Powers106

I was searching for info on the BKK-Pvg leg of this flight prior to going to the airport, so I thought I'd just add some type of trip report feedback, one that kind of dovetails with the few posts that are out there in the forums already.

Purchased the ticket 1-way (I live in Thailand, US citizen) on the Delta.com and this was the fastest/cheapest ticket = BKK to PVG Shanghai and then onto LAX and PHX. Turns out the first flight is on Shanghai airline since Delta has stopped service to Bangkok and no longer flies via Tokyo-Narita (a shame). Since it is the originating ticket there are problems that arise for the first leg: you cannot check in online, you cannot pick your seat, you cannot get TSA pre-check since check-in via China, etc. there were some other unknowns that I tried to piece together before the flight. I will try to be concise but wished there had been more info on this flight prior, so...

Couldn't check in online from BKK but could select seats on the Delta segments of course. The Shanghai (owned by China Eastern so maybe this flight is alternating between FM and MU) counter is "U" so that is about door 7 or 8 when getting dropped off. I arrived just under 2 hours early, the economy line was quite long but the Sky Priority check-in line had 2 counters and I just had to wait for 1 person to finish up. The checkin lady did not have a seat assignment for me. I had to give her my Skymiles number as it was not entered (but had been on Delta.com obviously as a Diamond booking the flight, even lucky on domestic upgrade so it is in the Delta system but not Shanghai). I had to show my drivers license (other option to type in my address) since it seems Delta not sharing passport info and addresses electronically. The check in was a bit long but smooth. As Diamond I was offered a seat in Y "either first row or second row, window or aisle" but this really meant 31 or 32 rows in economy. But for a full flight that was good enough. They gave me a pass for lounge but it was a pass for the Thai Airways lounge, not SkyTeam AF Lounge or the other one. I think I could have gone to the AF/KLM lounge at "DEF" but just followed with the coupon they gave me. They did give me a Priority Lane pass as a Sky Priority so the security and immigration was easy and close. I got a priority tag on both bags and they were checked through to LAX. The gate was D5, probably the worst non-bus gate at BKK imo due to it just being so darn far away (..from the lounges).

Boarding was fine on Shanghai Airlines. Flightaware was telling me we were leaving late, but in fact we left on time and landed in Shanghai about 5 minutes late. But I get ahead of myself.

The seats were okay but it is an old airplane. There are not any video monitors in seatbacks in Y but they do have in C. They are super strict about shutting off phones .. forget flight mode, it is off and it is off. Ipads are okay or similar, but no phones allowed. My Bose NC headphones with a light indicated for battery visible and wearing all the time were fine. The Chinese girl next to me who dared turn on her phone was reprimanded and there is also a "Chinese Security announcement before you fly" so they are pretty serious about "phones in Off position". The food sucks. I can eat a lot of different things but this was truly bad. If you don't eat beforehand, bring something along. The meal was butter pack, chicken pepper and egg rice and mystery, and green apple balsamic vinegar salad and some sort of brown-gray flan with orange shredding on top. All plastic cutlery, no knifes. They do serve alcohol! I got a small, small glass of wine and then even got an end of bottle refill (about 1/4 of the cup) they don't care at all about the service so take what you can get. About 2 minutes before they came to collect trays (this is the type of airline that lets trays sit for 1 hour before coming back for anything) they brought out some bread rolls. 1 word, avoid. They don't have pillows on the seats but stuff them all into the bins then try to dig them out as people request them. Did I say the food was bad, really, don't go into the flight hungry unless you bring your own food.

So we did depart pretty much on time despite flightaware saying opposite, that was quite good. Uneventful trip especially no entertainment and no phones even in flight mode, the phones must be turned OFF. So bring other entertainment, even an ipod or ipad. 4 hour flight. Arrived a few minutes late, but taxi-ing wasn't bad to terminal 1. So then you de-bord for a bus ride. It is a long bus ride. Stay on the LEFT side of the bus if you want to be first off. Then it is fairly well marked for Transit passengers and just some comments here to tie into other threads. You come out of the bus, go up an escalator and the line splits into 2 as you do a health temperature screening as you walk by, then you go LEFT and not toward the passport lines. There is a screener here who puts you into lines for passport transit control, before you reach security. I don't know the rhyme or reason for which line you get dropped into or why some people only get a sticker and others don't (I didn'), but I don't think there was any Sky Priority, but they "may" have tried to drop USA passport holders into the same line that seemed to move a bit faster. More data needed on that. They have a bank of automated passport readers that was cordoned off. Follow the red lines on the floor and you will be fine. By the time you get to the passport control (it does take about 1 minute per person), you get a stamp and then turn right and go upstairs escalator to security.