Leverage

Thanks for the info everyone. PVG Lounge it is

Thunderroad

I'm flying China Eastern next month RT in J, SFO-PVG-MNL. I've read through the last several pages in this thread, but still have a few questions:

1. I've seen reports here and in other threads about cigarette smoke from the cockpit, in the J mini-cabin. Right now I'm in row 9 (window) both TPAC legs, which is second row in the main J cabin. A better choice for avoiding smoke? Or should I move even further back?
2. For PVG-MNL, do I assume correctly that the second of the two rows (7) is better by virtue of not being a bulkhead?
3. Any other seating advice?
4. How is the IFE?
5. I saw one trip report about being diverted to the other Shanghai area airport because of smog/fog. On the off chance that happens to me, should I just get a taxi rather than relying on MU to get me to PVG? And if so, about how much would it cost?
6. I assume I'm not alone in finding the MU website really glitchy, with lots of disconnects when trying to move to a new page, right? If not, any tricks for avoiding the glitches?
7. Any other advice is welcome.

Thanks!

tth6133

Potential delay at PVG is a problem but cigarette smoke is over-dramatized (it was an issue once-upon-a-time). Diversion to SHA is highly unlikely for a TPAC flight. If it were to happen, in addition to MU-provided ground transportation, you have the option taking a taxi and/or Didi (probably under US$40), or taking the No. 2 subway (which is likely faster and costs a lot less: about US$1.50).

Bub001

[QUOTE=Thunderroad;28577409]I'm flying China Eastern next month RT in J, SFO-PVG-MNL. I've read through the last several pages in this thread, but still have a few questions:

1. I've seen reports here and in other threads about cigarette smoke from the cockpit, in the J mini-cabin. Right now I'm in row 9 (window) both TPAC legs, which is second row in the main J cabin. A better choice for avoiding smoke? Or should I move even further back?


I wouldn't stress too much about the smoking....there's a couple of fanatics who obsess about it...,it's clearly not an actual problem. Relax and enjoy.

Thunderroad

Thanks very much, tth and Bub!

exwannabe

To some extent you have to realize that they have different sites for various combinations of location and language. They are not just all locales of the same site.

If you can read Mandarin, just use the main site. If English, then any of:

US/En
HK/En
Main/En

Might work. And sometimes it drops into the mobile version which has never worked for me.

Once I pulled up the Chrome debugger to try and see what was going on, and that helped me a bit (though you likely need to understand html5 to make use of that).

Oh, It might be device dependent also.

The best advice I can give for using their website is to get a very comfortable seat someplace where you can order plenty of cheap drinks :-)

Thunderroad

Thanks for this info, exw! Good to know.

I would think one would need a drink after dealing with the MU website rather than during it, but YMMV.

MegatopLover

Yes, avoid the bulkhead row on narrowbody aircraft. Terrible legroom. Second row much better.

When we diverted to SHA, there were a few diverted widebodies but most seemed to get in and out of PVG that morning. As for getting from SHA to PVG, my strong advice would be to not rely on MU but rather take things into your own hands. The total lack of organization by MU on the transfer made things exponentially more stressful. Withdraw some yuan and take a taxi. Worth it for your stress level. We might have even made our connection if we had done that.

Thunderroad

Thanks, ML.

Leverage

Referring to the A321s? Changing my seat now for next week ^

jpdx

I made the mistake of including MU on a business class Round-the-Word ticket. The Skyteam RTW site is a huge improvement over the old-fashioned, cumbersome, TA-based RTW booking process -- you can actually put together a RTW, and get it ticketed instantaneously -- however, the website doesn't warn you, "remember that Skyteam has some questionable members, and even though we offer a 95 minute connection in PVG for your HKG-SYD trip, that's really not the way you want to play this."

I was blissfully ignorant of the drama that would unfold when I checked in around 1pm at the Airport Express Kowloon station for my 3.55pm MU flight to PVG. All the usual apps showed the flight on time, so I was a bit surprised when the agent told me, your flight is late, why don't you rush to the airport on the next train and try to get on the delayed noon flight (now 2.40pm-ish). I foolishly assumed that he had rebooked me on that flight, but when I got to the airport, I was told that no seats were available.

I checked in for my flight and dropped off my luggage. I decided (again, foolishly) to go to the gate and try to stand by for the earlier flight. The agent at the gate told me that the flight is full and that I should try the next one. I went to the Skyteam lounge for a bit, and since my 3.55pm flight now showed a 6pm departure time – which would jeopardize my connection in PVG – started looking at rebooking options. It turns out the Skyteam lounge doesn’t offer this service; you have to go to the airline services desk, which is outsourced to a contractor. These people write hundreds of food/beverage vouchers a day, but it didn’t feel like they’ve ever rebooked anyone. I went back to a MU boarding gate to try to get on an earlier (delayed) flight – the agent told me it was full, and in any case, they were just boarding and had no idea when they would actually leave. I now realize – after finding the various threads on FT – that 4+ hour delays are not at all uncommon for HKG-PVG/PEK routes. I realized that there was no help to be expected from MU airside, so I looked at other options – CI through TPE and GA through CGK would have been available and would have gotten me to SYD a few hours later than planned (and given that I was on a revenue RTW ticket, these are flights I could have booked in the first place). The problem is, nothing can be done airside at HKIA, and you can’t go back landside. Phone calls and pleas with various staff lead nowhere, so long story short, I finally boarded my MU flight around 6.45pm and it took off a little after 8pm.

In PVG, we landed during a massive downpour, took a scenic tour of the airport, and parked at a remote stand. The flight attendants were apologetic and handed out paper towels to business class passengers. Of course, by the time we reached the shuttle bus, all of us were soaked.

I entered the terminal and went to the transfer desk – my flight to SYD was obviously gone. There were 4 staff, but only one was engaged in re-booking passengers who had missed connections. The standard seemed to be to put passengers on the next MU flight, and no amount of arguing made any difference. Not that there are particularly great options for getting from PVG to SYD at 11pm, but there would have been some slightly better ones than spending an entire day in PVG, and getting in a full 24 hours late. The rebooking process took about an hour, and this didn’t even involve getting hotel vouchers – those require standing in another line after baggage claim. Better airlines would of course greet affected passengers right off the plane with revised travel plans and vouchers, but not MU. In fact, the entire process seems designed to make things as complicated as possible, the mantra of the employees is: why don’t you go talk to someone else? I finally found myself at baggage claim a good hour after landing, and to my surprise, all my fellow passengers were still standing there and not a single bag had arrived. I finally received my bag about an hour and a half after landing (first off the belt!), and after looking at the hotel/voucher line, decided to skip it and get my own hotel.

I got a good night of sleep at the Hongta, spent a lovely day in Shanghai, and returned to PVG around 6pm for my 8.20pm flight. At the business class check-in, the agent asked me, “your flight was yesterday, why didn’t you take it?” I was a little dumbfounded. She attempted some phone calls and because she couldn’t reach whoever she was trying to call, told me I’d have to go to the ticketing desk. I went there, stood in line, talked to someone who told me I’m good to go after a few keystrokes. I had her call the check-in agent, and she explained what the problem was – apparently, the agent the prior night had forgotten to reissue the ticket (???). After all I’d been through with MU, this hiccup seemed pretty minor, and I soon found myself in the lounge and indeed on the way to Sydney shortly thereafter.

The in-flight services were decidedly mediocre – food barely edible, amenity kit weak – but that barely bears mentioning; this story is about the incredibly poor customer service and handling of irrops. I’d say it would take a significant price difference to make me fly MU again, and I’d be very careful with PVG connections from HKG in summer. And needless to say, if you have alternative options (like I would have had with my Skyteam RTW ticket), any Skyteam carrier will be a better choice than MU.

YuropFlyer

You book a connection that ANYONE on FT would have considered "risky", then you actually get fairly decent service (1hr from touchdown to baggage claim, 1hr30min to get the baggage when on irrops isn't really that bad in my books when you've to consider getting TWOV approved, baggage loaded out manually, etc.)

Sorry mate, I totally understand your frustration, but you seemed to have really overreacted. If you're on Non-Airline tickets (like your RTW ticket is), it's ALWAYS hard to change flights inbetween, especially with delays taking on. And as you admit, they fixed all the problems fairly quick when they come up.

The world isn't perfect, and I can't see MU having done many things wrong. Flights from HKG to PVG indeed often gets delayed (weather being one reason, and with the current world situation very understandable airforce training another) so if you book a tight connection via PVG, it's kinda your fault. If you book a connection via any US airport, valid on MCT, you're almost guaranteed to miss it too, with the boarder guards holding you up for many hours...

Sorry, but most if not almost everything of your rant is VERY standard practice among many airlines, and I've seen MUCH worse.

Again, 1hr30min after landing, re-united with your baggage, your flight situation cleared (even if it needed a few seconds to clarify next day..) - I can't see much bad about it.

Also, maybe you don't speak Chinese, so you didn't liked the service that much? If a Chinese person flying Delta doesn't get good service because the staff doesn't speak perfect Mandarin or the IFE doesn't show all movies in Mandarin, should he complain as well?

Keep avoiding MU and let others enjoy this airline which has improved a lot and seems to be - contrary to most airlines in the world - continuing to do so.

There are MUCH worse airlines within Skyteam than MU..

Kiwi Flyer

Indeed misconnection risk is a reason I have half a day in PVG for an upcoming trip. I considered the alternative 2:20 MU-MU connection to be a risk and any misconnect loses a day anyway due to limited options to my destination.

Bub001

I hear the frustration of the delayed passenger a couple of posts up. Maybe this is teachable moment. MCTs are useful for airlines; the clue for passengers is in the title...MINIMUM. I once followed this on a Domestic-International (same carrier)....90 minutes. Departing plane was late. Even though the international was held for us, it was SOOOO stressful, I never want to do it again. I was travelling in J, but still had an awful long haul flight I because of the experience. My rule of thumb is to double the MCT for Dom-Dom...and treble it when Internationsl are involved. I am happy to spend time in airport lounges and board in a chilled frame of mind. I have an Int-Int double long haul coming up. I could have chosen a 3:30 connection. I've chosen a 20 hour one...a chance to get out of the airport, walk around, be a tourist for a few hours, then come back to the airport, shower, eat have a drink then get on the flight and have a sleep. Baring a catastrophe, I don't have to worry about connections and can enjoy my trip.

aero0729

[QUOTE=Bub001;28577927]The smoking is an actual issue. If you hate cigarette smoke then you don't want to be on a plane for 14 hours with no way to escape it. I have only experienced 1 China Easteen flight that was smoke free. After my trip last year I pledged never to fly them again then When I missed my LAX-PVG DL flight connection I got placed on China Eastern . I can report that on 4/5 flights with them it's smoke from take off to touch down. This is not a small issue. I was in 2nd to last row business and the smoke was very pungent. If you are bothered my cigarette smoke it's way worse on a plane and there is no escaping it. China Eastern should be banned from flying to the US in my opinion. Smoking should never be allowed on planes anymore. They need to find pilots who aren't chain smokers to fly their planes. There are plenty out there.