Originally Posted by
fallinasleep
I'm considering China Eastern and Air China for a possible trip between Asia and Europe or Oceania. I've never flown any of the Chinese carriers long haul (I have flown them domestically and intra-Asia and didn't mind it), but their fares are just so much lower...
I've read the past ten pages of threads on this forum plus searched here and on youtube but still have the most basic of questions (my apologies!)
My general sense is that economy is fine on the newer planes, inasmuch that one can survive economy for 12-16 hours, although most of the comments are from folks who normally fly U.S. carriers.
For those who have flown both (or even one of these two airlines), how would you rate them? In particular, I'm interested in
General seat comfort (width, pitch)
Ability to secure advanced seat assignments
OLCI functionality
Hub connections
IFE (particularly interested in the options for kids)
How frequent are aircraft swaps
Are there any particular planes to avoid?
My preference is to fly Air China, assuming the fare is eligible for some credit on either Singapore or United, but then I saw that they have a 3-3-3 configuration on their Dreamliner... Then I read a report where someone mentioned that there wasn't any individual IFE on the China Eastern A330 (although I'm pretty sure there is individual IFE on at least some of their A330s).
Thanks!
I recently flown air china on the boeing 777. I find all chinese carriers to be the same. But they are pretty good.
On the short haul planes, the seat pitch is 29-31 in, which is average, but the long haul planes pitch is 32 which is good. Better than us/euro carriers. You can select seats, but they are pretty difficult because their websites suck. But it is free to select seats. OLCI mabye is possible, never tried it though. But check in is so simple, just hand your passport or id. Beware that chinese airports always have delays, so set at least 2+ hour connections. Ife is seriously on the chinese side, so not much western stuff, probably only 4 western movies. idk about airplane swaps.
3-3-3 on the 787 actually isnt bad, i tried it on a long haul VS flight. It is true that many air china and china eastern a330s do not have entertainment, but some do have your own tvs.