"Hope You Make It" Airlines

So my EMBA group has finished up our time in Beijing. We had a business visit this morning and then headed off to the airport for our flight to Shenzhen. We boarded our plane, pushed back from the gate, and then we wait.

And wait. We're still sitting here now (which is why I figured I'd take advantage of this time to do a quick post :) You know it isn't looking good when the pilot gets on the intercom and says (with his Chinese accent) that we will be waiting for A VERY LONG TIME. Too bad I'm not in the US since there's a three hours limit for "tarmac torture time"...

Apparently my group is not allowed to fly this trip without having some sort of delay (This is the Delta annoyance story that I promised in my last post :)

Our flight from SLC was just fine but once we got to Seattle, we found out our flight had been delayed two hours due to "mechanical issues." Two hours turned into three but once that was fixed our pilots couldn't fly or they'd be over hours (It is a 12 hour flight after all :) Then Delta had to track down a new crew. When we thought they finally had it all together, they realized that none of the 4 pilots had flown in to Beijing before (which is apparently a requirement) so the flight was cancelled. (We offered to let the pilot use our map but our wings had already been clipped.) After putting us all up in a hotel for the night, we were back at the SEA airport the next morning.

Let's hope this flight doesn't turn out the same way. So wish me luck. I think we're going to need it.

PS--And I have a five year old sitting in the seat behind me that is about to get his legs cut off! Anyone know what the punishment might be? (I'm not planning to kill him, just maim him a little :)
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