trip report on recent CA flights
 

I took a CA flight from PVG to NRT earlier this week and am on my way back on another. Sitting here at the JAL lounge, I thought I'd share a little of my *G experience with CA.

Short summary: don't do it...at least not between China and Japan.

From PVG to NRT (discounted Y):

Check in PVG was very smooth. *G gets the Business Class check in, clearly marked at the counter. GOOD. The CS puts a "Gold Card" sticker on my boarding pass and handed me a voucher to CA's lounge. The lounge was no way near the quality of the ANA lounge next door. It reminds me of China 15 years ago. But it has wireless access, which made up for the lousy seats and decor.

The seat assignment is the business-as-usual-in-China, brain-dead scheme. They absolutely fill the front of the plane and leave the back half virtually empty. NO GOOD.

Flight was uneventful and on time.

From NRT to PVG (discounted Y):

Here's where all the fun began. I arrived at NRT terminal 2 around noon for my 2:55pm flight, and kindly turned away by the check in line attendant. She told me to come back in half an hour when the flight is open for check in. Half an hour later I came back and found hundreds of people lining up. I'm not kidding, hundreds! I walked to the end of the line, which is at the opposite end of the terminal, and luckily saw a CS lady holding a CA sign there. I approached and asked whether there is a way for me to get ahead, mentioning that I'm *G. Without hesitation she bowed, and asked me to follow her. A few minutes later, I'm at the check-in counter, cutting those hundreds of people off completely. GOOD. VERY GOOD. or so I thought.

Then I found out that the flight has been delayed indefinitely. I cannot clear the immigration yet due to the flight status. And there is no lounge until after I clear the passport control. I was given a 1000YEN coupon for food and drinks and off I went.

Terminal 2 is not exactly a *A terminal. CA is the only *A member there and it's JAL personnel who fill the counters. Therefore it was particularly frustrating not having anybody or anything to go to for information. I'm sure a *G would have had better customer service in terminal 1, where all the other *A airlines are.

The flight was delayed by over 3 hours and I finally got in. And the JAL annex lounge I was given access to is not at all bad (better than any red carpet club in the States at least). Probably my last time here. My first experience on CA as a *A carrier is very disappointing.

And this surprised you?

I am in no way defending CA as I can not judge, but may I ask you why you feel that way?

You were able to access the lounges, you were able to use a *G counter for check in, the flights were fair, thus one too late.

Does this justify to never fly a specific carrier again?

F.R.

The OP never made that claim, only that he was disappointed.

Don´t you think that "Short summary: don't do it..." comes close?

F.R.

I was disappointed to find out that a formal membership in *A did not necessarily imply certain service level that I have taken for granted.

Ob routes where other *A choices abound, don't do it with CA. So far I consider their overall execution falls short of a worldclass airline.

As this comment has to come I´ll do it myself:

Just wait for our indian and egyptian friends to join the alliance.

F.R.

Wasn't that already obvious from USAir?

Short summaries are like sound bites on "news" casts - not worth considering. I find that reading the entire post is more worthwhile.

There's also a big distinction between "don't do it" (present tense) and "never do it" (future tense).

Trust me CA makes US look like a 21st century airline. I live in philly and I would know!

If you ever visit NRT, be my guest to enjoy CA, the only *A airline that's not under the same roof as the rest of the *A airlines. Enjoy.

While I surely do believe you I still don´t get why you are so disappointed even after reading your original post again?

F.R.

I have done that exact same route. Agree that NRT-PVG is not great on CA if anything goes irrops. Also agree that they aren't up to the level of service that many of the *A carriers are.

And thier planes occaisionally explode for no apparent reason. (OK I am exaggerating a little on that last part--a little).

Last Friday I escorted my colleague to NRT and he was flying NRT-PEK on CA business.
I was curious if there was any change in CA ground services after joining *A -
in fact it was even worse, basically due to rennovation of terminal 2 I guess.

CA check-in counter was only one row - row V for all pax, and it was mess as xzhu said.
Given the number of flights CA has from NRT, it is just too too small.

The row V counter was originally designed & used for ANA's First, higher elites (Diamond/Platinum) and *G check-in if my memory is correct, and I could use it with no waits when it was there - as ANA also had big counters for business class (Club ANA) pax elsewhere in other rows in those days.

So even the waiting space for the row V is small, it worked well then - but it is NEVER designed for all PAX of multiple flights IMHO.
In addition at T2 all check-in luggage is required to go through a screening machine before check-in (this process was already made unnecessary as new EDS is installed in T1), and the machine made the mess even worse.

So we saw the same hundeds of people there - and as I could not think C class PAX should also line-up, I asked the JAL staff there if there is any priority lanes and she *reluctantly* (no kidding) said C Pax can go ahead to counters - but we also faced the screening machine line before getting into the C/F counters. There was no one who could tell we could cut into the line before the machine, I needed to go back to verify if we could do it - as it was embrassing for us to do so without
guidance by airline staff. Finally we could do it after I could find staff to help it. (Without doing so, you need to wait for the hundeds people!)

Another issue was JAL GHs - I could not feel that they were trying to make
the check-in experiences more smooth.

One more issue - while CA's FFP system is *somewhat* working for *A now in China, it looked like they have not installed FFP system interfacing with *A at all at NRT, because the GHs told PAX that *A mileage number cannot be entered to systems well at NRT and need manual entry.

I hope the CA counter moves to regular lines when the rennovation completes 2008 summer -for sure it is better to move to T1 South but I guess there are already too many airlines. Hope it can move to T1 North at least.

Anyway I would not recommend to fly CA from NRT now, in especial *G and premium class pax - you know, it is painful to cut a long line even if you are told you can do so - and ground staff helping it is not very available. (Yes they are there but not so *ready*)

Sure you don't have the wrong airline? Maybe you are thinking of Taiwanese China Airlines?

Wow, that's speak volume on how good (or should I say bad) CA is when I thought US is bad! How was your inflight experience? I am considering flying CA on my next trip to Asia (in Y), so I am interested in finding out how painful it may be.

LAX