no mention of eastern airline,
no mention of eastern airline,
No doubt china's air industry is quite safe compared to africa's or other asian countries records.
I'd like to see where china eastern ranks in a national safety record..
When i search any other national airlines the results are obviously in favor of other airlines.
@ mike: Among Asian airlines I'd guess Japan Air, Korean Air, Singapore Air, Thai Air, Gulf Air, as well as Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific and probably others, have better safety records per number of miles flown. But then I've been on several other Asian airlines and have managed not to have crashed in any of their planes either. In terms of ecological damage they probably all do about the same, though taking short flights ups the damage per flown mile per passenger.
curious? here is the link to the ranking. eastern ranked 33rd.
@rejected_goods: Thanks for the link, interesting.
Noticed Air Vietnam was 60th. During the war, Air Vietnam had an impressive safety record as it had operated for many years without a fatal accident even in monsoon weather and low level contour flying. Impressive as the DC-3 type aircraft swooped out of the clouds and plunked down. More impressive was riding on the plane never seeing the ground from Saigon to Plieku.
The record lasted until this capitalist run polluting airline had a plane shot down by communist environmentalists.
Thanks for the link to this website.
China eastern at 33rd on 2015 data..
we'll see how they rank with 2016 data.
this is the serious incident which i started the topic..china eastern again.
www.jacdec.de/[...]
We just came back from a CEA flight and China Eastern ruined our holiday.
First they lost, and by lost I mean LOST, our baggage.
They promised us to contact us and tell us news about our baggage status. But of course, that never happened.
After we tried to contact them, they said they are not responsible and won't take any claims.
Even though we checked in on a CEA flight from HK-PDG at the CEA counter.
Then we decided to contact the code sharing partner KLM, who were just great, since one flight on our trip was KLM, they stepped up and in minutes they found out that the luggage was never checked in and was never sent on the plane.
Also we told them, that we don't have our stuff and are getting ready for my brothers wedding and they gave us 800Euro budget to buy clothes. Io proof the wedding, they told us, that it is not necessary.
On our way back, in SH a ground staff members of CEA, told us we cannot go into the transfer zone because my wife's HK travel pass isn't valid.
Btw. we only applied for the pass to be sure, she actually didn't need it, since we took a connecting flight from HK.
Although, later a immigration officer told us we are clear to go but we were not allowed to enter CEA transfer counter.
We were told by CEA staff to go to the ticket counter. Then I told them, that we are entering mainland China and the HK-travel pass will expire. But they said, only ticketing can reroute our original trip.
This whole f*ck-around took three hours, with a baby, no bathroom or drinking water in sight, and after a 11 hour flight on our shoulders.
So, in the end we missed our connecting flight.
We asked them to give us a paper to confirm that we spend the time in transfer, trying to figure out what to do next. Though we explained the situation to 5 different CEA staff, and all giving different opinions, nobody was willing to help, they simply just didn't care about it.
We weren't the only ones, there were arguments and even a fist fight between angry passengers and staff, a waiting line that took hours, for something that usually takes seconds.
There was a Dutch family with an infant. CEA managed to accidently
put their stroller out to the baggage belts while they were standing in front of the transfer desk the whole time, we were there.
CEA just couldn't find out what to do. CEA staff close by, was playing with their mobile phones and chatting while about 300 people trying to catch their connections.
So, we decided to leave the transfer zone, and unfortunately use up our chance for HK, in the hope to change the flight.
When we cleared customs, there were three nice immigration officers, helping passengers. And we asked if we would be able to clear customs to go to HK, and when we showed them our documents, they said, that there is nothing to object. They recommended us to exit and check in again on the International check in counter, bypassing the CEA transfer desk. But unfortunately the HK pass would be used up and the flight left already.
At the ticket counter they told us only transfer desk can change our flight. But we weren't allowed to go back there without a ticket. And when they called to figure out our options [spoiler alert, there weren't any].
Then they told us they couldn't do anything and they are not responsible for anything, neither for us, nor the huge que of complaining customers at the desk.
A few people had tears in their eyes.
An old couple was just sitting close by, crying.
So we asked for a refund, and they rejected.
We asked for a reroute, and they rejected, unless we show any papers from the transfer desk.
We told them we asked for it but they didn't want to give us anything, when the ticketing lady called, they of course denied everything.
When I asked someone to go down there to help the staff or take a look at what is going on in transfer, they politely told us, that it is none of our business.
The only thing they wanted to offer is to reschedule the trip, but we couldn't accept because of the HK pass.
So, we left paying an extra 4000RMB to fly to Kunming, after 800Euro upfront payments for our missing items form the first trip. Missing our return flight HK-KMG, another 2000RMB. Dehydrated, exhausted, a crying kid and us being sad and angry.
In the end it is the most expensive and troublesome trip I ever took. One of us could have flown business class, for the extra cash we had to pay.
I did not feel safe on the flight, and I am not surprised that CEA gets such a bad reputation. If they train the pilots, the same way they train the ground staff, then it's a mere miracle, that there haven't been any major CEA disasters in the history of CEA but I am certain they are just about to happen.
We will not get any compensation or refunds. KLM will send us our money back, in the next 8 weeks.
Funny anecdote, the KLM lady told us that since they code share with CEA, their baggage claims, backlogged from 2 weeks in the past, to up to 3 month now.
She said they joke that it is easier to count the CEA baggage that arrives, than checking for missing items.
About the transfer desk freakshow;
Maybe there is something about it on baidu.com, not many passengers were Chinese, by their looks since it was International transfer. But I saw a bunch of people recording the whole SHOW.
Shanghai Pudong, arrival date November 8, the mess starting at around 7.30 A.M. but the most turbulent show must have been around 9.00 A.M.
We promised to never ever step on a CEA plane, domestic or international. So thanks Mike for putting up the thread, I wish we would have seen it before we bought our ticket.
Horror show. If the baggage staff et al were trained as well as the pilots...somehow doesn't surprise me that they were not.
'.....that it is none of our (my) business.'
Is that phrase learnt or part of the DNA?
China Eastern Airline is still a SOE, some of staff still work if they were living in the bygone era. as a frequent traveller, I avoid CEA if at all possible, I know, at times there is no choice.
regarding pilots. there was an incident in Kangding in May this year, the pilot had to abort landing after missing the runway destroyed the approach light and damaged the landing gear during bad weather. the plane was lucky enough to airborne again then back to Chengdu. it was found that during the approach and attempt landing, only one pilot was in the cockpit while the other was sitting in the cabin presumably chatting up some birds. KangDing is a high attitude airport (2500m), aviation regulation requires two experienced captain to be in control while taking off and landing even in good weather. very interesting. hahahhah I would rather fly hkexpress on hk-kunming route. no, I don't own any shares in HKexpress. :-)