On Jan. 3, a netizen reported to Beijing Daily that an Air China employee had previously posted flight records on Weibo containing a large amount of personal information on multiple celebrities (Weibo posts from Sept. 2019). The leaked flight information included passengers such as Zhang Jie, Han Hong, Zhou Bichang, Zhang Shaohan, Ju Ping, Xing Bo Ran, Du Juan, Deng Lun, Bai Jingting, Zeng Yike, Wang Sulong, and Ni Ni, with exposed details including passengers’ Chinese and English names, nationality, birth date, boarding time, frequent-flyer information, and seat number. Air China responded quickly and promptly ground-suspended the employee.
Air China’s reputation in the frequent-traveler community has long been poor. On Flyertalk, there are many posts showing that Air China first- and business-class tickets booked through Star Alliance carriers such as UA, AV, or ANA were mysteriously canceled at the last second, causing mileage losses, or were later compensated by a Star Alliance partner (with Air China getting the easy win). Many passengers suspect this is due to an insider at Air China, and this incident further supports that theory.
As a general rule when booking Air China tickets through Star Alliance carriers, try to avoid first class and business class, especially on popular routes. Economy class is usually less of a concern; after all, there is usually not enough margin in economy for an insider to “squeeze out” a payoff.
Hopefully, Air China can resolve its internal management issues soon.