From the worst CA flight to the best. I've had better Premium Economy flights than that last leg on the ageing B777, but this next leg on a refitted A330 is truly a world class product.

Beijing airport is moden, large, clean and security concious. My transit from the ARN flight involved 3 security points and associated red stamps on my boarding pass:



In the public terminal power comes from the ground:



and Free WiFi connects the hearts (provided you have a passport):



The Business Class lounge is directly above a Pizza Hut and Starbucks:



You can see my discussion on the lounge on my previous stop here, but this time I was staying in the lounge for most of the day so I got to try the dining room, which was really quite good and is open from 11am to what looks like 7pm (either my handwriting or my eyes are getting worse. Probably both.)

There's plenty of spirits, beer and soft drink but previous little wine (and only Greatwall at that) and only 2 toilets, so it's easier to go outside to the public toilets which are clean and plentiful.

I headed to the gate and saw A330 B-6079 in the standard CA colours.



But inside - what a difference! This is a massive improvement over all previous CA flights with a 170 degree lay flat bed, but I didn't notice that it wasn't horizontal. Big TV screen, AVOD with the same poor selection of movies.



Very cool table design, 2-2-2 configuration with 3 rows in the main cabin and 2 behind the galley. There was plenty of space and storage.





By the time boarding was complete the business cabin was 100% full.



L'Occitane amenity kits were handed out, and they're pretty well equipped (CA beats SQ on at least one front!).



Then menus.







The dinner was served at the usual CA cracking pace followed by a couple of CA sized whiskeys and then some of the best sleep I've had on a plane.

Breakfast service started a sensible 90 mins from landing, but before the lights came on I was amazed at how much noise some people can make in the cabin. One guy insisted upon opening and closing his overhead storage several times and slamming it shut each time.

We landed at 7:45 and I was in a taxi by 8:15. It's hard to complain too much about that.

There were no immigration forms on board, do we had to collect them on the ground just before the immigration queues. It was a bit of a bun fight but lead to a funny incident. I head the immigration officer next to me quizzing her Chinese inbound tourist asking if her spoke Italian. I'm assumine he picked up an Italian form by mistake in the melee and just filled it in following his travelling companion's as a template. I had no desire to hang around and find out the result.