10-hour delay: Furious Chinese tourists sing the national anthem at Don Mueang Airport

[webfact]

Stressed? Chinese tourists in Thailand, facing 10-hour flight delay, sing the national anthem in departure hall
Laura Zhou

BANGKOK: - Dozens of mainland tourists, faced with a 10-hour delay, vented their anger by singing the Chinese national anthem in an airport departure hall in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday.

The flight was scheduled to take off from Don Mueang International Airport at 5pm but was delayed until 3am the next day, the Shanghai-based news porta Thepaper.cn reported.

A video clip filmed on a mobile phone of the emotional Chinese tourists singing the anthem went viral in the mainland from Saturday.

“They were scheduled to take a flight by Orient Thai Airlines, but the fight was delayed and the [Chinese] tourists were quite discontented,” said a woman airport worker.

“Thirty three of the passengers refused to leave [the departure hall after the others boarded.”

The worker, who did not want to be named, told Thepaper.cn news said the passengers began to sing in the departures hall. She was not sure what song it was, but guessed it “was propably their national anthem”.

Full story http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1855739/stressed-chinese-tourists-thailand-facing-10-hour-flight-delay

-- South China Morning Post 2015-09-08

[Somtamnication]

Note to self: when upset with immigration, stand up and sing God Save The Queen.

[NongKhaiKid]

Note to Thailand, they're coming back to get you !

Chinese play the face game too.

[Gulfsailor]

Wow. Orient Thai are still in operation?

[KamnanT]

I'm just surprised anyone still flies on Orient Thai.

[daiwill60]

well I for one would be happy to have a delay due to maintenance, rather than go on time with little or no maintenance, at least today we arent reading about another plane load of people being lost.

[borisloosebrain]

They sound like a grumpy bunch , can't say I blame them but most of us just scowl and mope or hit the bar.

[sirineou]

about a year ago my wife had the misfortune to fly with a Chinese airline, a mistake we will never do again

Her flight was diverted to some small Chinese airport with out explanation.(she told me later) by the time they arrived at their connecting flight in Beijing, her flight was gone and had to wait several hours for a connecting flight

in The mean time I was waiting at the airport in the US to pick her up, when she did not arrive, I checked with the agent at the airlines check in booth and he said my wife was not on that flight and did not know where my wife was,

I told him that I talked to my wife and she got on the flight in BKK, he told me that he had no way to know where my wife was and to wait until Monday

(it was Saturday) when the main office opened and they would find my wife.

Can you imagine!!!!!

I called the airport police immediately!!!

the police asked me if my wife was an American Citizen, I answered Yes.

They said no problem call customs , I called US customs and they located my wife in two minutes, in a different more late flight they had placed her in.

That IMHO was a more appropriate time for me to start singing my national Anthem

[mca]

The worker, who did not want to be named, told Thepaper.cn news said the passengers began to sing in the departures hall. She was not sure what song it was, but guessed it was propably their national anthem

Or the Chinese version of " Four and twenty virgins"

[edwinchester]

Wow. Orient Thai are still in operation?

Intermittently it would seem.

[BSJ]

Delayed is better than dead!

[chainarong]

Between the carrier and the quality tourist, they can all go and whistle Dixie for all I care.

[metisdead]

A post containing a derogatory generalization toward Thailand has been removed.

[h90]

Note to self: when upset with immigration, stand up and sing God Save The Queen.

What works, works......Next time we have to wait 1.5 hours at immigration we all start to sing our national anthem World biggest karaoke show.....

[Charlie Croker]

Good for them.

Poor service deserves to be exposed.

Their little protest will cost Orient dearly. Especially in terms of Chinese business.

Brendan Began once wrote "There's no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary"

This song might be a funeral durge for Orient in this cut and thrust era of budget Aviation.

[NovaBlue05]

Whatever works to let off steam. Could be worse. They could have went on a rampage and busted stuff up

[Pattaya28]

And the reason for the delay was ............

[Docno]

10 hours is excessive ... the airline should have put them up in a nearby hotel. That happened to me a few years ago in Tokyo ... we were all shuttled to a (nice) hotel close to the airport. Big cost to the airline, but it beats bad publicity.

[scorecard]

Note to self: when upset with immigration, stand up and sing God Save The Queen.

What works, works......Next time we have to wait 1.5 hours at immigration we all start to sing our national anthem World biggest karaoke show.....

Another hub coming...

[h90]

Good for them.

Poor service deserves to be exposed.

Their little protest will cost Orient dearly. Especially in terms of Chinese business.

Brendan Began once wrote "There's no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary"

This song might be a funeral durge for Orient in this cut and thrust era of budget Aviation.

Well Orient was almost destroyed by Thaksin to boost his Air Asia by removing a competitor. No good airplanes, no money, no hope......

I always liked them but yes most probably they are walking dead.

Usually when you enter the airplane (which is most probably a few decades older than you) the air hostess hands out bravery medals

(I was on a flight that didn't find the NST airport.......)

[h90]

Note to self: when upset with immigration, stand up and sing God Save The Queen.

What works, works......Next time we have to wait 1.5 hours at immigration we all start to sing our national anthem World biggest karaoke show.....

Another hub coming...

at the immigration or

[phil2]

Were they offered refreshments, or were they expected to pay for dinner?

[Prbkk]

Note to self: when upset with immigration, stand up and sing God Save The Queen.

For a one way ticket to immigration detention ( unless it's Captain Jack on duty)

[Searat7]

That airline needs to have its old fleet re-examined closely during the re-certification process. I wonder if they still have old 747's parked all around the country.

[Assurancetourix]

And the reason for the delay was ............

Brakes failed and the pilot fled

[speedtripler]

If a bunch of foreigners did that in China wed probably be thrown into one of their jails...

Planes get delayed all the time and no, often you don't get a hotel room and many times they announce the flight will be delayed by a lesser extent than the truth so people don't flip out and start going crazy...

Then they just extend the delay every couple hrs without telling the truth about it and avoid paying for hotels etc

Not fun but that's the reality

Edited September 8, 2015 by speedtripler

[bangon04]

To be fair the Chinese tourists ought to be used to long delays.. In Hong Kong there are regular 4-8 hour delays and cancellations when the Chinese military close airspace for "exercises" over Shanghai or some other major destination.

It has been 3 years since I took a domestic flight in China which actually took off or landed on time.

They do protest in Chinese airports, but it never usually makes the news and is quickly dealt with.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

Good for them.

Poor service deserves to be exposed.

Their little protest will cost Orient dearly. Especially in terms of Chinese business.

Brendan Began once wrote "There's no such thing as bad publicity, except your own obituary"

This song might be a funeral durge for Orient in this cut and thrust era of budget Aviation.

Well Orient was almost destroyed by Thaksin to boost his Air Asia by removing a competitor. No good airplanes, no money, no hope......

I always liked them but yes most probably they are walking dead.

Usually when you enter the airplane (which is most probably a few decades older than you) the air hostess hands out bravery medals

(I was on a flight that didn't find the NST airport.......)

Sorry but Thaksin don't own Air Asia, why do you distributed disinformation ?

[Jon Wetherall]

Thailand wanted so badly to make Chinese tourism the new goose laying the golden egg because tourists from the west are staying away in droves.

So now this - true it wasn't the Thai government but things like this flow directly from the Thai-government-sponsored Thais-are-exceptional attitude that Thais usually have, particularly at the hi-so end of society.

But they just can't help themselves. It's foot-shot time again in LOS folks. Get a new golden goose then kill it through incompetence and perceived superiority, same as the old golden goose.

Edited September 8, 2015 by Jon Wetherall

[blazes]

If, as it says, this story went "viral", it ought to reduce the numbers of these quality tourists coming to LoS. Well, for a week or two....