bentrmpt

THanks!

rokut

I did the usual - took advice, said I'd report back and then never did... So here I am! Back again, only three months since my trip.

Even though I am not the most well-travelled on Business class I have to admit that Air China did well and made it a pleasant enough experience on my flights. No it isn't warm nuts, great drinks & wonderful service like Emirates BUT it's not horrible either and so much better than the BA Prem Eco option that I also had (that was more expensive).

The massive flat bed was great for a good sleep, the entertainment was just fine, the food wasn't bad and the service was friendly if not totally natural (I'm ignorant and only speak English so I'm happy if they can deal with any requests without too much of an issue - which they did).

I even got offered multiple desserts once they knew they had some left over (the flights weren't full). I also didn't have anyone travel next to me on either leg so that made it feel even more spacious and easy to deal with.

The Asiana flight I had from Seoul to Beijing was also fine. Decent seat, good service. Nothing to write home about but it was a short hop made very easy.

All in all I can't fault Air China. If their Business offering is similar money to BA/ Virgin Prem Eco then I would firmly recommend.

I also flew back with the UK Foreign Minister Philip Hammond. I will be honest I didn't recognise him but it made sense with the armed guards waiting off the plane when we got to LHR. He was very polite as he moved aside from the aisle as I passed him to use the toilet earlier in the flight...

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Thanks for the report rokut! Yeah - not a bad product and often excellent value for money.

gpeso8

I'm going to be flying CTU-FRA in a month in J on an A330-300. I have flown the A330-200 in J several times flying PVG-FRA. I always thought the A330-300s had a sloped J seat, while the A330-200s had the lie flat seat, but according to the Air China website the A330-300s also have 180-degree recline. Is this correct? Does Air China have regionally configured A330-300s or am I just losing my mind? Will my flight have lie-flat seats? Thanks in advance!

https://www.airchina.us/US/GB/info/a...airbus330.html

TennisNoob

I flew on the A330-300 an few times but I've never flown on the A330-200s. The seat if anything should be identical. I was an bit amazed looking at seat guru the older model had 80" pitch while the new had 60" pitch. If you look it's the same thing for the 77W compared to UA's 2-2-2 J seats.

The A332 and A333 should have the same seat with it being an few inches off. The seat is fully flat.

gpeso8

Perfect, thanks TennisNoob! I have had no problem with the A332 so it should be another good flight for me.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

There's a trip report here showing the cabin in some detail: http://upgrd.com/pursuedadventures/t...rbus-a330.html

Air China does have regionally configured A330s with angled lie flats, but these are only for short-haul (like TPE and some other intra-Asia flights). I flew on one a couple months ago.

legionnaire

I might be on CA984 LAX-PEK in J. A few questions:

1. Any recent experiences?
2. Vegetarian food - any advice on choices?
3. Is it hard getting to the aisle when having a sleeping neighbor?

I don't care about alcohol and drinks. I just need to get some sleep and have a reasonable vegetarian meal. Having inflight Wifi is a bonus.

pandablood

I've flown CA business class more than I can count. Here are a few thoughts:

(1) Business Class tickets inside China, especially on widebodies going between Shanghai and Beijing, can often be booked at a very slight uptick in cost over full-fare economy if you are using a Chinese booking site like Ctrip well in advance. Search for your flight, select it and look for the 'special promotion' tickets. I recently flew PVG-PEK for CNY1,300 while Economy was CNY800. We're talking Business on a 787, 330 or 747 here.

(2) The hard product in business is good but not Emirates good. I especially like the 747-8 and 787 but the 330 will do as well. Basically any lounge you will see is human recycling-level. There is just no other way to say this. Yes, I am including PEK and PVG in this. Compare to what TK is offering in IST to understand what I mean.

(3) In-flight service is good with plenty of warm smiles and surprisingly good food. All flight attendants speak basic english and some are fully fluent. Ground crew often don't, so don't be surprised if they have to get someone else to answer more complex questions. Still.. you won't have any issues flying them if you speak english. There is a special place in hell reserved for the people who came up with the entertainment system. Crews like to make lots of announcements and everything stops when they do. Switch the TV off and after every announcement it goes back on. Yay!

(4) CA has english customer service hotlines but they are closed when the US sleep (because that's where they are based) and there isn't a message saying you should call back, you'll just hang in their waiting line. These kind of details are typical for China and not a CA issue alone.

(5) They struggle a bit when things go wrong. Yes, they will find your luggage and try to help you with unusual requests but it usually involves a bit more time since the front-line people are told to not deviate from performing one task. Example: when you get of the plane in PEK there usually is a person standing at the gate with a "Connection Service" sign. Ask them where your flight connection is and they will smile confused. Because all they were told to do is to point you into the direction you are supposed to go. I've seen Westerners get pretty frustrated at that. Just don't. Go where they tell you, that's where the knowledgable people are.

(6) As of this writing it is illegal to use any cell phones on Chinese aircraft and the crew does enforce that somewhat. This means no listening to music with big headphones, at least not without being told off for it. Not that many Chinese are sticking to it. There is talk of the CAAC changing these rules in October but the airlines have to apply for permission and as of now I haven't heard that they do it.

(7) I generally recommend them, ANA, Asiana and Singapore to China over the various US-based carriers. The reason is service and attitude and a more lenient fee-system. This might change once the Americans finally get their act together (there seem to be enough people fed up with their behavior) but so far that doesn't seem to have happened to Asia.

Any questions... ask. I check this site every few ... oh, weeks.

escape4

I flew CA J back in 2015 and it was not a good experience so I banned them for a couple of years. I gave them another try recently because of a low price YUL-PEK-BKK and I wanted to see what changed. Overall it was a mixed bag.

Seat. The seat on the 787 YUL-PEK is good and I slept well at the beginning of the flight and at the end of the flight. The seat on the 777 PEK-BKK was equally good and I slept on that flight too. I arrived rested which is an important factor.

Food. The food was below average. Because I wanted to sleep after takeoff on the first flight, I asked to be served only when I woke up. They gave me what I ordered, but the meal was barely warm. I had the impression they heated it with everybody else after takeoff and let it rest for the next few hours until they served me. Tofu was very hard and I could not eat it. On my second flight I ate after takeoff and it was much better.

Drinks. The choice selection is below average but adequate. I was offered refills without asking. On my second flight there was no Bordeaux available despite having it in the menu. Instead they only had a cheap bottle of Beaujolais 2017.

Service. Service on board was good. They offered water and snacks regularly during the flights.

Cleanliness. Toilets were more clean than I expected. Nothing to complain about.

Ground Services. My layover was more than 2 hours in PEK so plenty of time for my bags to make it to BKK. However my bags were not there and I received them at the hotel 24 hours later. Big thumbs down. I have been on lots of flights on many other airlines without any issues. Perhaps just a run of good luck but somehow I am not surprised that the airline to drop the ball had to be CA. Fortunately because I did not trust them I had brought change clothes in my carry-on.

Transfer in PEK. Not the worst airport I have seen, but for sure a bottom quartile experience. Long lines and no J priority. The airport in the evening is so dark - do they want to save on lighting costs? Depressing. Also in the winter it's so cold in there, maybe saving on heating costs too. At least, the airport is cleaner than what you would expect from mainland China and overall T3 is not crowded so not too stressful (once passed security screening). How could the wait be so long at security if the terminal feels so quiet and not crowded? There were only a few manned x-ray stations. Saving costs on security staff too, I guess?

IFE. There were more movies in English on YUL-PEK than I expected based on comments here. But for PEK-BKK no backseat TV? For a 5-hour flight, on a new-ish aircraft? Come on...

All in all it was ok, got me from point A to point B with some food and drinks not as good as what should be expected, IFE partially good partially non-existent, but good sleep. And without my bags at destination.

I won't rush to rebook with CA but would probably do so if they are the cheapest by a good margin.

jh6000

Hi, I am considering using an award ticket from Asia back to SFO. This flight is what is available. Per seat guru, it is a 747-400 with "angle-flat seats" Yet, in the few online reviews I have seen, no one mentions anything about this aspect of the seats. Are they indeed angle-flat? If so, how did you find them in termf of comfort for both sitting but especially for sleeping? Any other comments about hard or soft product appreciated.

Thanks

John H

minhaoxue

CA flies (flew) a 747-8 on their PEK-SFO route with lie flat seats. I say flew because it looks like during the Winter schedule, they are flying a 777-300 with lie flat in J.

moondog

I see that as well. WRT 744s, the only scheduled route I know they still fly is PEK-SHA.

LHR/MEL/Europe FF

Unfortunately these days, for non US-based carriers, seat guru can be pretty out of date.

jh6000

Thanks, everyone. Very helpful. That said, the United search engine is showing a 747 in December when I might fly that route.