I often fly between Houston and Beijing on Air China's nonstop flights 995 and 996. Overall, I like their service. Aircraft's are new and clean. Flight attendants provide good service. The food is not bad as airplane cuisine goes. On a recent flight from Houston to Beijing, we were 2 hours late departing Houston. The aircraft had pushed back more or less on time (shortly after 1am) but then we taxied out into the darkness and just sat. We sat and sat and sat some more. Eventually a tow truck came out, hooked up to the aircraft and pushed it back a few feet. Then the tow truck pulled the aircraft forward a few feet. Then pushed it back. Then pulled it forward. This went on for the longest time. There was no explanation given by the pilot. No comments given by the flight attendants. It eventually became clear that the tow truck was getting the plane turned around. Apparently the pilot had taxied the aircraft into some kind of dead-end where we were trapped and could not turn around without the help of the tow truck and the spotters. Once the plane was turned around, we taxied out to the proper runway and finally took off. The flight crew disabled the flight progress display. Maybe they thought that would prevent anyone from noticing that we were two hours behind schedule. There were no apologies or even an acknowledgement that anything had gone wrong. The lack of transparency and honesty with their customers cost Air China dearly in my opinion of them. From conversations among passengers after we landed in Beijing, I was clearly not alone in feeling disgusted about being treated by Air China as if I were blind and stupid.
@御坂01688 @lossviva