Returning from Shanghai to Detroit

[yuehan123]

Delta's flight 582 from Shanghai to Detroit was 1.5 hours late leaving Shanghai. Therefore, it was late boarding prior to departure from Shanghai. And then, they sat on the ground for what you might call the normal Shanghai departure delay.

 

Flight Tracker shows:

05:10PM CST

07:14PM EDT

Scheduled: 04:20PM CST 7-day average: 04:42PM CST Scheduled: 05:24PM EDT 7-day average: 05:39PM EDT

 

So, first of all, the flight was 50 minutes late departing. And then, it was 10 minutes short of 2 hours late arriving. Did they fly faste in an attempt to make up time? Again, Flight Tracker says

"Speed 556 kts (planned: 484 kts) (graph)"

 

so, two hours late.

 

That is not really the story. The story is that my wife reported a single long line prior to Immigration. Then a worker directed US Citizens and Green Card holders one way. This way led to a section of automated "Check In" machines. No blue form to fill out on the plane, no Immigration Official looking over your passport and then grilling you. Just a row of stupid automated machines that, of course, no one knew how to use. 2 workers present to assist everybody.

 

The next part of the story has to do with Delta's customer service. From my wife's observation, of course. IF you got the apparently white ethnic perrson you got a free room voucher. If you got the Asian ethnic person got a discount (small discount) voucher. What it looked like to my wife was, If you spoke good English you got a free room. If you did not speak good English, or if you were Asian, you did not get a free room from the worker who spoke Chinese.

 

If I was high tech enough I would put a complaint on line somehow, even though my wife said, "no nevermind." Husbands do not listen, am I right?

 

bottom line? Two of them.

 

Allow extra time coming back thru Detroit.

 

If you are delayed on this late evening flight and all the Detroit Delta people just want to shine you on so they can go home, fight for your free room. This stingy Asian worker argued "well, you boarded and they closed the gate on time (no, they did not) so it is the airport's fault you are late, not Delta's."

 

sigh.

 

The wife did finally get a free room, but only because she helped intrpret for some travelers nerby to her.

[yuehan123]

OOPs, I wanted to edit the departure info, but it's been too long since message creation. Departure time and time zones listed by flight Tracker are not correct. I don't know why they interchange CST and EST. Actual departure time was around 6:20 pm Shanghai time.

 

Another story about Detroit, this time in Customs. My wife was selected for baggage x-ray inspection. That is not unusual. The unusual part is that my wife reported 90% of those selected for x-ray inspection while she was there were Asian. Was her the flight and the other near time arrivals 90% Asian? Perhaps. Was my wife overly sensitive to seeing all the Americans not selected? Perhaps.

Edited October 18, 2014 by yuehan123 (see edit history)

[yuehan123]

Oh, golly, gee whiz!

 

Maybe I get it now. Flight Tracker is reporting the time the Gate Agent claimed they closed the boarding doors. The fact the plane sat for almost another 1 1/2 hours on the tarmac, at the gate, waiting for a departure slot may explain why, in spite of allegedly flying faster, this flight, and some other PVG to DTW flights, have flight times over 13 hours on Flight Tracker.

 

And, why the airline can claim, "What? Late? not our fault!"

 

Naw, they did not have head winds on those 13+ hour flight days. They sat on the tarmac, with an on-time departure listed when the boarding gate closed.

 

That's a good trick!

[danb]

Yuehan, I came thru Detroit from Shanghai a few months ago. I even think that it was flight # 582. Those check in stations. I think it was used to preload some of your info for when you got up to the immigration officer. It was something new to me. And there wasn't a lot explanation of what it actually did. I believe it requires you to scan the bar code on your passport. It suppose to speed up the process. Not sure if the Asians with Asian passport were able to get their passport scanned. As far as the vouchers. I wonder if it makes a difference where one's ticket was bought at. If it was from Delta then it should not make a difference. But if it was from a consolidator or a third party ticket seller it might matter. I think I have seen different treatment give out to asians verse westerners.

 

I could swear I got my own room in Beijing when my flight to Nanning was delayed and yet a couple of asian passengers had to share a room. Don't know if was their choice or not. Another time I was stuck in Chicago. I was given a room at the Marriot. Sweet!! But the flight was delayed because the airline crew ( for our plane) was delayed coming in from somewhere else. I remember a young teenager girl with her asian family in tow. They were just trying to figure out how to get any hotel room for the night. I tried to help her but I had a shuttle to catch. In the old days travellers could get help at most of the airports. Now days it is real tough. If your wife book thru delta I would complain, maybe you can get something out of them. The question is who do you complain to? wish you luck. Danb

 

Is your wife from Nanning? Are they using the new Airport terminal now?

[yuehan123]

Danb,

 

Nope, my wife neither saw nor spoke to an Immigration officer upon arrival at Detroit. Well, not counting the worker who was in the area of the terminals to assist travelers having problems at those 'new' machines. My wife stated the only uniforms she observed were two police officers. She told me about police when I asked her, "What if you don't sign in at the machines?"

 

The next stop for her was Customs, which has not changed, except for the mandatory x-ray screening of Asian folks' baggage. You know, the part with: How many dollars are you bringing in? How many gifts did you buy? ans: none; How much food do have? ans: none; Do you have seeds? ans: none. customs, 'What no money, no gifts, no seeds, no food?' And, as reported: "Go to x-ray screening."

 

As my wife explained, there is no longer any Immigration form for US Citizens to be filled out on the plane.

 

The flight was booked through Delta. I did file a complaint on her behalf regarding the entire incident. No reply as of this writing.

 

Yes, she's from Nanning and she both arrived and departed from the new Nanning airport.

[danb]

I flew back from Shanghai at the very beginning of September. I had to fill out one of those custom forms. The one that asked about what you had bought overseas and were bringing back with you. I did that electronic check in station. Afterward I still had to talk to an officer. That was at the station that were basically at the opening to the large room. There were about 30 stations. American passport holder went to the stations on the left ( not sure where the Green card holders went) and non American passport holder went to the stations on the right. After clearing that station I picked up my baggage and I believe that I had to clear one more officer. The xray baggage check, I can't remember what happened there. I then had to leave the area and rush over to Delta baggage processing area to get my bags put another plane for home. The whole process is not that memorable. I have been well trained in the Army. Get in line and hurry up and wait. I do agree that sometimes it seems like they ( some of airport personnel) do not have a warm welcome for the new comers to our country. That is a shame.

 

I just saw some new photo's of the new terminal ( T2) at Nanning airport. The new terminal is directly across the runway from the old terminal. From the photo's it looks similar to the ones in Beijing. Very high ceilings and multi level. In a couple of the photo's I noticed a Starbucks and a MacDonald. Nanning must be growing. It will be interesting to see the new terminal. It will be great to return to Nanning, Sounds like your wife may have been in Nanning at the same time that they had the Nanning Folk Music Festival and the Asean CAEXPO. Danb

[Stone]

This is a good post that gave me one more reason to stay away from Detroit airport when flying from/to China.