On our way to Beijing, it was a long journey and we learned that one of the greatest lessons is to lower our expectations to, perhaps, a “world median” in terms of level of service:
We were a little surprised when we arrived at the airport that there were no trolleys, so we had to lug our baggages in; thankfully it wasn’t a large terminal.
On international flights, the 3-hour rule works well cos we spent 1 hour in the queue and checking in (yups that’s why there is express check-in). We had to change a counter staff midway cos his computer hanged, and the second staff went through our entries around 3 times, each time with the help of a colleague. And he took our e-ticket and asked us where our destination was (?).
On board the airplane, we found that they didn’t provide infant seat belts. This was, in their words, in line with their policy and did not flout any of their national safety laws. What we could do, they said, was to strap the adult and hold the infant in the arms.
The seating arrangement was in shambles on hindsight, and United is one airline which we will avoid in the future. See, the agent said they couldn’t arrange the infant seating, the airline said we had to do it with the agent. At the check in, they said they couldn’t arrange the seating and advised us to do so at the next flight before the transfer, and when we got to the transfer gate, they said that they couldn’t do so and this should be done at the check-in. Sigh.
Airline food was ok, after all, we were on economy class. The kids, well, they enjoyed the flight a little when they could watch some of the 3 available cartoon movies on the 14 1/2 hr flight, or else, what we did was to entertain them with our iPad (bigger screen). Here’s a picture of them (bored) on the plane:
