Passengers flying from Guangzhou to Hangzhou on the China Eastern Airlines MU 5216 flight found they had been cheated by the airline company after landing in Hangzhou Saturday, the Guangzhou Daily said.

A man surnamed Zhang complained that the company had promised to provide each passenger a coupon worth 400 yuan as well as free transportation to downtown Hangzhou and free accommodation, upon arrival.

The passengers were stranded in Guangzhou airport for more than 10 hours Friday afternoon. “We demanded the company to explain but in vain because a man surnamed Deng said he couldn't come over because he didn't have dinner,” Zhang complained.

The passengers were later moved into two hotels after negotiation.

They started checking in at 8 p.m., but had to wait at the boarding area for more than 2 hours.

The company said the flight was delayed because of fog in Shanxi and the company's Guangzhou airport chief Liu apologized and agreed to compensate each passenger.

They finally took off at 1 a.m. Saturday amidst anger and fatigue, but were refused compensation because the Hangzhou authorities hadn't received any “verbal notice” from Guangzhou.

The passengers called Liu and found that he had switched his phone off.

Liu later explained that some angry passengers tore up the apology letters.

He said he had faxed Hangzhou about the passengers, but he didn't promise free accommodation because the hotels in Hangzhou had been booked for a meeting.

(Shenzhen Daily October 24, 2005)