Extremely Buggy Website/App & Horribly Unfair/Outdated In-Flight Policy on Electronics
I was recently on some Air China flights from London to Tokyo via Beijing (and back). I have a few problems that I would like to bring to attention because there are really a few areas within the company's policy / website that could use some serious updating. 1) The Air China app makes it impossible for anyone without a +86 phone number to register/check in. I also never got a Phoenix Mile confirmation e-mail when I initially registered for it so I can't even log in even if I wanted to. I had to phone Air China to get the number and it still wouldn't help me log in to either App or website. 2) The website is extremely buggy and if you try to check your booking details, no matter what combination of information is put in, the web site displays an error message. 3) I know you can't check in up until about a day before your departing flight, but if you do try to do so, there is no message stating that you cannot. It just throws up another error message. It doesn't set the customer at ease if it feels like the flight doesn't exist. 4) When I finally was able to check in, the website was extremely slow and unresponsive, no matter what browser/device I tried it on. I'm not sure how fast the uplink speed is from the Air China servers, but this is appallingly slow. When I hit the NEXT button during the process, I'd have to wait upwards of 2 minutes for a response. This happened on both check-ins, a month apart. 5) I had two flights to get to Tokyo. London to Beijing and Beijing to Tokyo. When I tried to check in (even when I was withing the correct timeframe for both flights), I could only check in and select seats for the first leg of the flight. The other flight didn't even show up on the booking. So I had to go to Heathrow earlier than anticipated because I was scared that my second flight wasn't there. Even calling customer service didn't help and it cost me GPB £11.00 for a short phone call which is highly unfair especially when I was panicking that I may not have a second flight. When I got to Heathrow I was able to secure a seat on the second flight. I asked for a window seat, and in stead I got the seat that is directly in front of the emergency exit with my arm right by the flight attendant jumpseat. This is not a window seat. If there wasn't any available, the helpdesk staff should have told me, but according to them, I got a window seat. Bare in mind this seat doesn't recline either because of the emergency pathway behind it. So I had an uncomfortable 4 hour flight to Tokyo. 6) The same thing happened when I tried to check in for my flights back to London (Tokyo - Beijing - London); I couldn't select a seat for the second leg of the journey. I had to go to Haneda airport early and make sure that they can secure me a seat of my choice. Don't see what the point of checking in online is with Air China if I always have to go to the airport to check in all over again just so you can make sure they take you into account for the second leg of a journey. 7) The in-flight entertainment systems are not formatting videos and films correctly for the screen size. The screen sizes are most certainly a recent upgrade to a 16:9 high resolution aspect ratio and I can understand that older programming is still formatted to be in the 4:3 square ratio, but even the newest films like 'Finding Dory' as an example, was still pillarboxed and letterboxed on the screen and was in SD resolution. What's the point of having higher definition 16:9 screens if most of the content isn't even optimised for it? It's as if Air China ordered a film from the supplier and they just gave a standard SD 4:3 film without thinking about the plane's specs. It's unwatchable. I didn't use the entertainment system at all when I realised this because it just spoils the experience for me. And it might sound nitpicky, but some people choose their Airlines based on the in-flight entertainment quality. So it needs to be taken seriously. In-flight entertainment is usually bad enough, so this just made it even worse. 8) My BIGGEST problem is the policy on electronics when the flight has reached cruising altitude. I understand that all electronics must be switched off during taxi, take-off and landing and this is standard across the entire aviation realm. However I think the policies on certain electronics being used at cruising altitude is HIGHLY and embarrassingly outdated. When I was watching a film on my iPhone (with flight mode turned on) during my 11 hour flight from Beijing back to London (flight CA937), I was told by the attendant that I had to turn my phone off immediately. I tried to reason with her and that I didn't understand why but she insisted that I turn it off. What is mind boggling is that most leading airlines have allowed its customers to use their phones at cruising altitude for YEARS. Some airlines also supply Wi-Fi and some even supply a GSM mobile phone signal! So for me to not even be allowed to have a phone on in flight mode is absurd. I know that some companies do still enforce this policy though and I won't argue with policy. BUT, this is where it gets interesting. After I was told to turn my phone off, I could see, ALL AROUND ME, that people were watching content on their laptops, iPads, reading their Kindles, listening to music through wireless Bluetooth headphones, playing games on their hand-held consoles and videoing on GoPro cameras. But NONE of those people were told to turn their devices off. Meanwile, those devices have almost all of the same connecting capabilities as a mobile phone, if not ALL the same capabilities. A laptop can connect with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a Kindle can connect to Wi-Fi, an iPad can connect to 3G/4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a console can connect to Wi-Fi, some GoPro cameras have Wi-Fi/wireless capabilities - the list goes on and on. How is it that they were allowed to keep using their devices but a mobile cellphone wasn't allowed? I looked at the security leaflet in the pocket of the seat and it was severely outdated with policy and even pictures. It showed rules stating no electronics for take off and landing (understandable) and then for cruising altitude, mobile phones (ones that look like Nokias), portable TVs and boomboxes weren't allowed. But with no rules against laptops and other unmentioned devices. It's as if the staff are following an extremely outdated policy on electronics and are doing it by-the-book as opposed to using common sense. Why is it that a mobile phone in 2016 isn't allowed to be turned on in a plane (even in flight mode) but all other wireless-capable electronics are allowed? This is highly unfair and I feel like the rule should either be ALL allowed or NOTHING AT ALL allowed (even though the latter is ridiculous in this day and age). So I had to sit there for a remaining 8 hours of the flight doing absolutely nothing because I couldn't sleep and the in-flight entertainment was unwatchable. I had a terrible flight experience and couldn't even begin to plead with the flight attendant because her English was not fluent. I don't have a problem with limited English on an Air China flight but it just meant that I wasn't able to voice my concern. I would really appreciate if the company would be able to address these issues and take them seriously. I frequently fly with numerous airlines and I have to say, Air China's website, app and in-flight policies are tremendously faulty/buggy and outdated. I cannot believe a Star Alliance group member can perform this poorly in the most obvious of places.