Shaking in Taiwan, Air China's Fake 'Wi-Fi', and No More Customs for Transit Passengers

Steven Schwankert | Apr 21, 2015 4:30 pm | 6 comments | 9004 reads

Welcome to the first-ever Talking Travel presented from Taiwan. This particular visit started off with a somewhat rare travel experience for someone from the US east coast: earthquake aftershocks, significant enough to shake a large chair and cause a taxi to wobble. Unnerving, to say the least.

The above photo is not evidence of the event but is in fact a shaky photo of an airline bait and switch. Air China claims to offer, at least on the plane that served my Beijing to Taipei route, Wi-Fi. Well, number one, the relevant telecommunications officials in China do not recognize "Wi-Fi" – look on your iPhone, there is a reason that may say "WLAN" and not Wi-Fi. More importantly, the so-called Wi-Fi isn't Internet access at all – it's simply inflight entertainment pushed to your device if you choose to connect. Nothing like being baited and switched by your airline. Please stop telling me how f@#$ing great Air China is or is supposed to be. It's not. Its planes may be relatively new, but the food is atrocious, and passengers are forced not just to turn their phones to the airplane setting, but to turn them off entirely. Just remember that next time you fly. Not all Star Alliance members are created alike. 

And finally for this issue, an entry for the "no points for eliminating something that shouldn't have existed in the first place" category. International transit passengers in Beijing no longer need to pass through customs while transiting. Whoop-dee-do. Although I do occasionally encounter passengers en route to the US transiting via Beijing, basically we're talking about flights to Mongolia and the DPRK. Given the other airports in the region that are far more pleasant hubs, I don't expect to this is going to pick up a lot of passengers for Beijing.

Until Thursday, one road flat, safe, and stable.

More stories by this author here.

Email: stevenschwankert@thebeijinger.com
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Photo: dailydot.com, Steven Schwankert/the Beijinger

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admin's picture admin Submitted by Guest on Sun, 05/10/2015 - 17:45

Guest wrote:

Steven Schwankert WLAN or INTRANET has no meaning for the average person. Including WIFI these are all technical words. The word WIFI means what it means, not Internet, it's a technical word and the common thing, when doing public announcements is to be technical.

Don't get me wrong, I thing AirChina is at most average and I rather take any other airline if available, but getting pissed off at something like this just come accross like ignorant and petty.

Steven is right: except for a small segment IT professionals, the entire world now perceives the term "Wi Fi" to mean "wireless internet connectivity," technically incorrect or not. It may be an incorrect assumption but it is common enough parlayance that to use it without qualifying "Wi Fi Intranet" is simply misleading on the part of Air China.

I am reminded of the guy who painted my flat, and when he was finished and presented me with the mottled, uneven mess, said: "Oh you didn't say you wanted an even coat. If you'd like that, I can do that be repainting it again -- that will cost extra"

PS for more in this vein Woman Files Class Action Against United Airlines for Lying About Wi-Fi

 

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Jasmine34's picture Jasmine34 Submitted by Guest on Tue, 04/28/2015 - 19:55

All electronics and devices must be shuching off ! I heard this also on other international flights. It is a general rule. But I can understans that a cell phone can give some signals and maybe errors , at lest when the plane take off until arrive at a level when cell-phone has no signal at all. But how about a digital camera ??? Why they push you turn it off too ? That one don't give any signal , it is not connected anything ! Some rules are relaly crazy.

Air China fake Wi-fi , I met this too ina flight. In fact, you can connect to it, but can enter only on Air-China webpage and info ! haha, nice nice !

Steven Schwankert's picture Steven Schwankert Submitted by Guest on Tue, 04/28/2015 - 16:49

K-Vin, aren't you clever? The average person thinks of wireless Internet connectivity when they hear Wi-Fi. See my Starbucks reference in the earlier comment.

Switching phones to a non-broadcast or non-connected mode is common on flights. Switching the phone off entirely is not, at least not outside of China. If leaving phones on could actually bring down airliners, planes would have been falling out of the sky in China for years now.

K-Vin's picture K-Vin Submitted by Guest on Tue, 04/28/2015 - 14:53

Can't remember when the word "internet" found it's way into Wi-Fi. WLan is connected to the internet through a router. Before people used Lan cables to access the internet this way. Now we call it wireless lan, still, through a router connected through a phone wire. So no, WLan cannot exist in an airplane. WiFi just means that the airplane provides a wireless connection to whatever, internet, intranet etc...It hasn't been mentioned so they didn't lie about it. Nothing wrong with it. Switching off the phone during a flight is common, for safety reasons. Not sure if that was your first flight or if you're just angry that airplanes are airplanes Wink

Steven Schwankert's picture Steven Schwankert Submitted by Guest on Mon, 04/27/2015 - 17:58

Yawn. If you love Air China, feel free to fly them. It's a dishonest representation of the service they claim to offer. If you walk into Starbucks and it says they offer "Wi-Fi," and what's available is some free videos on coffee from Youku, is that what you would have expected, instead of the opportunity to check your email?

And yes, United does offer the same thing -- but it also offers actual Internet connectivity, albeit for a fee.

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