bangkokiscool

Pop Quiz: which Asian-based carrier operates 77W aircraft on North American routes with a growing route network, 6 seats in First with no overhead bins, and reverse herringbone seats in business class with a private mini-cabin? If you answered Cathay Pacific you'd be spot on. And if you answered China Eastern, you'd be right as well! Other than some finishes and colors, you might confuse the two aircraft these two carriers fly. Hard product aside, though, there's really not much to compare between these companies.

Reverse herringbone seat:



Mini cabin:


Note: on both outbound and inbound sectors, the mini-cabin was blocked and could only be assigned at check-in. It was therefore also empty, which was great for privacy. It was also nice because I could ask the FAs to keep the temperature at a cool temperature, since I'm really afraid of hot cabins on Asian carriers except CX and SQ. I'm not sure why MU blocks passengers from requesting these seats. From what I could tell First class was basically not operational on either flight.

My flights on MU's business class were between YYZ and PVG, a long 14+ hour flight in both directions. A note about check-in at YYZ: They were selling upgrades to business class for CAD$800 and there appeared to be frew takers. And they were being really strict about carry-on, insisting that all bags be weighed and anything over the ridiculous 10kg weight limit had to be checked.

Here's are the highlights of the trip:

Amenity kit contents include socks, eyeshade, and earplugs. Nothing to write home about or keep, but adequate. Toothbrush/toothpaste also provided, and extras available in the bathroom.





The headphones provided are absolutely worthless. In addition to being of the lowest quality possible, they are not the right connection to the seat so the only way to get both channels of audio is to slowly pull the plug just right outside of the fully seated position and hope that it doesn't get jostled. A big fail on this.



Menus were distributed. It was odd for two reasons. One, the menu appears to be used for multiple months, and you have to select the right tab to find the right menu. Second, menus were taken away immediately after orders were taken, so there was no way to remember what dish was being served. It seems awfully stingy to try to save a few RMB on printing menus.



Seasoned duck on Paris toast canape. Pretty yummy:


Grilled shrimp and raisin salad. This only tasted OK:



Seabass with lemon caper sauce. This was awful. It was drowning in butter and I felt like throwing up after half of it.



Fruit plate:



Rock hard ice cream:



And here's a picture of my entree on the return flight. This was pretty awful too:



Service was robotic but fast. One thing I noticed was that FAs were fastidious about cleaning a bathroom after it was used. Those of you who have been to China know that mainland Chinese bathroom customs leave much to be desired, so I appreciated that the bathrooms were always clean.

The IFE was half-baked. There was a limited selection of movies, and quality was good if you could get the headphones working. Other parts of the IFE were strange, such as the inflight menu selection that seemed to suggest a la carte food ordering but was clearly not operational. There was a kindle-like reading function too, but it only contained samples of books, not full-length versions.

The worst part about the outbound flight, though, was being woken up by cigarette smoke. MU flight crews are notorious for smoking in flight and it's pretty obnoxious. Thankfully the return trip was smoke-free.

Bottom line: business class is all about the seat. In that regard, China Eastern has a fine, world-class product on the 77W. Bring your own headphones, bring your own inflight entertainment, bring your own food and drink, and avoid the mini cabin unless you want to take a chance of smelling cigarette smoke during the flight.

UAL250

Thanks for the great TR. Sounds like China Eastern isn't too impressive. Those headphones are pathetic for J.

bangkokiscool

Thanks. On the other hand, on this particular route (YYZ-PVG) the roundtrip price in paid business is about $600 more than paid coach, so it's hard to complain when the value is that strong. Now, on a more expensive route like JFK or (soon to be ORD), I'd be a lot more disappointed with the product that's not competitive with any other carrier including UA and DL and AA (unless it's AA angled flat which still takes the award for most uncomfortable way to cross the pacific in business).

Madone59

Thanks for the TR! MU isn't one we see often.

AvidFlyer1990

Awesome TR! Thanks for the great report of MU, especially in their J-class (the cabin that I am very interested in!).

MU looks like a decent option, especially if the price is right. Also, having moved from Group 3 to Group 1 in DL accrual charts recently, I am even more tempted to try 'em out!!

Questions:

1. How was their soft product?
2. How was their hard product?
3. Sleep comfort?
4. Any buy-up offers to F?
5. Were you connecting in PuDong (PVG)? If yes, how much time did you leave in between the connecting flights (Chinese ATC's are notorious for delays)? Did the flight arrive on-time?

Thanks! And keep 'em coming!

bangkokiscool

Soft product is just OK. It's way below SQ CX NH OZ or KE, but probably on par with other China-based carriers. As I mentioned, catering leaves a lot to be desired.

Sleep comfort on these seats is well documented. In short, it's excellent. MU doesn't provide any bedding other than a pillow and duvet, which were both fine.

I was connecting in PVG for both outbound and inbound, to NKG. There were no delays in spite of crummy (rainy) weather. The flight to NKG is very short, on a 319 with winglets. Domestic first was fine, with a fruit plate "or cake" as food options (I have no idea what that was). Service on the short domestic flight was lovely and friendly, it was just the Transpac sector that was rather cold.

No buy-ups to F. If I had to guess, I would say MU doesn't really have a clue about what F should be like. The seats look great, similar to KE or OZ F suites, but I highly doubt the food or drink will be anything close to world-class. F cabin was empty on both my flights.

One word about connecting in PVG - the MU lounges are pretty terrible. Think CX lounge in old MNL terminal, only bigger. Truly one of the worst lounges I have been in. Poor temperature (super hot or not heated at all), shabby and tired furniture, unusable wifi, dirty and old restrooms, and very very mediocre food and drink selection. The CA lounges are much cleaner and nicer in PVG.

AvidFlyer1990

Thanks so much for your detailed answer. Good to know that you weren't affected by the ATC delays!

Have been to the CA lounge, and was pretty underwhelmed. If you are saying that the MU lounge is worse compared to the CA one, I can only imagine how it'll be!

I wouldn't pay something weird for an F buy-up, but if it was around $500 (unlikely, but you never know), I'd pay that just for the hard product (read: undisturbed sleep due to F being empty; and probably for the 'F' miles, but again, one has to be highly careful as to what those buy-up re-issued tickets books into)!

SYDSiderFlyer

Thanks for the report, nice looking cabin with the colours and can't go wrong with the reverse herringbone seats. On these carriers, I would order their local Asian dishes and play to their strengths, their western option as you mentioned didnt look great.

Denolloyd

Many thanks for the report. I have a trip coming up on MU in J, and will be traveling SIN-PVG-JFK. The hard product does indeed look to be solid. Pity about the meals. My trip is in March, maybe there will be some improvement by then .

Curious, did they offer a mid-flight snack?

fly747first

And the food! Yucky!!!!!

TOMFORD

Nice, are the seats leather? They look nice.

carrotjuice

Is smoking midflight still allowed these days? This is so passe. Wouldn't you complain to the chief crew member?

kaka

the chinese in the cockpit always smoke there.

watch out as you may vanish if you complain about those who happens in First.

supermintyfresh

Not a problem in MU Y #firstclassproblems

EchoVictor

The one question I have... which should be an absolute rule for all trip reports: What kind of Champagne or "champagne" was served on the route?