It is my hope that you are reading this as a prospective traveller, and not one who has already booked a flight.

For those of you who dislike reading let me state simply that a decision to choose Air China as a carrier is a BAD IDEA.

For those who wish to know why, please read on.

My fiancé and I were travelling from London to Sydney via Beijing and from London via Beijing on our return. Or so we thought. Although our Itinerary stated this clearly we also had to stop in Shanghai for a couple of hours on the way to Sydney, and Guanzong between Sydney and Beijing on our return flight.

In questioning the Air China staff about the first deviation we received our first of many blank questioning looks which clearly indicated a total lack of knowledge of the English Language.

Further questions, regarding arrival times, or procedures were met with the same annoying look.

We sit now, on our return flight from Beijing to London directly - I think! It took the questioning of three separate plane staff to determine whether we have any unlisted stops between here and London. To be honest, we still don’t know for sure. You just can’t get away from the blank questioning stare. As a matter of fact my fiancé just received one. What would we like to drink, asked the air steward. Tea, my fiancé answered with an air of the queens English. The answer? The blank, confused stare. I wish I could take a photo of it to show you. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so damned annoying.

Tea. A word all people understand from all nations and nationalities is totally lost on these people!

Anyway, on the way to Sydney, from London, our arrival in Beijing did not go smoothly.

When in Beijing we went through the motions of making our way through the airport in order to catch our adjoining flight to Sydney, and it became obvious from the moment we made it to customs that we needed to fill in several forms related to our entry. These forms were provided to the Chinese on the Air China flight - who having filled them in previously, were able to sail on through, but for us English speaking people, we had to find a pen and an English language form on arriving. Pens were not provided and we were not carrying one (lesson 1 - bring one!) and when we asked airport staff, we received - yes you guessed it! - the dreaded blank stare! It took a Russian man to lend us a pen, who although he could not speak fluent English, could instead understand the hand motion I made for a pen. Our next flight took us to Sydney and thankfully was uneventful.

On our return from Sydney, we were provided a hotel as we arrived late in Beijing and the next flight (this one, to London) was due the following morning.

I must say the Air China hotel was very nice - 4*- but again getting the room took 30 minutes due to the staff’s lack of English. Several blank stares ensued.

The following morning we awoke early to grab some breakfast prior to leaving for London at 12:20 in the afternoon.

The breakfast was like a Chinese buffet - fried rice, beans, and bean sprouts, the only thing missing was sweet and sour pork and beef in black bean sauce. The rest of it however was totally unknown. We didn’t bother asking what was what - so as to not receive the blank stare - so we just put the most appetising foods on our plates to try. It was hit and miss, but mainly miss. Eating fried rice for breaky isn’t my idea of a good morning - some cereal would have been nice, but I think we got last nights left overs instead.

So, onto the arrival at Beijing airport for our onward flight to London.

We arrived two hours early, having been provided an Air China bus from the hotel - it only took 5 minutes.

The check-in line was long - it took 45 minutes or so to get to the front (lesson 2 : get their early!) On handing over our passports etc. we were told the plane was delayed for 6 hours!

We checked our bags in - though we both recall having been told on an earlier flight that if they are checked in more than 3 hours early there is a higher chance that they’ll get lost... we’ll see.

We were then told to go to the information desk, only to be told by some UK comrades that “information” had told them only what we had been told before - i.e. the plane was six hours late, yada yada yada. Repeated attempts to gain further information was hopeless and at one point, although I had been standing at the front of the questioning crew for more than 5 minutes, I was passed over several times so a Chinese person could be answered instead. In fact, the “Information” people seemed scared to attempt an answer in English as they undoubtedly knew that they wouldn’t be able to communicate this to me.

So, we decided to go to the departures lounge to wait for 8 hours (remember we were there 2 hours early, and the flight was 6 hours late) even though we were offered another stay in the hotel. To be honest, we just wanted to be as far away from Air China as possible and 8 hours in the departure lounge would serve us nicely as cool down time as I was boiling over with rage by this time.

Going through customs was a standard affair and took nearly an hour. However, upon making it through and having our bags scanned we were stopped and pulled aside - with our UK comrades in tow - as we were carrying alcohol in our bags. They scanned and then searched everyone’s bags, sniffing my cough medicine to ensure it wasn’t dangerous, and even asking a passenger to open two unopened cans of coke to sniff for drugs. I know it said coke on the can, but that’s ridiculous...

It took a further 30 minutes to be told that we would need to take our bottles back to the check in desk. We had all learned by now that questioning was a waste of time. Remember these people barely speak English so the what’s, where’s, why’s and how’s were not answered - other than a blank stare. I should also point out that a woman and her child came the customs desk briefly, having been sent there as they had Sai’s in their luggage - Sai’s are long knifelike Chinese weapons. After the customs official glanced over them briefly they were allowed to continue through to the departure lounge.

Suffice to say, we made our way to check in where they provided boxes for us to put our wine in, including a can of lemonade which they refused to allow me to take onboard - no use trying to explain the unintoxicating effects of lemonade to these people! Note to self - sharp knives are allowed on flights going out of China; lemonade is not. Hmmm.

They then wrapped up the boxes in a special tape (charging us $1 American to do so. I only had aussie dollars though. Blank stares ensued especially when I mentioned the quality of the exchange rate between US and Australian dollars... I was blagging it of course. The exchange rate’s pretty terrible, I think.

We then had to check-in our newly boxed alcohol as excess baggage. I wonder if we’ll ever see that again.

Eight hours later a message rang out in Chinese on the speaker. Everyone got up and seemed to head towards the gate. No English message followed and it actually took a Chinese lady to tell us our flight was now boarding. This isn’t the first time this happened. On our way out onto the runway to catch our return flight we were each given a small yellow packet. Within this packet was 200 Chinese yen (or Yuen). Written on the inside was mention of an onward flight from Hong Kong to Taiwan. Huh? Had we passed through the wrong gate? Or, were we in fact making a stopover in Taiwan before heading London? What was the money for? Was this to pay for yet another hotel room? These and many more questions sprang to mind. And, I had had enough. I marched off the cramped bus that would take us to the plane on the runway and plucked up the courage to ask one of the Air China representatives on the ground what the money was all about. I was expecting the blank stare, but received an interesting response. Sorry, he said as he bowed. Very sorry, for being late. It was a nice gesture, but I’m afraid sorry isn’t good enough and neither is £12 - 200 yen equivalent - as a way of apology. Why, do you ask? Surely an apology and a monetary gesture is good enough? No, not when it costs £8 for two diet cokes and two muffins. This is all we could afford in the 8 hours we had to wait.

And here we are heading towards London, we think, and dreading having to ask questions so as to not receive the blank stare.

All I can say is, to finish, don’t fly Air China! The food is barely passable and I’m sure that wasn’t chicken I just ate! The entertainment is mainly Chinese movies - with no subtitles - or films repeated from previous flights, and the toilets are dirty and smelly. However, this is all secondary to the fact that no one speaks any other language than Mandarin or at best very poor English.

Another point I’d like to make is related to a video that’s now playing.

In Mandarin it is informing and walking the Chinese through their coming arrival into Heathrow airport. In this video, they have been instructed to fill in the customs form provided to ensure its legitimacy, and been shown a literal walkthrough of the airport, from leaving the plane, to taking a right turn, heading in the direction of customs and beyond. Now the video continues, providing in-depth documentary style information related to London, its sights, and places of interest.

If only we had received this on our flights to Beijing and Shanghai, we would not have been so confused, or befuddled by the strangeness of a new airport and its customs.

After our limited time spent in China, and our flights with Air China I can only come to the simple conclusion that Air China employees and Chinese Airport staff honestly do not care about English speaking people. None of us were made to feel welcome, and this includes all races on our flight; British, German, Spanish, and even African, alike. Please do not believe this to be a frivolous statement as I’ve either personally spoken with these people or seen their anger and annoyance at being treated so poorly.

So, if you’ve already booked, I’m really very sorry and I hope you can change flights. For those of you who are considering Air China (or even stopping in China!) I hope this has helped and pray that you choose an alternate charter or destination.

And to think, these people are hosting the 2010 Olympics!

How the hell did they get that gig when no one can speak the worlds most popular language?!

If you would like further information please feel free to mail me at dscox@btinternet.com. I welcome any questions you may have.

My apologies to those I may have offended, but I feel it’s important that you are able to make an informed decision.