ORDnHKG

Nice report, the food looks great, not to mention PJ in C is a nice rare perk !

One complain seems like their mid-flight snack option is pretty weak, their offerings look like what you would normally see in Y for other airlines instead, no real food compare with CA's asian competitors.

BuildingMyBento

Garbanzo and asparagus salad? Definitely didn't expect to see that...on any airline, let alone CA! Sounds nice though.

Meal service is a priority for me (on those fortunate occasions I'm sitting up front), but getting gongbao chicken or pretty much anything I reckon they'd serve is beyond underwhelming. Now, if they had a book the (Hunan) chef... did you think the taste of everything on average was decent at least?

ORDnHKG

Btw, the PJ they gave really look like what we chinese called as 中山裝 without the pockets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_suit

cchuang1980

Thanks for the report! I'm happy to see CA is upgrading their services and I know I might start consider flying them in the future ^

aw

Thanks for this intriguing report with great pics. It seems that Chinese carriers in general have been making great improvements on their intl. routes.

Not long ago I read a report on CZ from LAX-CAN and I learned that they offer Bulgari products in their kits. It's nice to see that CA uses L'Occitane, but since this is THE major intl. Chinese carrier, it would be nice to see higher caliber brands like Hermes or at least Bulgari, especially when you know how label conscious Chinese people can be. I loved the menu design and think that it is very representative of the host country. Personally if CA would emulate someone, I think it will be SQ. Your report is very convincing and I might give CA a try in the future.

Yesterday I was at the CA sales office in search of some promotional brochures. The lady went to the back and gave me a 2013 calendar which was unexpected and when I left she thanked me for passing by. I was taken by surprise to find such great service.

SFflyer123

Very impressive product. I never thought it was that good. The seat looks phenomenal. Kind of a cross between SQ and LH's new business product. Makes me want to try Air China now! Do you think this new seat is only on the 777 or do they have it on the 747 also? From SFO, they mainly fly the 747, so I'm wondering if the business class from SFO would look like what you had. Thanks. Great reports

slowly

tommyleo, very nice photos, except too much USM (or whichever technique you use to bring out local contrast) for the cabin shots. Really hurting my eyes…

wheresmybagba

The particular seat is only on the 77W. I think the A332s now all also have a full lie flat product. 747s would have a much inferior product.

ijgordon

It's exactly the same as the BusinessFirst seat on United's pre-merger Continental aircraft. It's a very good seat, the main drawbacks being that not every seat has direct aisle access and the footwells are a little bit narrow in non-bulkhead seats. I think the best J seat in the sky these days is on CX (followed closely by US with a prior generation of the CX seat) or perhaps SQ.

Interesting to see that the catering looked pretty good. I flew CA F on PEK-JFK in 2007, and the food was really quite dismal. And the PEK airport was nothing like those pics... But the seat was good (the same as AA's "Flagship Suite") and the service was friendly and earnest especially considering the language barrier. There should be a trip report either in this forum on the CA forum, though probably no pictures.

spizzy

That looks great. For International routes on the 777 looks like CA is another choice to consider.

aw

According to the brochures that I got, these seats are only on the 777-300ER. This plane started to operate from PEK-LAX in Feb. 2012 and eventually will be deployed on the JFK and SFO routes in early 2013.

CA's 773 has 8 suites in F - 41 flat beds in J - and 259 Y seats. Screen sizes are 23 in. for F - 15 in. for J - 9 in. for Y.

F class is called "Forbidden Pavillion" and J class is "Capital Pavillion". According to the promotional pamphlet, "Wardrobe lockers, central bars, espresso machine, wine coolers, box for small items and ten mood lightning variations are available in first and business class cabins. The first class cabin is also equipped with a luxury washroom." Business seats have a seat pitch of 60 in. and a 180 degree recline.

The entertainment system offers more than 60 movies on demand, 98 music CD's and a variety of games.


CA's A330-200 operates the PEK-YVR route and has two cabins - J with 30 fully flat seats (76 in. pitch) and Y with 200 seats (34 in. pitch). The cabins have been retrofitted with redesigned interiors since the summer of 2011. Both cabins offer AVOD entertainment system with a 15 in. screen in J and a 8 in. one in Y.


Scanned pic of the F cabin on the 773




I believe these are the J seats on the 747's (pls correct if I am wrong)

gradsflyer

Thanks for this report. I've been talking CA's new international product up quite a lot lately since first flying it last spring from PEK to LAX. Now I can link up this thread for more info. Despite CA's poor reputation in the past, the entire product on these new 773ERs is really quite impressive! I was even very satisfied with the Y product. The same great AVOD, two full tasty meals, and spectacular service.

rajsh

Thanks for th report. I'm impressed. In the past I've had my doubts ... But this report may lead me to trying them out.

Circumknowitall

Super report. The Air China product looks good

johnep1

Thank you for posting this. I need to buy a ticket back from China at some point soon and would not have considered Air China until reading this.