Air China SK9512 ARN-PEK with the 777-200/300 in C
 

Any experience with the Business Class SK9512 (CA911/912) on the ARN-PEK or PEK-ARN on Air China 777-200? I think the Business section looks little dated (from www.airchina.com) and some internet findings indicated that service could be better.

I am on one soon. Should I stay or should I go?



PS ARN-PEK-PVG in D are 15900SEK at the moment with fees for rebooking at approx 800SEK and cancel approx 1000SEK. DS

Hi !

Suggest you read thrugh Jacob Ms. excellent trip report, he just started of with CA (ARN-PEK)...and it seems to be getting even more exciting...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...lines-c-f.html

Why don't you have a look in the forum for other asian carriers where CA is discussed?

I did so and got some info but wanted more simply ;-)

The trip linked here was very informative. Thanks!

I flew this route about a month or so ago and if offered again would fly any of the many other options.

To summarise;
- Very poor food choices (2-3 mains), actually poorer than on the BEJ-HKG flight by CA. Which by the way was excellent.
- Very poor seat with limited recline. Good enough for intra asia, but for overnight was close to impossible to sleep in. That was even with spare seat next to me. Interestingly pitch and recline is better on the C/Y version of the 777 than the F/C/Y version.
- Very limited pitch between seats, compounded by inflight entertainment taking up footwell.
- Inflight entertainment was not AVOD, and poor quality. Blurry and poor choices.
- No power supply. At least I was prepared with three batteries, another pax, was totally bored after three hours
- Very loud people in cabin who viewed it as their own personal celebration after trip to Sweden
- Only one bottle of French red wine for whole /C/ cabin, second wine was Great Wall. Had to make a plea for wine from /F/ which was eventually agreed to.

To sum it up, when I entered the plane thought Oh, it is Business, prem-Y and economy. To my surprise it was F,C, & Y. I guess I would have been even more surprised if paid for /F/ and got what would have been a poor qaulity /C/ seat.

If you can avoid. It is very old equipment which is placed on a poor yield route.

Very intresting to read your reflections Koru Flyer, thanks! I have not seen many comments and reviews of Air China and I had very little idea myself what to expect.

I agree on a lot of it, however I didn't think the food was particularly bad. It was neither better nor worse than many other business class meals I have had on other airlines.
In fact the dinner I had on ARN-PEK was almost identical to a meal I had in SAS C-class on a flight from Asia last year.

As for the seat it was not lie-flat, but I have experienced far worse recliner seats. I didn't even notice the IFE equipment in the seat.

I guess one thing to safely say about Air China is that the product is not very consistent (both hard and soft product).
There are obviously many better airlines flying to China, whether I would personally fly Air China again probably depends the price tag.

I would say that I'm mentally not prepared to fly in recliner seat on longhaul C any longer, except for some 3rd-world destinations with limited service. Lie-flat seats become somewhat industry standard, while recliner product I would be comparing on a price basis with Y+ .

On the other hand CA seems to be running some kind of semi-permanent promotion on their swedish website, advertising C on routes with old B777s for as little as 15.000SEK roundtrip...

Anyone know how many points a Eurobonus account would be credited for a roundtrip ARN-PEK-ARN with CA in "crap-C"?

If the mileage accrual is good The price would rather be comparable to what one would pay for Economy Extra in SK Longhaul. The CA B777 C-class can't possibly be worse than SK E+, can it?

The C cradle seats on their A330s flying out of LHR, FRA and MUC seem to be priced according to industry standards.

Positive Air China
 

Koru flyer input is similar to 2-3 other CA 777 C experiences that can be found by searching some on the www. Jacob_m description sounds ok for me. Add that you earn some EBP as well:

Given ARN-BKK = 5340 miles = 8590 km = 12420 (for me as EBS in D) and
given ARN-PEK = 4160 miles = 6691 km = .....
and add the segment ("free") say PEK-PVG = 663 miles (in the A340) I expect the total earnings to land at about 20k-24k EBP

I payed 15903SEK for ARN-PEK-PVG with Business Saver: Changes permitted: 830SEK. Refund permitted: 1035SEK.
Very fast and impressive booking online.
Same route at SAS online they suggested (after 4 errors) including xxx(domestic connection sweden)-ARN-PEK-PVG at >32kSEK!.

One more positive thing: I called Air China and was helped with my seating and other issues within 7 min and 30 s. Well done Air China!!^

never flown Air China, but I've flown China Airlines many times (the Taiwanese airline) and thought it was an excellent airline, haven't flown with then in many years though.
Curiously I don't think their a member of any alliance :confused:

I can only agree that CA is very inconsistent in their offering. Had my best flight ever with them PEK-CAN as you get F-class intra China when travelling to China on SK Business Class. it was on a B747 and that was the biggest space I have ever been given on a plane + the food was top. A few of my worst flights have been on CA as well, so depends fully on route and equipment.
I have picked SK c-class via CPH even when CA F-class have been cheaper to PEK.

I was not aware F was offered ex-ARN? Did CA start that when changing from 330 to 777?

That is correct!

Air China's all 10 777 listed
 

Can we be sure that all 10 of Air China 777 have the 3 class config?

29153 (168) 777-2J6 26/10/1998 B-2059
29154 (173) 777-2J6 30/10/1998 B-2060
29155 (179) 777-2J6 24/11/1998 B-2061
29156 (214) 777-2J6 30/04/1999 B-2063
29157 (240) 777-2J6 30/08/1999 B-2064
29744 (280) 777-29L 23/05/2000 B-2065
29745 (290) 777-29L 30/06/2000 B-2066
29746 (338) 777-29L 18/05/2001 B-2067
29747 (344) 777-29L 01/06/2001 B-2068
29748 (349) 777-29L 29/06/2001 B-2069

If the above is all 10 777 Air China have in operation and the link below states that it is the 200 series:
http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgMakeModel.nsf/0/981e36a77d9667198625760800525555/$FILE/T00001SE.pdf

Then it is strange that Air China list the equipment on my leg ARN-PEK as:
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200/300

Some on CAs 777 are two class. The flight from PEK-HKG was two class, as quite surprised as there was;
1. More pitch (actually tipped to the point of comfort), still recliner seat
2. Better wines
3. More and better food options
4. Fantastic service, the FA kept me well topped up on champagne

If I had of had that ARN-PEK I would have written a more positive review. It was night and day difference which I think is the bottom line on CA - very inconsistent.

I would certainly fly CA in /C/ over SK in /Y/+. I was just surprised at the poor quality of what was a /C/ product.

Given the price was around 18kSEK for ARN(CA)-PEK(CA)-HKG(TG)-BKK(SK)-CPH-ARN vs around 28-32kSEK for SK it did make a compelling option to give it a go. Interestingly, I could also choose to fly CX or Dragonair for the PEK-HKG segment for the same price.