Julie Zhu
Recently, Capital Airlines launched a flight route connecting Lisbon to Beijing, and, in July, the route was extended from Beijing to Macau.
During September and October, I travelled this route and have decided to write an opinion about my experience.
Nevertheless, readers should be aware that every individual has their own preferences. That said, I will recount my experience in taking said flights for the reader’s benefit.
The flight from Macau to Beijing took off at 4:40 p.m. and landed at 8:05 p.m. (different now). Later that night, the aircraft took off from Beijing at 1:15 a.m. and arrived in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, at 7:30.
First of all, the boarding passes. The boarding pass from Macau to Beijing, and the one from Beijing to Lisbon cannot be given together while in Macau. Therefore, when in Beijing, I had to formally enter the city in order to get my boarding pass to Lisbon. Luckily, luggage can be checked through to Lisbon from Macau.
After checking in, next up was boarding. In the absence of a boarding bridge, I had to take a shuttle bus (albeit a short trip) from the airport to board the aircraft, after which we flew for around three hours.
Upon arrival of my flight to Beijing, the aircraft landed in the T2 zone at the Beijing International Airport at approximately 8 p.m. Again, I had to take a shuttle bus from the aircraft to the T2 building.
Based on my (late) acquired information, there were a few counters available at the T2 building to help transiting passengers get their boarding pass without them having to pass through the checkpoints. However, nobody was working on that day when I arrived, and so I had to go through the immigration checkpoints. A warning to future travelers of this trip: do prepare a printed version of your tickets from Beijing to Lisbon, or an electronic file, if you are a non-Chinese passport holder!
I had to wait for three hours before checking in for my flight from Beijing to Lisbon.
The departure time of the Beijing-Lisbon flight is the time of the night when most shops and restaurants at Beijing’s T2 are closed. When the time to board finally came, I took another shuttle bus from the T2 building to the aircraft. Then came the 12 hour-flight to Lisbon.
Upon arriving in the city, I took another airport shuttle bus to get to Lisbon airport’s checkpoint building.
The trip back to Macau followed the exact same steps in reverse order. Check-in at Lisbon, waiting at immigration, shuttle bus, boarding, flying to Beijing, immigration, check-in, immigration checkpoints, waiting for shuttle-bus, boarding, flying, shuttle bus and finally immigration in Macau.
In the last episode of this adventure, there were seven people, me included, who had flown from Lisbon to Macau. My luggage was delayed due to unexplained reasons.
Other things related to the airline’s service must be experienced and duly judged by whoever is planning to take this flight.
A little reminder: do get well prepared mentally, physically and financially for choosing seats online prior to your departure, the flight crew’s English proficiency, the crew’s service quality, other passengers, your check-in luggage, the food and the airline’s website.
Lastly, I want to remark that airline service itself has never been too important to me. For me, flights are just like any other kind of transportation, they get me from one place to another.
I like to spend the least time possible passing government checkpoints and to encounter as few troubles as possible, while being quite comfortable during my trip to the destination.
Hence, as long as I have a clean toilet on the plane, nothing (aside from safety) else concerning the airline’s service truly matters.
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