Thunderroad

Just completed my China Eastern SFO-PVG-MNL RT in J. I thought I'd post a mini-review of the experience.

Bottom line: I chose to fly MU because it had the best fare (a great $2250 RT J fare) on dates I wanted (well, actually, I had to fly a day earlier than my idea date to save several hundred $$, but that wasn't really a problem) and because it offered all-aisle access, lie-flat J seats TPAC. On balance, I'm glad I did so. See one caveat at the end, however.

The TPAC J seats: As noted, the TPAC seats were my main consideration along with price. They were fine, though the well for feet and lower legs when lying down is definitely on the tight side.

The PVG-MNL J seats: Pretty standard, though actually more legroom than I'd expected on the outbound where the plane had three J rows instead of two and the pitch was about 45" instead of about 38".

Seat preferences? For TPAC, the J mini-cabin comprising rows 6 and 7 seems preferable in terms of privacy and a bit of ambiance. For the regional travel, the bulkhead J seats seem to have less legroom than those behind them.

Smoking?: I've seen the comments here about pilots' smoking from the cockpit filtering back to the cabin. I didn't smell anything, including while sitting in row 6 (the furthest forward business row).

Service: Ranged from charmless and stiff to friendly though unpolished in the four flights and the lounge. Pretty efficient.

Food: Food was edible and best described as nondescript on the TPAC and not even that on the PVG-MNL regional.

Beverage: FAs clearly have been instructed to just pour a half glass of whatever passes for champagne. Slightly more liberal with the other wine. Readily and quickly provided refills, however, when requested.

IFE: A choice of perhaps 30 or so Western films, including some newer releases like Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Fate of the Furious. Perhaps an equal number of films from other countries. Screens were nothing special but not bad, and were medium sized. Headphones lousy.

Lounge: A somewhat pleasant surprise. Nothing to write home about, kind of just charmless (that word again) and utilitarian, but very big with two large levels. I had long transits each way, spending close to 12 hours in the lounge while going and coming, and it never seemed too crowded. The upstairs area was in fact downright uncrowded and quite quiet. The downstairs has a small, very basic buffet with such unappetizing hot dishes as potato chips in cream sauce, but it included some basic salad and fruit options. It does have a basic noodle bar as well, where the staff dishes out a hot noodle soup and you add some herbs, veggies and/or meat options to it as you like. Nothing like the CX noodle bar, by way of comparison, but IMHO not at all bad and the best option for eating in the lounge. In addition to loads of basic, decently comfortable leather chairs, the upstairs also has about four each of large, reclining lounge chairs and massage chairs. I didn't drink while in the lounge, but it seemed as though the alcoholic choices were there but very limited.

Website: Kind of glitchy and tough to work with, perhaps partly because I booked through a third party travel agent (Vayama) to get the good deal.

Intra-airport transport: Had to disembark on the tarmac both going and coming, but MU did have comfortable vans with seating in them reserved for J passengers and ready when we disembarked.

Caveat re flight cancellations and misconnects: I've seen posts above in this thread about lousy customer service in the event of missed connections, cancellations, etc. My flights went fine and I had plenty of wiggle room in terms of my schedule. But from my impressions of the customer service and online system, I'd be hesitant to rely on MU if I was traveling on a tight business schedule and absolutely had to get re-connected quickly in case of problems.