Twenty-one-year-old college graduate Zhu Xin is staring at her computer, waiting for the clock to tick over to 7 am. She has her eye on a 299 yuan ($46.80) return ticket from Shanghai to Ibraki in Japan with Spring Airlines, a Shanghai-based budget carrier.

"If I manage to get Spring Airlines' bargain return ticket to Japan, I can save more than 2,000 yuan," she told the Global Times. "A return ticket from Shanghai to Tokyo with All Nippon Airways costs at least 3,000 yuan during the summer holiday."

Many backpackers like Zhu often plan their overseas trips based on the cheapest tickets they can find online with budget airlines, and she is willing to sacrifice comfort and services for an "affordable" plane ticket.

"I am prepared to wait at the airport because many international flights with Spring Airlines are often delayed for a couple of hours," Zhu said. "I do not expect a budget airline to match the services of other big international carriers."
But there are other travelers who are less forgiving when it comes to budget airlines. Spring Airlines has been pushed into the spotlight after a passenger found herself blacklisted - she was banned from buying tickets from the airline after she filed a flight delay complaint for compensation. The use of this blacklist policy has sparked a furious debate over consumer rights.

A legitimate blacklist?

A passenger from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, surnamed Liu, told media that she was banned from buying tickets from Spring Airlines after receiving 200 yuan in compensation on April 30 for an eight-hour flight delay. Liu and other unruly passengers reportedly caused a scene at the airport terminal when they refused to board the plane until the airline compensated them.

Liu tried to purchase another ticket in late June online and her booking was refused as she had been blacklisted by the airline.

Zhang Wu'an, a spokesperson for Spring Airlines, acknowledged that the company has a blacklist policy to protect the airline's business operations.

"A small minority of passengers misbehaves during delays," Zhang told the Global Times. "Some refuse to board or leave the plane and create chaos, which hurts us financially and wastes other passengers' time."

The company has used the blacklist since 2007, Zhang added, which prevents specific customers from booking tickets on any of the airline's flights. Spring Airlines put customers on the list when they behave aggressively toward airline staff, though he stressed that the list is temporary and passengers can be removed from the list by contacting the airline and signing a guarantee that they will change their behavior in the future.

"The blacklist was established not only to protect the airlines' operations and profit, it helps identify troublesome passengers as they often affect flight plans and other passengers' interests," Zhang stressed.

He added that the blacklist also stops ticket scalpers from buying tickets from the airlines. This was done to make sure special offers are fairly distributed to passengers on a first-come-first-served basis. But he did not elaborate on what specific standard the airlines adopts when deciding to ban a passenger.

Public opinion split

Wang Lei, a frequent Spring Airlines flyer, agrees with the blacklist policy, saying that he had been the victim of unreasonable passengers.

"Some passengers refused to board a delayed plane once when I was flying from Shanghai to Beijing," he said. "About 200 passengers had to wait an extra hour before airline staff managed to convince them. It was unfair to the majority of passengers who were willing to cooperate."

According to Spring Airlines, the blacklist currently has over 200 names, banning those passengers from purchasing tickets from the airlines.

But other passengers have complained that the blacklist policy is unfair and it could encourage airlines to further exploit travelers during delays.

"If all airlines adopt the same practice, passengers will be deprived of the ability to fight for their rights and flights will always be delayed," Chen Juming, a Shanghai resident, told the Global Times.

Fan Qiang, a deputy director of the complaints department at the Shanghai Consumer Rights Protection Commission, told the Global Times that over 30 complaints were filed against Spring Airlines in 2011.

"Some passengers complained that Spring Airlines have delayed compensation for flight delays," he said. "But we have not received any complaints indicating that the carrier has a blacklist to stop passengers from purchasing tickets."

The discussions among passengers also caught the attention of Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Its director, Li Jiaxiang, told a press conference on July 20 that Spring Airlines is a privately owned carrier that has its own operational rights.

"Spring Airlines is a financially-independent carrier that balances operational practices against profits," Li said. "CAAC mainly focuses on the safety operations of the country's airlines. Also, other international airlines have similar blacklist policies."

But Li also added that consumers should have the right to demand better services from airlines and their staff members.

In Britian, the London-based budget airline EasyJet has also received similar complaints from consumers, regarding their own blacklist that bans unruly customers from travel with the airline.

The legal rights of passengers

Zhang Qihuai, secretary-general of the Aviation Law Committee at the Beijing Lawyers Association, told the Global Times that Spring Airlines, as a transportation service provider, has no right to deprive anyone of their freedom to travel, but shoulders the responsibility of guaranteeing its service for the public.

"However, I would argue that any airline company has the right to protect itself from passengers who exhibit irrational behavior, mainly for the sake of other passengers' interests. However, the creation of a blacklist without government approval is not necessarily sanctioned," Zhang said.

He added that Spring Airlines uses ticket-booking contracts that stipulate conditions that differentiate the airline from other airline companies. For example, they don't offer free meals or compensate passengers for flight delays. These conditions have had the approval of the aviation watchdog, CAAC, since 2005.

"As one of the country's few budget airlines, Spring Airlines aims to offer cut-price tickets to passengers by trimming the services that the traditional airlines are supposed to take on," Zhang said.

Wang Feier contributed to this story