I flew MU in Business Class a few days ago from PVG-HKG on an A321 and was reasonably impressed.

I was buying a walk-up ticket (issues with a Cathay flight) and the agent at the ticket desk spoke solid English and had me on my way in 5 minutes, no issues. Checked in, cleared security/immigration, went to the lounge at Gate 21 - agreed that there are issues here; very small, kids running around, limited food, wifi didn't work great, but it was better than sitting at the gate.

A321 was fine, menu was presented to us before departure (we didn't get to keep it) and had the option of steak (which I had, was average for a plane); seatmate had pork with steamed rice, there was also a shrimp noodles option. OJ/Water in a glass before departure served, as well as a hot towel service on the ground. Once in the air, drinks were delivered with a hot towel, then another hot towel before the meal was delivered. Meal came with a salad, roll, and a small piece of cake for dessert. Meal was solid, I've had a lot worse on planes. Large pillow and blanket were at the seat, and my glass was filled all flight. Lead FA spoke very good English, so no communication issues. I'd fly them again for the right price.

Thanks
 

Thanks to everyone for the comments. Most, most helpful.

My experience flying in China, but never to China on a Chinese airline, is that things are still rather rough. This is still, to a great extent, a developing country. Some of the internal flights are rough because many flyers are not yet sophasticated flyers. They do not know yet how to be polite, polite in the Asian sense.

I recall you had a bad experience with DL misapplying these rules a while back. Has the situation persisted - e.g. when was the last time you were denied boarding using them? Was it a one time occurrence or has it been a repeat problem?

I've been successful with TWOV, so it's possible that things have improved since your visit. But I don't have any recent data because I now hold a 10-year PRC visa...

I've flown quite a few times because of business needs in China. MU is definitely better than described, especially if you sitting up front and not in economy, which naturally and mostly made out of Chinese Px. In a strange way, I actually thought MU is better than DL especially for PVG-bound flights. No sure if this was just a bad day for OP...

Than closer you sit to the front, than more the smoke from the cockpit is likely to bother you though, if you happen to get a chain smoking pilots/crew.

For me, that is the biggest negative of flying MU. Frequently (but this is a few years ago) smoking crew, as in 50%+ of time on int'l flights (wouldn't know about domestic). Even in the middle (Y) in A330 the smoke from the front drifted in... ugh.

Food and service and seating are good to excellent, but the chain smoking crew I just can't stand. Some just can't wait and light up literally the moment the plane takes off the ground. I still remember the MU A330 flying over Waikiki about 1-2 min after lift-off in HNL and already blue smoke filling the front cabin.

Really?! I thought Chinese airlines ban smoking. I remember seeing it in the safety video, in both English and Chinese.

I like DL but I have been on some really old aircrafts with signs of things are starting to break. MU's fleet is much much younger and a lot of brand new Airbus planes.

DL = re-define old = retirement old FAs + retired aircrafts brought back to service + new coat of paint

Yes, it's banned for pax (and of course crew), but it doesn't stop the crew from lighting up in the cockpit or the lavatories.

Hopefully now the Chinese authorities and/or MU are cracking down on it. Before it seemed like the crew can smoke anytime they want, despite the cabin being filled up with disgusting blue smoke (ugh) as a result. I felt that it's such a shame that the new A330s with the some of the best in SkyTeam J seating (MU 33Es) are made smelly with cigarette smoke from the pilots/crew lighting up so frequently while in flight.

But, that was a few years ago. As no more new reports of that recently, hopefully this is no longer the case on MU. I sure hope so! Seeing no more recent reports of that will make me stop avoiding MU, as I have been since several very smoky flights.

I've been on several MU flights since taking my first from SYD back about 6 months ago. I can say I've never seen or smelled smoke in flight. I've only used them for long haul flights, so don't know on others, but every longhaul has been fine. YYZ/JFK-PVG/PVG-SYD/AKL multiple times in J. Can't beat the 777 seating, and especially 777 F when you get upgraded.

Took a total of 10 MU flights this year. Smoking is not a concern.

Having visited DL's TechOps, I would hands down fly a 30 year old plane maintained by DL rather than a 5 year old plane maintained by any Chinese airline (or almost any other airline for that matter).

OP here. I think you're right - it was a bad day. But that's one of DL's greatest strengths - how they handle "bad days".

On the flight into PVG from LAX, things were generally OK. Food was pretty good (though odd service/practices as described). Seats were great once I added a blanket as a cushion and wiped down some of the filth. IFE was also great save the restarting issue as described. So if my experience were solely based on LAX-PVG, I'd likely consider flying MU again.

But the way back was so incredibly awful that it would take a lot to chance it again. The amount of stress, anger, frustration, and sweat that I endured made me promise never to do it again. I honestly don't know what I would have done had I not met someone who spoke Mandarin. And had DL not come to my rescue on clothing reimbursement, I would have been out $150 as well.

Lastly, I did not experience any smoking in the cabin as others described on any of the 3 flights I took on MU (LAX-PVG, TPE-PVG-JFK).

I will say this, out of SkyTeam alliance partner in China, I prefer China Eastern over China Southern. China Southern has no concept of Sky Priority or boarding by zone. Once they say time to board, a hoard of people rush to the boarding gate with no line and the GA won't say anything. If you think DL's boarding process is messy, go check out China Southern in Guangzhou or Shenzhen, it's truly chaotic. I have seen MU improved continuously... and can rival DL.

For the comment about DL maintenance, I have been to the techop center... Unlike car shops, large aircraft maintenance organization are all fairly competent. Personally, I rather fly a brand new or near new Airbus proven-model on MU, then a brought back to life 30yr 757 or 767 with an attempt of retrofit. I have seen AVOD and lighting system issue on virtually every single DL flight that I started taking pictures of the AVOD system issue and keeping a journal on it.

I have a collection of lovely Linux kernal-panic error screens on DL's AVOD. This happen so often, the announcement that the crew will reboot the AVOD system seems like a part of normal routine now. If DL can't even fix the AVOD and lighting system, can you imagine the hidden issues that we dont get to see?!

I flew MU business class coming back from Bangkok last month. I don't want to beat a dead horse but every part of the experience needs improvement with the exception of the actual seat on the 777-300. I would like to note that I would rather have hung out in the airport bathroom than the MU lounge. What an awful place.

What I have seen of MU business class fares - for the most part, they are bargain-basement. In life, one tends to get that for which one is willing to pay. Really? The bathroom> than the MU lounge? The gate 21 lounge at PVG is NOTHING to write home about, but the bathroom?

There might be a little hyperbole in there. :D

I should have also stated that I would fly them again for what I paid. Had I paid cash for the ticket I would have been upset but for 70,000 Delta points it was a great deal. (Lounge and all)