plane took half and hour pacing around before we are allowed to get off. We need to board a bus to bring us to the terminal and the bus freaking took 15 mins to reach there with a lot of traffic stop. 

By the time we were at the counter, its 7.20pm and they do not allow us to board anymore even though its a connecting flight and so on BUT you know how the situation went;

We walk through the gate showing our boarding pass. The lady without looking at our face or even smile said two words. JUST two words : HUAN PIAO (means change ticket).

I was like ha? Because i din’t hear it properly and she said again, “huai piao” without even bother to explain to us or even look at us. YOU THINK I AUTOMATICALLY KNOW WHAT TO DO AND WHERE TO DO BY SAYING THAT TWO WORDS ISIT?? NVM! Luckily i asked the crew at Incheon Airport earlier and they gave me the whole instruction already. We figured out the counter to change tickets and HOLLYSHIT such a long line. People missing flight to New York, Kunming, Japan, everywhere… So we waited around half and hour for our turn..

NEXT FLIGHT. 8.55am NEXT MORNING. One line!! HELLLOOO??? YOU ASSUMED I KNOW THE PROCEDURE AFTER CHANGE TICKET ISIT? NOT EVEN a little helpful to explain to us or anything. I have to ask how about the stay, how about the meal and so on so on.. You know la… i ask one sentence he answer one sentence. Nvm.. this is not the worse… at least he is not yelling or shouting just not smiling. 

So we have to go through immigration with the temporary visa and collect out luggage because we din’t board the plane the luggage also will be going down as well. We can’t find the luggage because its not in our designated luggage line so I asked the baggage man, he say, I am not sure. You find yourselves around line 8 9 10. Nvm.. this one consider polite d. After we took the luggage, it was already 8pm. We have to go to the transit office to don’t know how and why..

So we queue at the service counter trying to ask : 1) WHATS NEXT? 2) HOW TO GO TO THE HOTEL YOU ARRANGE? 3) WHAT HOTEL ARE WE STAYING 4)HOW ABOUT MEALS 5)NEED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE? 

But its TRUE. MOST OF THE CHINA PPL DONT BLOODY QUEUE. We got cut queue by 4 person, just like that. WTF, simple manner la diu!

SO we finally squeeze through our turn. The guy just say, go wait there and try to ignore us, we have plenty to question like wtf i’m so confused but they get so impatient, say just wait there the bus will come and send us to the hotel. We asked about our flight back to kch like its burnt and normally good airlines like Turkish airlines or Emirates they do compensate for flight missed caused by their airlines, but this guy just say this is china follow china rules. Ok he is correct also but hello, i din’t owe you money can you at least talk properly. NVM. We din’t get the worse treatment. While we were queuing and numerous people cutting our queue, we saw a lot of horror stuff.

Couple 1 : 
Same flight as us but their are transiting to Kunming, they changed their ticket and will be flying in half an hour but they cant find their bags, went to the counter and got blast, say want to wait luggage go luggage area not here, then the couple its like.. but they ask us to find out here. The guy look at them, do u see any lugagge here? No. then continue ignore. The couple is like.. my flight taking off in 10 mins I can’t missed it anymore. The guy just say : do you understand my language? do u want your luggage? do u? Go there wait. Then I have no idea what happen. Its the attitude and tone that they treat them. So OMG

Aunty 2 :
Try to change her flight to tml morning to ZhangJiaJie because got important things there. Rude guy just say; no flight, you want then wait dont want then dont go. Win liao

Girl 3 :
Missing luggage but no one guide her and no one help. Asked if she make any police report she say she has no idea what to do next because everyone is ignoring her

So we waited from 8.20pm to almost 9pm and no bus and no instruction given. To be honest, everyone is raged and fed up. There is one guy missing his flight to New York said he waited for the bus to go hotel since 730 until now. He is a foreigner, he tried to ask but then they just do what they do the best, ask him to wait so he kinda fed up already. The indian group flying the same flight with us got so angry and he ask if i could go to the counter with him to ask some questions. 

So we went to the counter, asking some people there how long should we wait. They said, half and hour more. Of coz, everything is commerce with a very rude attitude like as if you are a slave or begger asking for something. So 9.30pm and the bus is not around, everyone get so tired and I guess because no one give us proper instruction of guidelines it kinda pissed us off. So indian guy ask me to get the headquarters number from those people so he could call and complain how ridiculous their attitude is. So I asked, and guess what they say?

WE ARE THE HEADQUARTER?  YOU CALL NOW AND COMPLAIN I WILL ANSWER THE PHONE. GO AHEAD and with a smirk. WTF! I salute you ppl. WORLD CLASS SERVICE AND ATTITUDE. 

So the indian get pissed off and say : Do u know we haven been sleeping the whole day and we were tired with all the delays and now its 9.45pm and tomorrow we need get up at 5am for the 8am flight. No rest how to go for morning flight tml???

GODLIKE RESPOND from the counter guy : TAKE AFTERNOON FLIGHT

I duno if i want to laugh or what!! HAHAHAH WTF these people. But in the end, we got to our bus at 10pm, reach a very run down budget hotel at 1030pm. Not to mention from only us around 10ppl waiting for the bus until we have a full bus of 45 passenger boarding the bus to the hotel. wow! And I get to rest at 1pm after settling all the thing. Wifi is not working well so i have to go to the lobby to get the line connected to check tickets for the next flight etc etc… and since the receptionist is friendly, I asked her why is it so many people checking in. Her epic reply cleared all my doubts.

They have actually a few motels nearby to just cater those passengers who missed their flight. She also mentioned that everyday the motels were full. They do not even have spare rooms to welcome the walk ins. 

As Shanghai is the major connecting flight cities, I guess its very common for everyone to miss their flight. And the ground staff maybe have to handle like 1000s of confused passengers thats why their service and attitude is like SHIT. not to forget maybe thats their best way of providing services already because most of the china people are already crowned one of the rudest citizens in the world.

We reached Kuala Lumpur and lucky for me I have my jimui to help book our flight back to Kuching but as for my brother, no flight for that day and he needs to stay one more day in KL before he can catch the next flight back to Singapore. #walletbleeding

But we are grateful for the safe flight and no missing luggages! Positive vibes! 

Moral of the story : I will not take china airlines anymore in all my upcoming trips!