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chrisinhouston · 05-14-2009, 07:39 AM

Just got back to Texas, the trip was great except we ended it by both getting a major case of Tourista which was a challenge with 18 hours of plane travel!

Funny things that annoy me about travel.... We get screened as we go through security at the Shanghai airport after checking in for our flight. They are pretty good about it but they don't require the removal of shoes. We fill up our empty water bottles on the secure side as we wait for our flight.

They finally announce the boarding of the plane and we all get up and get in line. We are Elite so we would board right after business/first so we are behind 10 or so people. And then lots of Chinese who apparently don't understand English start pushing in all around us; they don't seem to understand the line concept there. As we wait, they announce that the boarding will be delayed as they need to fumigate the plane for swine flu! Even the crew is waiting for over 45 minutes. Finally we start the boarding process and witness countless Chinese being turned away since they are not Elite or business/first. We head down the gateway and are met by more security people, all suited up and masked because of swine flu fears. Then we get searched again, each bag etc. and any water must be discarded. Several passengers pointed out that they had purchased the water in the secure area of the airport but the head guy just shouts back, "NO!" They have a small trash can that people are forced to drop their water bottles in and my wife and I just opened our bottles and dumped them with water going everywhere. They made my wife remove her shoes but I just walked past them. Just stupid.

We get our seats and thankfully no one is in the middle seat, my wife has a window and I have the asile. The food was extra lousy and for some reason my meal (Vegeterian) was not delivered so I was glad I brought some snacks to eat, 14 hours is a long time!

05-14-2009, 07:39 AM	#11
chrisinhouston Professor Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Houston TX Posts: 1,857	Just got back to Texas, the trip was great except we ended it by both getting a major case of Tourista which was a challenge with 18 hours of plane travel! Funny things that annoy me about travel.... We get screened as we go through security at the Shanghai airport after checking in for our flight. They are pretty good about it but they don't require the removal of shoes. We fill up our empty water bottles on the secure side as we wait for our flight. They finally announce the boarding of the plane and we all get up and get in line. We are Elite so we would board right after business/first so we are behind 10 or so people. And then lots of Chinese who apparently don't understand English start pushing in all around us; they don't seem to understand the line concept there. As we wait, they announce that the boarding will be delayed as they need to fumigate the plane for swine flu! Even the crew is waiting for over 45 minutes. Finally we start the boarding process and witness countless Chinese being turned away since they are not Elite or business/first. We head down the gateway and are met by more security people, all suited up and masked because of swine flu fears. Then we get searched again, each bag etc. and any water must be discarded. Several passengers pointed out that they had purchased the water in the secure area of the airport but the head guy just shouts back, "NO!" They have a small trash can that people are forced to drop their water bottles in and my wife and I just opened our bottles and dumped them with water going everywhere. They made my wife remove her shoes but I just walked past them. Just stupid. We get our seats and thankfully no one is in the middle seat, my wife has a window and I have the asile. The food was extra lousy and for some reason my meal (Vegeterian) was not delivered so I was glad I brought some snacks to eat, 14 hours is a long time!