Originally Posted by
moondog
Actually, based on the picture of the economy seat, I'd be willing to strike the "Chinese carrier" qualifier; it just looked nice, period. (Of course, I'm sure you'll be in a much better position to judge after you spend 14 hours in one of those seats.)
BTW, that flight stops in PVG so you might want to do look into doing a stopover if you have time and/or interest.
A little bit clarification on Air China's services to Sydney and Melbourne. Air China actually started its non-stop direct flights (three times per week) between Sydney and Beijing beginning early Dec. while other flights still stop in PVG. Please refer to
this link for Air China's up-to-date China-Australia flight schedules.
In addition, all Air China-operated flights between mainland China and Australia are using CA's own A330s from its Beijing HQ (P.S. Air China Southwest Branch does have a few A330s that lack PTV in Economy Class), which feature full-cabin AVOD system with PTV available to every passenger, more details available
here. In fact, the majority of A330s being used for Air China's flights come from the airline's own fleet.
The very few A330s leased from Dragonair only operate limited domestic flights (Correction: Air China still uses Dragonair A333 on PVG-NRT and v.v. See following posts for further info).