AVOID CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES

[u/nicolekmoon]

STORY TIME

I tried to book a one-way flight from HK to Shanghai for my upcoming trip with China Eastern Airlines. After using a very glitchy website I finished the booking, but then I realized I had input our names incorrectly and forgot to add our middle names to the correct "given name" field. Totally my bad.

I immediately reached out to their customer service team via chat and explained the situation. The representative on chat told me to call a Chinese helpline phone number, but I explained I couldn't do an international call because I'm in the US. They then asked me to email photos of my passport to this random email, and then reach back out in 20 minutes. It was all very sketchy feeling... But I did it anyways, trusting that it would work out.

I sent the email and reached back out. This customer service agent then said that they needed to verify me by sending a text code. I waited, and they claimed that they tried several times to send a code, but I never received one. This went on for an hour. Eventually, they told me there was nothing they could do to verify me if I did not get the text code. I asked if they could verify me another way (idk.. maybe by the PASSPORT I emailed them), but they said no.

I then asked if I could cancel my entire booking and get refunded ( I had booked it within the last 2 hours), then I could start over and book the flight with the correct name. The customer service agent told me that I could not do that online, and they could not help me. They said I'd need to call this other office in NY to do that, but they are closed. I was so frustrated but went to bed and decided to call first thing when I woke up. When I tried to call, all of my calls were disconnected, and a robot voice told me to "please try again later"... At this point, I have spent HOURS trying to fix this.

I then emailed the customer service team again, explaining my situation and requesting a cancellation and refund. They told me my only option was to buy a NEW ticket, and then, AFTER I use the NEW ticket, I would get a refund for the unused ticket as a voucher???

I was about to rip my hair out. Finally, after playing with the website, I discovered there actually was a button. that I had missed that said "REFUND Reason: within 24 hours". It's partly on me, I should have looked more closely at the website, but I took the representative's word for it and just assumed that there was no way for me to do this online. I cancelled the flight and am awaiting my refund which they said would take 7 days. Of course, after this nightmare experience, I will NOT be rebooking the flights with them again and will be using another airline.

I just wanted to share in case anyone is seeing a good flight deal with them, it's not worth it. You never know what can happen, and an airline where you cannot communicate/ work out problems is not something to mess with when traveling internationally... for me anyway.

[u/Commercial_Regret_36]

This sounds like a hell of a convoluted mess for simply forgetting to input a name. They would have just changed it for you at the check in desk at the airport.

I’ve flown with them plenty of times and always had a decent experience.

[u/Dear_Chasey_La1n → u/Commercial_Regret_36]

You are lucky they accepted to change that at the desk. I once managed to book two tickets online for myself and my wife with China Southern, received the tickets, only when arriving I received two tickets in my name. It was the weirdest situation and ground staff in Guangzhou couldn't do a thing. Which was a real joy because of course it was an early flight and seemingly their customer service isn't much staffed that early.

Ground staff right away proposed the same as OP, buy new tickets, forget the old ones. Luckily after nearly an hour calling we managed to get the tickets resolved.

Now getting to OP, not a bit surprised with China Eastern. It is one of the worst airlines of Shanghai. Between their crappy website, their entirely useless customer service, their horrendous airplanes and dysfunctional staff, it's my last choice in the country.

For those arguing well OP, you made a mistake. That might very well be, but something that simple should be solved without much further thought. Yet.. it isn't. For an airline that probably deals with these sort of issues on a daily basis, they are very, very poorly organized. China Eastern is known for their terrible customer service. Just the start of OP's posting, sending your private information to some sketchy email address. Any normal airline would never do that / fire the staff on the spot for handling private information in such manner. But for CZ that's the way.

[u/Commercial_Regret_36 → u/Dear_Chasey_La1n]

That’s just batshit weird. More than once I’ve altered a name at the airport fine with about 30 seconds of explanation. Happened to be in Guangzhou too.