littlevoices
Jan 21, 12, 5:38 am
Since there is quite a shortage of comments on Air China (CA), the star alliance member, thought I'd post my views as I took a number of flights around the country recently on a leisure trip. My wife and I flew;
PVG-XIY (Shanghai - Xi'an): 1 Domestic First, 1 Domestic Economy (A319)
XIY-PEK (Xi'an - Beijing): 2 Domestic First (B737)
PEK-PVG (Beijing - Shanghai): 2 Business - on an international plane (A330-200)
The first two trips - Economy/First on a domestic flight
Booking about 2 months in advance using airmiles there was only 1 First class seat and 4 domestic seats, the second first seat never opened up even though my wife ended up being the only person in the cabin. This is probably due to there only been 8 seats on this flight , our next flight however did have 2 First class tickets, it was originally meant to be an A320 but was changed to a B737 by the time we flew. The difference between domestic A319/B737 First and Economy was;
Larger seat (2x2 rather than 3x3) with a personal tray table that came out of the arm (see photos)
Personal service from an attendant who just stayed around our cabin
An extra course on your meal and "proper" tea in a nice teapot
Proper cutlery and china plates, including a mini-tablecloth which the flight attendant put out for you (by leaning over your partner if at the window)
Slippers/Pillow/Blanket/Newspaper (including English language)
Bar service on demand
Welcome drink (orange juice/water), nuts and another drink after take-off before the meals
I suspect if I didn't have status I'd pay the extra £100 or so for a first class ticket for the trips, unfortunately when I tried to get a paid upgrade in the PVG lounge they couldn't do it, the only way would have required going out of security and coming back again (with no gaurentee it was possible on my ticket), which wasn't really worth it (my *G gets me into the lounge anyway).
Seats
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6735484943_9137ed2edf.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6735485039_0ed22b4473.jpg
Economy however was much better than most European airlines on an equivalent trip - food was a hot meal (Chinese or Western, Chinese was a hot congee and Western an omlette in the morning) but also a meal box with a sandwich (something similar to a mini hot dog with a garlicy sausage in the middle), a Chinese desert and orange juice. The seats also had a reasonable amount of leg room too and weren't that squashed.
Flight attendants had basic English to ask what you would like to drink and eat so not too many worries there.
Lounges were basic but sufficed, I wouldn't get to the airport early for either of these airports. The best thing for me was noodle pots and hot water and then a selection of cold drinks. At Shanghai PVG on check-in we were given an invitation to use a golf cart (that you could use otherwise by paying 10CNY) which was handy as its a long way from the security check to the lounge (Close to 300m at least), the gate was pretty close to the lounge (less than 100m).
The third trip, Beijing - Shanghai, on an international plane (A330-200)
When booking this route the only flight on the day we wished to travel with two seats in the same cabin was actually "only" in business class, however this was the best flight as for some reason the flight was served by an international plane (that was subsequently going on to Sydney from what I gathered). So in return for the business class lounge at PEK we got a much nicer flight. The lounge itself was pleasant enough but nothing special. It was open and raised above the rest of the airport with plenty of seating and views down onto the security checks and other areas of the airport. Foodwide it had noodles, a variety of drinks and also a restaurant seating area (which I didn't use) that seemed to be offering dumplings and dumpling soups. Certainly ok to spend an hour or so waiting for your plane.
We were bussed to the flight and went left into the business cabin. There were nice comfortable full business class seats that looked exactly as advertised on the website (http://www.airchina.com.cn/www/en/html/index/travel_information/onboard_service/new_first_and_busine/1090/).
Welcome service and indeed the rest of the food were identical to the other trips, as such you were just in a much nicer seat and more spacious cabin. Slightly disappointingly - there was an extensive AVOD selection described in the magazine, and headphones were next to the screens, however the only films available were Chinese language ones (they may have been dubbed, I didn't check) but no international films. As such I watched a TV show or two (there were some international ones here), but the AVOD system was shockingly slow taking up to two minutes to load a section (e.g. TV) for the first time and seemingly crashing (you had to turn the screen on/off and return to the homepage) regularly for both of our seats. Food service wasn't great (noodles or 3 not so tasty buns) plus a few things around it, but it did for the trip.
The seat itself was comfortable but didn't have individual controls for most aspects - you could put it between flat and take-off (and between of course), the only thing that moved separately was the foot rest. As such it wasn't so easy to get comfortable to "lounge". The AVOD was in the seat in front of you, with a rather nice large screen. Below was a foot rest and storage area for pillow/blanket
However not too bad at all for a short domestic flight, I don't think that I'd want to take it all the way to Sydney though as their rivals offer a much nicer service in the region. Service was attentive though I did manage to get a glass of water poured over me due to the difficulty of leaning over seats, hostess was very apologetic though.
Having also taken a few of China's new trains (in business/first class) I'd say that next time I'd take any of the high speed (G/D) trains over the flights where available, but flying isn't too bad and the airports themselves were impressive to see in their sheer size and scale. The advantage of flights was better (and free) food and drink.
One further, fun, observation: On our XIY-PEK flight the two ladies in front of us in First (row 1) put their seat back, put down their handbag and put up their feet on arrival and flat out refused to listen to the flight attendant asking them to obey the safety instructions. One other passenger used his ipad throughout the whole flight too. We took off/landed like this.... rather amusing as clearly in the EU/US with a similar attitude they'd have all been offloaded.
PVG-XIY (Shanghai - Xi'an): 1 Domestic First, 1 Domestic Economy (A319)
XIY-PEK (Xi'an - Beijing): 2 Domestic First (B737)
PEK-PVG (Beijing - Shanghai): 2 Business - on an international plane (A330-200)
The first two trips - Economy/First on a domestic flight
Booking about 2 months in advance using airmiles there was only 1 First class seat and 4 domestic seats, the second first seat never opened up even though my wife ended up being the only person in the cabin. This is probably due to there only been 8 seats on this flight , our next flight however did have 2 First class tickets, it was originally meant to be an A320 but was changed to a B737 by the time we flew. The difference between domestic A319/B737 First and Economy was;
Larger seat (2x2 rather than 3x3) with a personal tray table that came out of the arm (see photos)
Personal service from an attendant who just stayed around our cabin
An extra course on your meal and "proper" tea in a nice teapot
Proper cutlery and china plates, including a mini-tablecloth which the flight attendant put out for you (by leaning over your partner if at the window)
Slippers/Pillow/Blanket/Newspaper (including English language)
Bar service on demand
Welcome drink (orange juice/water), nuts and another drink after take-off before the meals
I suspect if I didn't have status I'd pay the extra £100 or so for a first class ticket for the trips, unfortunately when I tried to get a paid upgrade in the PVG lounge they couldn't do it, the only way would have required going out of security and coming back again (with no gaurentee it was possible on my ticket), which wasn't really worth it (my *G gets me into the lounge anyway).
Seats
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7175/6735484943_9137ed2edf.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7160/6735485039_0ed22b4473.jpg
Economy however was much better than most European airlines on an equivalent trip - food was a hot meal (Chinese or Western, Chinese was a hot congee and Western an omlette in the morning) but also a meal box with a sandwich (something similar to a mini hot dog with a garlicy sausage in the middle), a Chinese desert and orange juice. The seats also had a reasonable amount of leg room too and weren't that squashed.
Flight attendants had basic English to ask what you would like to drink and eat so not too many worries there.
Lounges were basic but sufficed, I wouldn't get to the airport early for either of these airports. The best thing for me was noodle pots and hot water and then a selection of cold drinks. At Shanghai PVG on check-in we were given an invitation to use a golf cart (that you could use otherwise by paying 10CNY) which was handy as its a long way from the security check to the lounge (Close to 300m at least), the gate was pretty close to the lounge (less than 100m).
The third trip, Beijing - Shanghai, on an international plane (A330-200)
When booking this route the only flight on the day we wished to travel with two seats in the same cabin was actually "only" in business class, however this was the best flight as for some reason the flight was served by an international plane (that was subsequently going on to Sydney from what I gathered). So in return for the business class lounge at PEK we got a much nicer flight. The lounge itself was pleasant enough but nothing special. It was open and raised above the rest of the airport with plenty of seating and views down onto the security checks and other areas of the airport. Foodwide it had noodles, a variety of drinks and also a restaurant seating area (which I didn't use) that seemed to be offering dumplings and dumpling soups. Certainly ok to spend an hour or so waiting for your plane.
We were bussed to the flight and went left into the business cabin. There were nice comfortable full business class seats that looked exactly as advertised on the website (http://www.airchina.com.cn/www/en/html/index/travel_information/onboard_service/new_first_and_busine/1090/).
Welcome service and indeed the rest of the food were identical to the other trips, as such you were just in a much nicer seat and more spacious cabin. Slightly disappointingly - there was an extensive AVOD selection described in the magazine, and headphones were next to the screens, however the only films available were Chinese language ones (they may have been dubbed, I didn't check) but no international films. As such I watched a TV show or two (there were some international ones here), but the AVOD system was shockingly slow taking up to two minutes to load a section (e.g. TV) for the first time and seemingly crashing (you had to turn the screen on/off and return to the homepage) regularly for both of our seats. Food service wasn't great (noodles or 3 not so tasty buns) plus a few things around it, but it did for the trip.
The seat itself was comfortable but didn't have individual controls for most aspects - you could put it between flat and take-off (and between of course), the only thing that moved separately was the foot rest. As such it wasn't so easy to get comfortable to "lounge". The AVOD was in the seat in front of you, with a rather nice large screen. Below was a foot rest and storage area for pillow/blanket
However not too bad at all for a short domestic flight, I don't think that I'd want to take it all the way to Sydney though as their rivals offer a much nicer service in the region. Service was attentive though I did manage to get a glass of water poured over me due to the difficulty of leaning over seats, hostess was very apologetic though.
Having also taken a few of China's new trains (in business/first class) I'd say that next time I'd take any of the high speed (G/D) trains over the flights where available, but flying isn't too bad and the airports themselves were impressive to see in their sheer size and scale. The advantage of flights was better (and free) food and drink.
One further, fun, observation: On our XIY-PEK flight the two ladies in front of us in First (row 1) put their seat back, put down their handbag and put up their feet on arrival and flat out refused to listen to the flight attendant asking them to obey the safety instructions. One other passenger used his ipad throughout the whole flight too. We took off/landed like this.... rather amusing as clearly in the EU/US with a similar attitude they'd have all been offloaded.