I flew China Eastern this past week - JFK-PVG-SIN and return, in economy. I booked the flights through an OTA. Was not able to make seat selection in OTA booking process ’stick’ however I had written down my desired seats. I looked up the MU US based customer service number and called the day after booking, and was able to get the seats I had previously targeted.

I was not able to get the premium selection seats in economy like exit row however. DL status didn’t matter to the person I spoke with.

Prior to 24 hours before each flight, I was not able to login to the MU website to manage my booking. Customer Service confirmed I had the correct ticket number and could not tell me why the website would not let me log in. I think this may be because I booked through an OTA. It could also be issues with their website, which was also down about a quarter of the time I tried to access it.

Since I was not able to manage my booking online, I could not reserve for Wi-Fi access in advance. However this turned out to be a non-issue. There appears to be no limitation on the number of Wi-Fi ‘seats’ (or perhaps for whatever reason a lot of people weren’t trying to use it... though everyone sitting around me appeared to be).

Of the 4 flight segments I was on through PVG airport, 3 operated from the new satellite terminal S1. It is big and so far isn’t very crowded though I expect that will change a lot in the next year. There are two MU lounges on S1, 119 and 137. I was told that 137 was for F & J pax. As an economy passenger with Sky Priority status, I was told to go to 119. I do not know what 137 is like. 119 is much smaller than the lounge on T1, with fewer food and seating options as well. There are long group tables in the middle of the lounge, and two alcoves on either end of the lounge with lounge chairs and electrical ports. On one end of the lounge there is a small porch that I think if open would provide access to a sky deck, though it was chained and locked when I was there. Also inside the lounge is a long bar, though there were no employees staffing it when I was there and it was just used for overflow seating. there are also two small bathrooms and one or two showers though I did not use the showers.

MU boards Sky Priority pax first with F and J pax. So that experience was consistent with and perhaps a little better than Delta given that I board behind F and J when on DL metal.

My DL number, which I had provided to the OTA, did print out on my boarding passes. On the DL app, each segment showed up 2 to 3 days after with “still processing” (and all 0’s). 2 to 3 days after that, the MQM‘s & MQD’s etc posted properly.

The seats on my flights appear to have a standard and definitely not generous seat pitch. The seat cushion seemed slightly harder than on other airlines. We were provided a blanket and a pillow, but no sleep mask and no earplugs. There are also no foot rests in economy. (So, very different from my experience on China Southern.) we did have individual seat back entertainment but selections were much more limited than on DL and I supplemented with content I already had on my iPad.

hopefully this information is helpful to anyone planning to fly MU in the near future!

I would fly MU again. Hopefully I will find a good deal in F or J though!