Other Asian, Australian and South Pacific Frequent Flyer Programs - CA Domestic Lounge Access - SZX & PVG

Does anyone have any experience with lounge access in Shenzhen and Pudong whilst on a domestic itin? This will be flying Y with Star Gold.

Will be travelling with some staff and need a quiet place for discussions.

Does anyone have any experience with lounge access in Shenzhen and Pudong whilst on a domestic itin? This will be flying Y with Star Gold.

Will be travelling with some staff and need a quiet place for discussions.

Both are underwhelming, though Shenzhen is almost bearable. But, why would you take a domestic flight from PVG (unless you're going one of the very few cities that only has service from PVG)? SHA's lounges are nothing to write home about either (noisy, and bad food), but the airport is better, and the gates/lounges are somewhat close to the check-in counters.

To date, the only lounge I've been to in China that I actually liked was the one CA uses in Guangzhou... and, 90% of my reasoning boils down to the massage chairs there.

So moondog, do you have an answer to his question.

Im in the same situation, only will be traveling from XMN-PEK in Y. Am a *G. Will I have access to the lounge?

Cheers

Star Gold has access to Air China's lounges, even contract lounges. But only one guest.

Each airport is different but you may need an invitation card from check-in. Ask when you check in about lounge access and they will be able to tell you where to go.

CA PVG's domestic lounge is fine, much better than anything you will find in the US. At check-in as Star Gold they will automaticlly give you tickets for a golf cart ride to the lounge (and most often used Air China gates) which is far but walkable. If your carry-on is heavy or energy levels low I suggest you try this. The cart desk is immediately after the escalator which you descend after security. Hard to miss.

A few Air China flights depart from gates pretty far from the lounge. They will warn you about this both at check-in and at the lounge if you go there.Twice I did not pay attention to this and upon arrival at the lounge they immediately called for a cart to make sure we did not miss our flight.

Does anyone have any experience with lounge access in Shenzhen and Pudong whilst on a domestic itin? This will be flying Y with Star Gold.

Will be travelling with some staff and need a quiet place for discussions.

You'll be able to access underwhelming lounges at both airports. If you're really just looking for a quiet place for a discussion then I'd recommend the hundreds of chairs between terminals A and B in Shenzhen and finding an empty gate area in Pudong...it will be much quieter than in the lounge.

The OP might want to consider one or more Priority Pass memberships, depending on the number of guests needed. There are PP lounges in most but not all (Wuhan, for example) Chinese airports.

The OP might want to consider one or more Priority Pass memberships, depending on the number of guests needed. There are PP lounges in most but not all (Wuhan, for example) Chinese airports.

I wouldn't ever fathom of signing up for PP in order to access lounges in China, especially if had status with *G and/or SkyTeam... the OP has the former, and could easily get matched to the latter (e.g. FB Platinum). But, let me reiterate what should be the main point of this thread; the vast majority of airport lounges in China suck. I'm thinking of Xi'an, in particular, because I once spent 6 hours in CA's lounge there, but most airports in second tier cities are almost exactly the same. In the US, SNA is best comparable I think of (one long concourse with gates facing the tarmac, and windowless lounges/restaurants on the opposite the gates).

The good news is that when you're flying out of places like Zhengzhou, you really can show up 35 minutes before your flight, and make it without the slightest amount of stress. The lounges really only come in handy once you discover that your flight is delayed for 2.5 hours. But, even then, the current trend is to put you on the plane "on time", and close the doors.

I wouldn't ever fathom of signing up for PP in order to access lounges in China, especially if had status with *G and/or SkyTeam... the OP has the former, and could easily get matched to the latter (e.g. FB Platinum). But, let me reiterate what should be the main point of this thread; the vast majority of airport lounges in China suck. I'm thinking of Xi'an, in particular, because I once spent 6 hours in CA's lounge there, but most airports in second tier cities are almost exactly the same. In the US, SNA is best comparable I think of (one long concourse with gates facing the tarmac, and windowless lounges/restaurants on the opposite the gates).

The good news is that when you're flying out of places like Zhengzhou, you really can show up 35 minutes before your flight, and make it without the slightest amount of stress. The lounges really only come in handy once you discover that your flight is delayed for 2.5 hours. But, even then, the current trend is to put you on the plane "on time", and close the doors.

You can add Ningbo and Hefei to the list of really bad airport lounges. The regular airside seating is so limited though the lounges actually look good in comparison.

CAN, PVG, SHA and PEK are not bad.

Agree with your comment on Star Gold. If only for domestic travel in China, PP is very expensive for what you will get.

I wouldn't ever fathom of signing up for PP in order to access lounges in China, especially if had status with *G and/or SkyTeam... the OP has the former, and could easily get matched to the latter (e.g. FB Platinum). But, let me reiterate what should be the main point of this thread; the vast majority of airport lounges in China suck. I'm thinking of Xi'an, in particular, because I once spent 6 hours in CA's lounge there, but most airports in second tier cities are almost exactly the same. In the US, SNA is best comparable I think of (one long concourse with gates facing the tarmac, and windowless lounges/restaurants on the opposite the gates).

The good news is that when you're flying out of places like Zhengzhou, you really can show up 35 minutes before your flight, and make it without the slightest amount of stress. The lounges really only come in handy once you discover that your flight is delayed for 2.5 hours. But, even then, the current trend is to put you on the plane "on time", and close the doors.
I agree with you about lounges in China but I mentioned Priority Pass because one can usually bring two guests. The OP was concerned about being able to guest others into lounges.

Thanks for the responses. I just wanted to share a bit of my experiences flying with CA and their lounges in general. Bear in mind, that although i'm *G, for China, I usually fly KA or CX from HK thus have no benefits, but on this trip it happened that we had some meetings in Shenzhen before heading off to Shanghai.

Outbound from SZX to PVG was fine. They allowed all 6 of us to check in at the business class counter and we were all escorted to the VIP security lane on the right. The lounge, whilst old, was empty and we had an entire corner to ourselves. Basic dimsum, sandwiches, congee and soft drinks/juices on offer. I was pleasantly surprised by the service on board CA - I was in Y and i'm an OZ *G, yet i was assigned the first row of seats, was individually welcomed by the purser and handed a copy of the China Daily, and was asked my meal and drink preference before take off. For a short flight, I would say that i was pretty impressed.

Sadly, I cant say the same about the return which quickly descended into a farce due to the thunderstorms in Shanghai last Friday evening! We were due out on CA930 on Friday at 6:40pm. Again the check-in experience was excellent, the lady assigned me the first row with an empty seat next to me on the A340 and also placed a red first class sticker on the BP even though I was flying Y and told me to use the first class security lane on the left (would have missed it if she didn't point it out to me). Took the buggy to lounge 90 which was also pretty good for a domestic lounge. Hot food options include noodles, fried rice, sweet & sour chicken and vegetables together with miscellaneous snacks & buns - food was abundant and palatable. Drinks were fine too with beer and red/white wine offered self-service. At 5pm it began to rain quite a bit and was I was a bit concerned as a few flights that i was had already boarded about an hour ago were still at their gates (e.g. ANA and CE), but nevertheless, our boarding was announced on time and we headed to the bus gates via a buggy. Once on board, personally welcomed aboard by the purser along with the others in the first row, and offered a newspaper and choice of meal with drink. By this time, the thunderstorm was quite intense, so i expected a delay of sorts. By 8pm we were served dinner on the plane.
By 10pm the thunderstorm had subsided and was only light rain, and we noticed that planes had started landing again, so we were hopeful that we would be off soon. However by 11pm, tempers were getting hot and they announced that they would like for us to return to the terminal, but there were no stairs or busses available. Long story short, they announced the cancellation of the flight at 11:30pm and we eventually got back to the terminal by 2am!

The terminal was absolute chaos! There were groups of protesters shouting and arguing with staff, police everywhere, and not a single senior airline staff member around! You would have thought, that knowing our flight was cancelled at 11:30pm they would have planned for an anticipated 200 upset passengers getting off the flight - but no one had any clue! Eventually someone senior showed up and told us that they would send us to a hotel for the night and our flight would take off at 1030am sharp and we needed to check-out of the hotel at 8am and their bus would leave the hotel at 815am sharp. By the time we got to the hotel it was 3:30am. On a positive note, the last time i was sent to a hotel by an airline in China, it was a roach-infested dump in Xian for a 10 hour delay - so i was pleasantly surprised that they sent us over to the Regal Jinfeng Hotel which was pretty decent.

Another thing that surprised me positively this trip was Ctrip. We booked all our tickets through them, and at about 4:30am, I get a call on my HK mobile and it was Ctrip informing me that my flight back to Shenzhen was cancelled (no kidding!) and that the new departure time was 2pm! That was very proactive of them to call, but i told her that the airline told us our departure time was 1030am - she was a bit confused but told us to follow the airlines instructions.

At 8am we check out, head to the airport, and the same check in experience as above. Get to the lounge and by 1030am nothing happens. Lounge staff are adamant that the flight is on time! Then by 1130am a group of about 30 non-staus pax basically bursts into the lounge screaming and shouting, and they barracade themselves inside the lounge. Police are summoned and frantic negotiations begin which then culminates in them announcing that our flight was now boarding.

Once we get to the bus boarding gate, its chaos again as the gate doesn't know that they've announced boarding for our flight. Tempers flare and there is much pushing and shoving going on between ground staff and pax. Eventually 3 big trucks of police show up from the outside and bring some order - surprisingly a couple of the police are now also filming everyone/everything that is taking place on HD camcorders with boom mics.

We board the flight at 1pm, and again we're sat on the ground. They initally tell us that no food/drink has been loaded and only water is available. But 30mins later some food magically appears and it's exactly the same dinner options as last night. The captain then spewed some lies about how we're No.2 to depart to the south, however all flights to the south are now halted due to bad weather in the south. Well 2 mins later, we saw a KA and CX flight depart - obviously to HK and this got the crowd worked up again. 3pm they said that anyone who wants to leave the flight can do so, and a couple of exapts choose to do that saying that it would be better/faster to catch a flight from SHA.

Eventually we push back at 4pm.

CA ground services, lounges, and inflight services was really impressive for a domestic operations. However, they were incredibly disorganized during irrops! And from what I saw so was every other Chinese airline.

My previous China delay record was 10 hours in Xian - now it's 22 hours in PVG! A bus to Shenzhen would have taken less time!

The terminal was absolute chaos! There were groups of protesters shouting and arguing with staff, police everywhere, and not a single senior airline staff member around! You would have thought, that knowing our flight was cancelled at 11:30pm they would have planned for an anticipated 200 upset passengers getting off the flight - but no one had any clue! Eventually someone senior showed up and told us that they would send us to a hotel for the night and our flight would take off at 1030am sharp and we needed to check-out of the hotel at 8am and their bus would leave the hotel at 815am sharp. By the time we got to the hotel it was 3:30am. On a positive note, the last time i was sent to a hotel by an airline in China, it was a roach-infested dump in Xian for a 10 hour delay - so i was pleasantly surprised that they sent us over to the Regal Jinfeng Hotel which was pretty decent.

Yes, this is atypical of any Chinese airline when things go wrong.

welcome to China. Just flew in a couple of hours ago on the SHA-PEK route. Plane was full and there were 98 *G/P on the flight. How do I know, they made an announcement welcoming us and did not bother with the newspapers and individual welcomes. BTW, China daily is good for a laugh and toilet paper, if need be.

welcome to China. Just flew in a couple of hours ago on the SHA-PEK route. Plane was full and there were 98 *G/P on the flight. How do I know, they made an announcement welcoming us and did not bother with the newspapers and individual welcomes. BTW, China daily is good for a laugh and toilet paper, if need be.

We have an entire thread about the China Daily; I like it too. I do the SH-BJ drill very often, and prefer the train... longer door-to-door times, but usually on time, and I can use the internet.

We have an entire thread about the China Daily; I like it too. I do the SH-BJ drill very often, and prefer the train... longer door-to-door times, but usually on time, and I can use the internet.

Yes, my apologies, I should keep on topic. I have tried the train and it is a good system, but I am a aviation buff and prefer the airlines.

I read a thread not too long ago about CA upgrading their lounges in PEK/PVG/SHA? any updates?

Yes, my apologies, I should keep on topic. I have tried the train and it is a good system, but I am a aviation buff and prefer the airlines.

I read a thread not too long ago about CA upgrading their lounges in PEK/PVG/SHA? any updates?

Those lounges are still pathetic in all three cases, but far better than their counterparts in second/third tier cities.

...is a Sixth Sense about flight delay length and a really good BS meter. In slickalick's example, major thunderstorms and heavy rain and ANA still sitting at the gate, are a big tipoff that things are not going to go your way anytime soon. Not only the Chinese airlines, but Chinese ATC and ground ops just don't deal well with irrops. And as you saw, are absolutely horrible at communications with customers. Notably, no airline personnel with any decision-making power is ever around to take command of the situation. Nothing new with this and not unique to Air China--all the domestic Chinese airlines are the same way.

Similar to the USA Southeast, it's best to never schedule afternoon or early evening flights in SE Coastal China in summer, since that's when heavy weather tends to roll in. Better gamble on a morning flight, or take the train or series thereof. (This also goes for certain times of year in the north/north central when heavy fog is almost guaranteed.) I was once traveling with a large party Beijing-Xi'an in November--I was on the train, they all went by different flights. Guess who made it to Xi'an on time? And who were delayed by anywhere from 10 hours to "never made it at all"?

Be that as it may, once you step foot on the plane, they have you by the you-know-whats, as you are trapped. And consumers don't have any rights in China when it comes to air travel. The decision-making point has to happen before that, when you decide to bail on the flight, "cancel" it yourself, and seek an alternative. Or have an alternative set up already. Particularly if high-speed rail is an alternative, buying some just-in-case tickets isn't a bad idea if you can't afford a huge delay; if not used, they can be refunded with a bit of a penalty, even after the train has departed.