We had a very eventful departure from Lhasa the other day. On arrival at the airport, we were rubbed with some kind of cloth that was then Ion scanned before we were allowed in the building, then we were told that we were no longer due to check in for another 2 hours 40 mins as the flight was delayed. This was fine, except for the fact the departure board showed our flight departing on time. We rushed to the information desk, and they assured us that the plane had not even arrived yet, so could not be departing. We obviously felt better for this. Once we checked in, we went through to the departure lounge only to be told the flight would be delayed another 1 hour 20 mins.
Finally, having left Lhasa 4 hours 10 minutes late, we arrived in Chengdu to find that our guide (and therefore transfer from the airport) had left 2 hours earlier having been told by the airport that the flight had arrived on time. Once we managed to get hold of the address of the hotel, we got a very apologetic phone call from “Bob”, our guide, saying he was very sorry he was not there, but the arrivals board showed our flight as having landed and he waited 2 hours etc etc.
In the end, we got to the hotel relatively easily, but what a mess - all because Air China cannot co-ordinate their flight information between airports!!!