TandJalliance

My wife and I are on an Air China flight next month in C class JFK-PEK. I have heard some not so posistive reviews about the flight, servive, FA's,AVOD, food etc. Any recent feedback? Thanks!

moondog

People I know who do that route regularly tell me that CO is MUCH better, but it also costs almost twice as much.

Based on my recent tpac biz class flights, I'm inclined to conclude that CX/JL/NH are fast cutting corners, while CA/MU are stagnant, or possibly rising. I would actually rank CO, DL, and AC on par with the Japanese carries (+CX), and UA/AA on par with CA/MU... well, not quite; UA/AA are much less likely to hang you out to dry when their flights have operational problems.

If I had to rank all of the carriers in the market (giving CA and CO extra props for the nonstops), this would be my list:

1) CO
2) CA
3) AC
4) JL
5) NH
6) DL
7) OZ
8) KE
9) UA
10) AA
11) MU

There are probably some"via-Europe" options that fall in the middle, but these tend to be more expensive and many entail long connections.

belfordrocks

If you're on the 744 or the A330/340 you will receive the new lie-flat business product with AVOD.

c1ue1ess88

I've never flown CA internationally, but the food on domestic flights is sub sub par. I flew from Xiamen to Beijing last night, and they offered us a sandwich mid flight. Judging from the shape I thought it would be a hamburger, but alas it was some kind of mushy tuna salad sandwich on hamburger bun with wilted lettuce.

Yuck.....I'd rather starve than eat that again, lol.

toyotaboy95

OP, just note that c1ue1ess88 was flying Economy, not Business but even so, I've found CA Y food to be above average (but very 'Chinese' at times - not necessarily a good thing for people not familiar with Chinese food ). I flew PEK-HKG in Business in August 2010 and their food was quite good (although the steak was a bit overcooked but the salmon/salad appetizer was excellent).

TandJalliance

Thanks for your feedback!!!

wudaokouan

service is great on this flight in C. my only gripe is that i wish they would put more than 2 small cubes of ice in my drink. like in most of China, ice seems to be a commodity on CA flights (both internationally and domestically).

belfordrocks

I think the ice issue applies to other Chinese carriers too- they only put ice on request.

toyotaboy95

Hope it's not too late, I found a link with most of the things you need to know (entertainment, food, seat etc.) - http://www.airchina.com.cn/Passenger...ss/index.shtml

toyotaboy95

(double post)

belfordrocks

While on this topic, our newest 5 star airline is planning to start Bejing to Newark nonstop in July 2011, four times weekly with the A346. Watch out CA (and CO)!

damaxer91

And who might that be?

jefi99

Hainan, I guess?

jiejie

I thought Chinese government approval has not yet been given to Hainan for this route--not sure what US govt approval status is. CAAC may want to protect (state-owned) CA from competition on the PEK-NYC route and refuse permission. Will be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.

However, further discussion of Hainan and its US/intl routes probably should be on a new thread, not this one.