China Eastern INTERNATIONAL~~ Sydney to Beijing on the A330!
Apr 13, 2010, 5:03 am
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Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 5,439
China Eastern INTERNATIONAL~~ Sydney to Beijing on the A330!
Now here's something you don't see every day. As this trip was taken back in 2007, I might have forgotten a few details, but since there is a dearth of MU trip reports on the Internet, so without further adieu, I present you:
China Eastern International: Economy Class
Flight: MU 562
Routing: SYD - PVG
Aircraft: A330-200
Reg: B-6082
After calling a cab and heading to the airport, we went through check in uneventfully (but with the usual queues!). Heading upstairs through security (where my brother's toy rubber snake was pulled up!). My parents went to the duty free area so I did some spotting outside our gate.
Among the usual suspects were a bunch of QF a/c (mainly 747s and A330s), a Vietnam Airlines Boeing 777, a Singapore 747-400 (in the old livery too!), and a Jetstar A330. Nothing too fancy there.
Asiana taxiing out to the runway.
Freedom A320. This is the aircraft I believe that crashed last year. I didn't realise I had a photo of a doomed a/c until now!
Our plane pulling into the gate.
Vietnam 777
Jetstar A330 from the Western Side of the terminal
A side effect of having a donation box in the airport is that you get all sorts of crazy currencies. I saw at least 10, including Zimbabwean!
The MU A330 taxis to the gate after landing as MU561. It's a brand new A330-200, registered B-6082, and only been delivered early that year. This was during the brief period that MU had been using the A330-200 on this route. Up to about 2006, MU561 was regular A340 (a mix of 300 and 600), and in 2008 or so the aircraft was upgraded again to an A330-300.
Boarding is called. We board through the aerobridge, as usual in Sydney. The male purser onboard this flight welcomes us onboard and we settle in our seats. Walking past the business class seats, fitted with the new lie-flat product and AVOD. My parents sat in the centre block, and my brother and I sat across the aisle in the block of two.
The load was surprisingly light- very very light in fact. Towards the rear of the aircraft people had blocks of two, three even four seats to themselves. I'll conservatively estimate the loadfactor at 50%. Scheduled time of departure was 11:20am.
The cabin. No AVOD, small screens played on a loop, and ads on seatbacks. I feel like flyin' FR!
We start movin' and taxiing to the active runway, 34L. This involves a trip on Taxiway Alpha and past the famous 'The Beach' spotting area- (I've enjoyed many good photos there myself!). And a long taxi awaited us, but with views of Botany Bay, the fishing rock platform at Kyeemagh and the Novotel at Brighton-le-Sands (you can never miss it!).
One disappointing thing with the MU A330's, there's no AVOD. The only form of "entertainment" is an in-flight magazine, some music channels (me not being a big fan of music), and two or three small screens scattered throughout the cabin. And with Murphy's Law in full swing, I got the seat that was literally the furthest from the screen in the entire cabin. Unless the seat is in the upright mode, the screen was not visible at all! And in place of the PTV was a cheesy ad on the back of every seat. Not a positive impression.
The takeoff roll was surprisingly powerful, and we flew over the Inner West before heading towards the Blue Mountains. Nothing too interesting about the climb here, and around an hour and a bit into the flight the F/A's first came around with the drinks service. I took my usual tomato juice and the meal service I took the noodles. Not too much to comment on the food, except the salad was revolting. Typical economy class style.
The usual.
Then the window shade brigade came and the F/A's made everyone, yes everyone close their window shades despite the fact that it was 2pm and we were passing through the tropical reefs and islands. Naturally I still managed to sneak a peek and a photo here and there, but, with no AVOD and no natural-IFE (ie window), it didn’t make for a very fun flight. Very LCC-like, indeed.
Winglet close up
Wing
One thing that must be said about MU in Y is the generous seat pitch and the even more generous recline! It is certainly above industry standard and you can really sit back and the seat is a lot more conducive to sleeping that any other Intl Y seats.
Cabin, later in the flight
After a few customary trips to the lav (and one to the galley where I was met by a very friendly F/A and had to decline drinks multiple times! ~Nice!), I settled back into my seat. The sun was setting at this time, and I started feeling a bit queasy. Not sick I'm-gonna-throw-up kind of sick, just a bit worse for wear. As a result I passed on the dinner which was a choice between beef and chicken. Not that I'd expect anything special.
Descent
Walk to arrivals
Very long walk to arrivals...
Descent and touchdown was smoothly uneventful and we taxiied to the terminal where we disembarked on a jetway. We made our way over to arrivals and collected out baggage, before heading straight to departures again.
Everyone all waiting eagerly for bags
PVG Baggage claim
Flight: MU 5165
Routing: PVG-PEK
Aircraft: B737-700
Reg: B-28**
Check in for our connecting flight to Beijing just opened, and in stark contrast to the scene at Sydney, the check in was bare empty. This is because our flight is the last one to PEK, and there was still one PEK-bound A330 in front of us that contained the majority of connecting pax. My parents though wanted a longer stop in PVG to be safe, and we got the last one for the night.
PVG departures terminal
Departures terminal again
As MU562 was also marketed as several other flight numbers, like MU2561, MU4561, MU7561 etc which allowed through-checking of baggage to several other Chinese cities. As PEK wasn't one of those, luggage wasn't through checked which meant the whole process had to be repeated.
Check in was smooth and we got our boarding passes. Security was equally easy, and we sat down at the gate area. I knew our aircraft was a 737 (as it was the last flight, the earlier ones are A330s or A300s), and I only saw one non-wingetted 737 at the gate, which I assumes must be mine. I was thinking it might be a -300 (as I haven't been on a classic 737), but as it turns out it was a -700 that hadn't been retrofitted with winglets yet. It was also an ex-China Eastern Wuhan aircraft from some telltale signs in the cabin.
The IFE consisted of overhead screens every 3 rows (as opposed to two in the entire cabin on the A330), which played short subject programming. Also, I had been assigned the seat in front of the exit row, which meant no recline. For a flight departing at nearly 11pm, it wasn't very comfy.
The F/A's came around with the supper service, which was a drinks service (I tried some kiwifruit juice) and a sandwich. Since I didn’t have dinner on the last leg I finished the entire course, then had some precious shut-eye.
737 cabin
We landed almost 40 minutes early at 12:40am, and after a very long taxi parked at a remote stand between two other MU 737's. When I was younger and MU still flew SYD-PVG-PEK on the A340 (SYD-PVG-PEK used to be one flight, with one a/c and one flight number before the PVG-PEK leg was dropped) and we disembarked on the aerobridge, one of my first impressions of PEK was walking past the CA 747's, 767's and 777's after arrival. Now we were bussed to the arrivals hall between a 737 and another 737. How have times changed.
PEK arrival hall and baggage claim.
In conclusion, MU is pretty damn average. The lack of IFE will make it hard to compete with many other airlines and the majority of passenger bases are Chinese people returning to visit family or tourism.
I didn’t originally plan a TR on this trip, but I thought it would be nice for an insight into a not-so-well known airline, and possible future SkyTeam member. Enjoy!
China Eastern International: Economy Class
Flight: MU 562
Routing: SYD - PVG
Aircraft: A330-200
Reg: B-6082
After calling a cab and heading to the airport, we went through check in uneventfully (but with the usual queues!). Heading upstairs through security (where my brother's toy rubber snake was pulled up!). My parents went to the duty free area so I did some spotting outside our gate.
Among the usual suspects were a bunch of QF a/c (mainly 747s and A330s), a Vietnam Airlines Boeing 777, a Singapore 747-400 (in the old livery too!), and a Jetstar A330. Nothing too fancy there.
Asiana taxiing out to the runway.
Freedom A320. This is the aircraft I believe that crashed last year. I didn't realise I had a photo of a doomed a/c until now!
Our plane pulling into the gate.
Vietnam 777
Jetstar A330 from the Western Side of the terminal
A side effect of having a donation box in the airport is that you get all sorts of crazy currencies. I saw at least 10, including Zimbabwean!
The MU A330 taxis to the gate after landing as MU561. It's a brand new A330-200, registered B-6082, and only been delivered early that year. This was during the brief period that MU had been using the A330-200 on this route. Up to about 2006, MU561 was regular A340 (a mix of 300 and 600), and in 2008 or so the aircraft was upgraded again to an A330-300.
Boarding is called. We board through the aerobridge, as usual in Sydney. The male purser onboard this flight welcomes us onboard and we settle in our seats. Walking past the business class seats, fitted with the new lie-flat product and AVOD. My parents sat in the centre block, and my brother and I sat across the aisle in the block of two.
The load was surprisingly light- very very light in fact. Towards the rear of the aircraft people had blocks of two, three even four seats to themselves. I'll conservatively estimate the loadfactor at 50%. Scheduled time of departure was 11:20am.
The cabin. No AVOD, small screens played on a loop, and ads on seatbacks. I feel like flyin' FR!
We start movin' and taxiing to the active runway, 34L. This involves a trip on Taxiway Alpha and past the famous 'The Beach' spotting area- (I've enjoyed many good photos there myself!). And a long taxi awaited us, but with views of Botany Bay, the fishing rock platform at Kyeemagh and the Novotel at Brighton-le-Sands (you can never miss it!).
One disappointing thing with the MU A330's, there's no AVOD. The only form of "entertainment" is an in-flight magazine, some music channels (me not being a big fan of music), and two or three small screens scattered throughout the cabin. And with Murphy's Law in full swing, I got the seat that was literally the furthest from the screen in the entire cabin. Unless the seat is in the upright mode, the screen was not visible at all! And in place of the PTV was a cheesy ad on the back of every seat. Not a positive impression.
The takeoff roll was surprisingly powerful, and we flew over the Inner West before heading towards the Blue Mountains. Nothing too interesting about the climb here, and around an hour and a bit into the flight the F/A's first came around with the drinks service. I took my usual tomato juice and the meal service I took the noodles. Not too much to comment on the food, except the salad was revolting. Typical economy class style.
The usual.
Then the window shade brigade came and the F/A's made everyone, yes everyone close their window shades despite the fact that it was 2pm and we were passing through the tropical reefs and islands. Naturally I still managed to sneak a peek and a photo here and there, but, with no AVOD and no natural-IFE (ie window), it didn’t make for a very fun flight. Very LCC-like, indeed.
Winglet close up
Wing
One thing that must be said about MU in Y is the generous seat pitch and the even more generous recline! It is certainly above industry standard and you can really sit back and the seat is a lot more conducive to sleeping that any other Intl Y seats.
Cabin, later in the flight
After a few customary trips to the lav (and one to the galley where I was met by a very friendly F/A and had to decline drinks multiple times! ~Nice!), I settled back into my seat. The sun was setting at this time, and I started feeling a bit queasy. Not sick I'm-gonna-throw-up kind of sick, just a bit worse for wear. As a result I passed on the dinner which was a choice between beef and chicken. Not that I'd expect anything special.
Descent
Walk to arrivals
Very long walk to arrivals...
Descent and touchdown was smoothly uneventful and we taxiied to the terminal where we disembarked on a jetway. We made our way over to arrivals and collected out baggage, before heading straight to departures again.
Everyone all waiting eagerly for bags
PVG Baggage claim
Flight: MU 5165
Routing: PVG-PEK
Aircraft: B737-700
Reg: B-28**
Check in for our connecting flight to Beijing just opened, and in stark contrast to the scene at Sydney, the check in was bare empty. This is because our flight is the last one to PEK, and there was still one PEK-bound A330 in front of us that contained the majority of connecting pax. My parents though wanted a longer stop in PVG to be safe, and we got the last one for the night.
PVG departures terminal
Departures terminal again
As MU562 was also marketed as several other flight numbers, like MU2561, MU4561, MU7561 etc which allowed through-checking of baggage to several other Chinese cities. As PEK wasn't one of those, luggage wasn't through checked which meant the whole process had to be repeated.
Check in was smooth and we got our boarding passes. Security was equally easy, and we sat down at the gate area. I knew our aircraft was a 737 (as it was the last flight, the earlier ones are A330s or A300s), and I only saw one non-wingetted 737 at the gate, which I assumes must be mine. I was thinking it might be a -300 (as I haven't been on a classic 737), but as it turns out it was a -700 that hadn't been retrofitted with winglets yet. It was also an ex-China Eastern Wuhan aircraft from some telltale signs in the cabin.
The IFE consisted of overhead screens every 3 rows (as opposed to two in the entire cabin on the A330), which played short subject programming. Also, I had been assigned the seat in front of the exit row, which meant no recline. For a flight departing at nearly 11pm, it wasn't very comfy.
The F/A's came around with the supper service, which was a drinks service (I tried some kiwifruit juice) and a sandwich. Since I didn’t have dinner on the last leg I finished the entire course, then had some precious shut-eye.
737 cabin
We landed almost 40 minutes early at 12:40am, and after a very long taxi parked at a remote stand between two other MU 737's. When I was younger and MU still flew SYD-PVG-PEK on the A340 (SYD-PVG-PEK used to be one flight, with one a/c and one flight number before the PVG-PEK leg was dropped) and we disembarked on the aerobridge, one of my first impressions of PEK was walking past the CA 747's, 767's and 777's after arrival. Now we were bussed to the arrivals hall between a 737 and another 737. How have times changed.
PEK arrival hall and baggage claim.
In conclusion, MU is pretty damn average. The lack of IFE will make it hard to compete with many other airlines and the majority of passenger bases are Chinese people returning to visit family or tourism.
I didn’t originally plan a TR on this trip, but I thought it would be nice for an insight into a not-so-well known airline, and possible future SkyTeam member. Enjoy!
