NZ is still in Terminal 2, or so I thought.

To be honest though, except for actually recognizing *G status, this doesn't sound altogether different what could happen on US or UA if things went wrong. For a while I flat out despised OS for the way they handled a canceled flight, but on average I think a lot of people would rate OS above most others. I suppose your issue is more just the contrast of service that you run into between CA and other Asian carriers at NRT?

I fly CA domestically and will probably start flying them to Hong Kong rather than Dragon Air (great airline) now that they are posting EQMs in *A.

The FAs on CA are definitely more "youthful" and friendly than US-based international flights to Asia, but there may be other factors which make flying CA not so great. It's mostly to do with the other pax who have yet to learn basic air-travel etiquette. These span from leaving window blinds open, to leaving shoes and socks off during the flight, to yanking on your seat when standing up, flopping the recline during a meal, and so on. While many of these breaches happen on other carriers you can get assistance from FA who will address these. But after 12 hours of this craziness, combined with fatigue etc. it's downright painful.

On a trip back to Beijing from Hainan (almost 4 hours) on CA, the passenger next to me dealt with the heat by removing his shirt for the duration of the flight. The FAs ignored him.

On almost every landing, many passengers will unbuckle and begin getting their bags out of the overhead bins. The FAs unbuckle themselves and run down the aisles to push people back into their chairs. It's actually a bit comical but also scary if the plane were to run off the runway into soft ground...the FAs would be thrown about and potentially rendered incapable of assisting the evac.

I heard reports of cigarette smells seeping into the cabin...likely from the pilots but I've never experienced this myself on CA.

Other than that, their planes are well maintained (in Beijing by Ameco) and have a decent safety record.

On CA (and other Chinese airlines) I have learned to do a type of relaxation exercise with in-the-ear headphones attached to my ipod along with my eyes closed - hours go by like minutes.