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!

Ausriver

If you have to choose one from MU & CA, just pick one with the best schedule (assuming price will be similar).

Only difference might be if you flying MU, you will most likely to be transmitting thru PVG, which will be closer to most Asian cities and Australia.

ProleOnParole

I've only flown CA of the two, and it was between Asia and Europe.

On A332 long-haul, the seat was exactly the same as EK (which I would usually fly these days), same IFE screen too. The pitch was decent, again, definitely not worse than EK, and I'm tall.

As for the IFE, I only ever use it for the flight map. This function worked much better than EK, I could choose from several views and even scroll the map freely, as opposed to screens cycling on their own, which is how it works on most airlines. The interface was much snappier and did not freeze or hang up as is common with EK. Didn't look at what content was available but my impression is that non-Chinese options are limited.

On the other hand, the A333 I took did not have individual IFE but those were short-haul flights in my case. IFE content is still accessible through Wi-Fi, so you can use it with your own laptop or perhaps a tablet, although I'm not sure how it works in practice. Note that phone usage is officially banned throughout the flight.

Seats can be preselected but only in the end of the cabin if you want them for free, the others were priced from 50 CNY (regular seats just closer to the front) to 600 CNY (exit row) extra.

OLCI was theoretically available but broken, I was only able to complete it for one of the four flights I had with CA.

Overall, the flights were decent, although 3 out of 4 got did not arrive on time, with 2 of them delayed ~1h each.

The weakest point was the transfer through PEK, which is disorganized and involves significant and unnecessary queueing: it's difficult to believe that T3 is actually a newly-built terminal, considering how little thought went into its design. On the other hand, my impression of PVG when I transferred there was not really any better. I'd generally avoid transferring anywhere in China if I had the choice.

Overall, the cabin and in-flight experience in Y is not bad at all, and likely to be better than AA/DL/UA. However, considering the unpleasantness of transferring in PEK, the potential for delays and IRROPS, and that dealing with them would be much more of a PITA due to lower customer service standards, I'd only consider flying on Chinese carriers if the fare is < 50% of the non-Chinese competition.

Also, one more thing to consider, especially when travelling with children: the two times I transferred in PEK, the pollution there was simply out of control. The smell of burned coal (as in a building that's on fire) could actually be felt as soon as the plane started its descent. It's difficult to believe people actually live in such conditions. I would be reluctant to transfer there again and definitely wouldn't want to take children there just for this reason.

headingwest

Bumping up this old thread.

I've never flown Air China before, do they serve alcoholic drinks in economy longhaul?

LapLap

Yes.
Wine and beer.

headingwest

Thank you for the quick reply LapLap ^

airplane police

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.

mlin32

Going to bump this old thread. Haven't flown to the mainland in 15 years, so dont know what's changed.

Thinking of taking a trip at year-end to the mainland China, looking at MU versus CA in paid Y. I don't have yet necessarily a preference to go to Shanghai or Pékin; will probably visit other cities domestically anyway.

However, looking at fares ex-EU in Y, MU is consistently 600-800 EUR more expensive for a round-trip ticket than CA. Despite my inclination to fly Skyteam (thus MU), that's not really worth the extra baggage allowance, Skypriority, and lounge access I would be entitled to.

Is there something I'm missing that somewhat justifies such a large price differential for MU ? Or what makes CA so much less expensive ?

plunet

Whilst general aviation is getting back to normal, capacity and fares to/from China is all over the place due to the middle kingdom's delayed exit from COVID lockdowns and the country effectively being out of bounds for most foreigners for 3 years. Additionally there's some politically self-imposed capacity constraints between the US and China, and there's also the added complication that western carriers avoid Russian airspace which adds time/cost whereas Chinese carriers do not have that restriction.

It's hard to tell if some patience may see prices equalise out to give some better parity between MU and CA... There is pent up demand and limited supply still, along with the added bonus of a logjam of visa applications

moondog

I would argue that MU is definitely better than CA now even though this definitely wasn't the case 20 years ago. Their widebody planes are downright nice and the narrow-body fleet is decent enough. Food is fine and free wifi (that doesn't always work). Shanghai Airlines (their subsidiary) isn't so good now, though, and it's easy to mistakenly book FM flights because most, if not all, also have MU flight numbers. 9C (Spring) and HO (Juneyao) also both operate flights from PVG and SHA. Many people dislike 9C because the seats don't recline, but I personally like them them (very friendly staff and their fares are often dirt cheap).

That having said,, I certainly would not pay an extra 600 euros for MU over CA. Odds are that fares will drop on both of them as more flights are added so maybe wait into closer to your travel dates to book. They've already come down a lot so far this year.

username

I have not flown either for a long time. My general feeling is that CA vs MU is also kind of like Beijing vs. Shanghai. I find the CA cabin crew more down to earth and warm (Northern Chinese attitude) while MU is more refined (Southern China) and have a little of that Shanghai attitude Kind of like ATL based DL crew vs. EWR based UA/CO crew but in reverse (DL like CA and UA EWR like MU)

LapLap

As has been discussed, whatever the basis is for the price differential you are seeing it isn’t down to the quality of the service.
From my own vantage point which observes flights between London and Tokyo, I’ve been seeing the opposite of what you’ve observed; MU (and ZH) offering affordable Economy flights where CA’s (when even available) prices are entirely out of reach.

I’ve enjoyed my flights with CA and MU, both companies delivered everything that mattered to me as a parent travelling with a child. Even my last experience, an aborted trip via Chengdu in March 2020, I am entirely satisfied with as Air China provided a cancellation and full refund in keeping with the circumstances. A huge relief given the horror stories of obtaining refunds from European legacy carriers that were abundant at the time.
Hopefully, CA are still providing self-service sandwiches and other snacks to economy pax along with some drinks in the galley in between meal times. There are other airlines which don’t.
Only caveat I have is don’t order a child meal with CA.

ETA - there’s an active thread in the BA forum about densification of the B777s where the previously standard 9 across configuration in Economy has been changed to 10 across. CA lagging behind MU in terms of modernisation of the interiors might actually make the flights at the back of the plane more comfortable in CA.