I flew SHA-PEK yesterday and was blown away by the plane in question.... partially biased because it was on time (very rare).

Anyway, as many of you know, I'm a 737 fan. But, I ended up on the 330 and was happy as a clam.

The trick (similar to 737) is:

-board last
-grab one of those bulkhead middle seats

F looked much nicer (in contrast to the 737), but not y1200 nicer (I asked about upgrade at check in).

Things I liked:

-amazing leg room
-wide seat
-cool IFE

In closing, that airplane is better than anything operating in the US (domestic) at the moment. In spite of the fact that the food is terrible and delays are frequent, I'll go out of my way to book it in the future.

Ha, moondog and I were just chatting about this earlier today.

In general, with China travel expanding rapidly many airlines are expanding their fleets very rapidly. While in the US if you want to fly an A330, you have to fly to Europe or Asia, in China there are a ton of new A330's running around domestically.

While I haven't flown any of the new MU or CA A330's, I've had a few experiences with the new CZ ones (SHA-PEK, SHA-SZH, SHA-CAN) and they are a gem. Way better than the old 777's they fly or worse the older Airbuses (A6). These new planes are clean, bright, have IFE, and plenty of space (gone are the 10 across days).

moondog, on my A320 flight I did your trick and ended up with Row 4 middle bulkhead. Slightly better than my 14F and since most Chinese aren't as big as the typical American, I had plenty of arm space. I did get the VERY last overhead bin space though...

Good job! The "trick" is almost fool proof.

Good to hear as I have a PEK/HKG on the CA A330 in a few weeks. ^

It's worth noting that there are a few different A330 configurations floating around. The main difference is on the latest deliveries, which are configured with First (international standard, sloped li-flat style seats), with a premium economy cabin starting at row 30 (to row 33) and then standard economy behind that. Premium economy is for full fare Y tickets and they will upgrade lower classes if you ask, if there is room. This is basically like UA Economy Plus (37-38 inches of legroom but otherwise the same as economy, in a separate mini-cabin).

They're getting more of these too - the dreaded 767's and short haul 777's should be getting relegated to secondary domestic routes soon.

So I took an international config'ed

A330-200 from YYZ - PEK

yeah it was lie flat slanted in business...but yeah it was nice.

I was impressed.

so much of the impression of an airline I think is the hard product

AFAIK CA does not fly to YYZ.

Which airline did you fly from YYZ to PEK on an A330?

I think he meant YVR.

House: On the version I flew Saturday, Y started in row 31. If there was a premium economy section, it was not well marked, but the bulkhead had much more than 38" of legroom.

I can't imagine that full Y matters a whole lot to/from Shanghai these days because it seems like more than half the plane is forced to accept such on the popular flights.

The idea of upgrading did cross my mind; I might have bitten if the front cabin had been marketed as "business class" (like it is on similar MU planes).

China Domestic Flights

That's important. Need a comfortable seat to peruse the LV and Prada
catalogs to see where to dump a little foreign currency.

Thanks.

HU (Hainan Airlines) will begin A340 non-stop service between PEK and YYZ in late November, thrice weekly. This will be interesting to watch.

CA used to fly to YYZ using 747 but has withdrawn from the route for many years. Presently, it code-shares with AC on the YYZ to PEK route and AC uses mainly 777. With Canada now with ADS status, I am not surprised if CA will be using its own equipment on this route in the near future as well as other Chinese airlines.

Moondog as always is correct.

I mistyped. Oh....CANAAAADA.

I meant YVR.

And although the comment from Moondog was with respect to domestic flights and my flight was an international one, I was just throwing in that I like in general how CA 330's are configured vs the old school 767 (shudder)

They are nice planes but nothing special. I wouldn't go out of my way to take one. I still prefer the smaller birds domestically and internationally I prefer a stop in HKG when flying from PVG to SYD rather than take one of these slanted beds with old movies, rubber steaks and Dynasty merlot.

They may be nicer than most domestic birds in China but awe inspiring they ain't.

My favorite memory of the 330 is flying PVG-SYD when 2 minutes after takeoff they came on the PA and said..."sorry, we just found out no video for the entire flight, we didn't know about this on the ground, only now we found out" Was a great flight for all

As I mentioned in my OP, I'm a vocal supporter of small planes on domestic routes because they tend to more nimble, especially when ATC issues arise and quick boarding is advantageous.

But, from the perspective of an economy class flyer, I feel compelled to admit that the bulkhead center aisle seats on my Saturday airplane were much nicer than my vaunted pillow seat on the 737.... wider, softer, better contours (legroom effectively unlimited in both cases). And, the IFE, though not AVOD as far as I could tell, was a nice way to pass 2 hours (a big step up from that silly Canadian comedy show that usually runs on the main screens).

Virtual cabin tour of CA's fleet:

http://www.airchina.ca/en/virtualtours/index.html

Although my experience with CA has been solely on their intra-asia regional flights and was always in F/J, I have been very impressed with their services, both on the ground and in the air. It is significantly superior to any North American airlines F and J on routes of comparable distance in North America. I shall be very tempted to fly CA on my next intercontinental trip. At this time, CA has a very attractive business class fare between YVR and PEK and YVR and SHA selling in the low C$3,000, taxes included.