14 Chinese passengers accuse US NW Airlines, each claiming 1 dollar

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, October 24, 2003

14 Chinese passengers accuse US NW Airlines, each claiming 1 dollar

Feeling discriminated and deprived of normal services and equal treatment, 14 Chinese passengers brought Northwest Airlines to court.

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Feeling discriminated and deprived of normal services and equal treatment, 14 Chinese passengers brought Northwest Airlines to court. On October 21, 14 accusations from the 14 Chinese passengers against the US Northwest Airlines were put together and held a hearing at Beijing Chaoyang District Court. The requests of the 14 plaintiffs, who felt their human dignity and legitimate rights and interests being infringed upon, are the same, namely one US dollar (8.27 yuan) from the accused, the US Northwest Airlines.

The lawyer of the 14 plaintiffs stated at court the details of the case: On February 13, 2002, the 14 plaintiffs on board the plane of the US Northwest Airlines with their tourist group organized by their travel agency for a tour in Hawaii. On February 18, they were ready to board the plane NW009, leaving Hawaii for Beijing. But, the plane did not take off as planned and the plaintiffs were told by the Northwest Airlines staff that because of something wrong with the plane, and the take-off was put back to 07:00 a.m. the next day. Then, at 05:00 a.m. February 19, 2002, the plaintiffs were asked to get up and go to the airport for their boarding procedures. After queuing for over one and half an hour, the plaintiffs were unexpectedly asked to wait in another line without any explanation from the accused. After about half an hour, all the foreign passengers of the same plane almost finished their boarding procedures and were about to board. However, there was no explanation from the staff of the accused about the different treatment. Later, the plaintiffs were told that they could not take the plane NW009 but had to change to another one to Los Angeles and then to Beijing. The same as before, the plaintiffs were given no explanation or further arrangement despite many inquiries. After that, the plaintiffs were told that the plane tickets for Los Angeles were changed back to the original NW 009 for Tokyo. When the plaintiffs were just about to board, the ticket-checking staff with Northwest Airlines stopped them, refusing to give any explanation. Till then, from five o'clock in the morning to one in the afternoon, the plaintiffs and other Chinese passengers of the same delegation have been retained at Hawaii Airport for 8 hours without eating anything. However, from beginning to end, there was no service staff giving any explanation for the rejection of the boarding and one of the staff of the accused has been very rude.

The accused did not answer the plaintiffs until 02:00 pm February 19. Under the defendant's arrangement, the plaintiffs reached Los Angeles at 09:00 pm on February 20 and arrived in Beijing at 06:00 pm February 22 after 104 hours' torture. The accommodation and diet subsidies provided by the accused during the delay were far from the actual local needs. Due to the accused fault, the plaintiffs failed to get their luggage back until February 23 and 24, the second and third day after their arrival in Beijing.

After receiving the accusation, the defendant did send the plaintiffs an apology letter. However, the defendant denied in its investigation report the prejudice against the plaintiffs and the unequal treatment to them and rejected with various excuses to offer a solution satisfactory to the plaintiffs

The lawyer of the US Northwest Airlines pleaded at court that the reason why the Northwest Airlines could not arrange all the Chinese passengers to fly back to Beijing via Tokyo at that time was due to the sharp increase of passengers during the Spring Festival which made all the planes within the 5 days to Beijing via Tokyo filled with passengers. And, according to the relevant law of Japan, a passenger can not be issued a transit visa without a valid plane ticket indicating the passenger will leave Japan within 72 hours. Therefore, the US Northwest Airlines could not but arrange the plaintiffs an alternative flight to Los Angeles and then to Beijing. The lawyer added that, throughout the entire case, the staff of the Northwest Airlines maintained their good attitude and there was no rudeness as accused by the plaintiffs. According to the lawyer, there was no factual evidence for the discrimination and unequal treatment. The defendant only admitted that its staff should improve their communication with clients and should be more considerate, but denied that it broke the contract. The lawyer of the defendant expressed that the plaintiffs can get more compensation in terms of morality more than their requests under the prerequisite of no contract-breaking responsibility for the defendant.

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