sydunipete

From the worst CA flight to the best. I've had better Premium Economy flights than that last leg on the ageing B777, but this next leg on a refitted A330 is truly a world class product.

Beijing airport is moden, large, clean and security concious. My transit from the ARN flight involved 3 security points and associated red stamps on my boarding pass:



In the public terminal power comes from the ground:



and Free WiFi connects the hearts (provided you have a passport):



The Business Class lounge is directly above a Pizza Hut and Starbucks:



You can see my discussion on the lounge on my previous stop here, but this time I was staying in the lounge for most of the day so I got to try the dining room, which was really quite good and is open from 11am to what looks like 7pm (either my handwriting or my eyes are getting worse. Probably both.)

There's plenty of spirits, beer and soft drink but previous little wine (and only Greatwall at that) and only 2 toilets, so it's easier to go outside to the public toilets which are clean and plentiful.

I headed to the gate and saw A330 B-6079 in the standard CA colours.



But inside - what a difference! This is a massive improvement over all previous CA flights with a 170 degree lay flat bed, but I didn't notice that it wasn't horizontal. Big TV screen, AVOD with the same poor selection of movies.



Very cool table design, 2-2-2 configuration with 3 rows in the main cabin and 2 behind the galley. There was plenty of space and storage.





By the time boarding was complete the business cabin was 100% full.



L'Occitane amenity kits were handed out, and they're pretty well equipped (CA beats SQ on at least one front!).



Then menus.







The dinner was served at the usual CA cracking pace followed by a couple of CA sized whiskeys and then some of the best sleep I've had on a plane.

Breakfast service started a sensible 90 mins from landing, but before the lights came on I was amazed at how much noise some people can make in the cabin. One guy insisted upon opening and closing his overhead storage several times and slamming it shut each time.

We landed at 7:45 and I was in a taxi by 8:15. It's hard to complain too much about that.

There were no immigration forms on board, do we had to collect them on the ground just before the immigration queues. It was a bit of a bun fight but lead to a funny incident. I head the immigration officer next to me quizzing her Chinese inbound tourist asking if her spoke Italian. I'm assumine he picked up an Italian form by mistake in the melee and just filled it in following his travelling companion's as a template. I had no desire to hang around and find out the result.

sydunipete

There's not a lot of information out there on Air China.

I flew on 3 different airframes (one twice) and it was three totally different long haul business products.

The B777 was so bad it's best not to talk more about it. If you're on a route served by this aircraft take another airline.

The older A330 is pretty average, but because of the price is about right. If you want a bit more leg room, some creature comforts and not too much more, then this isn't a bad product. But TG, OZ, SQ and even UA are better.

Finally, that refitted A330 is right up there, better than everyone except SQ as far as the hard product is concerned. However the AVOD, rushed and poorly presented meal service, robotic service with a poor grasp of english let it down. But for half the price of SQ business class (probably 3/4s of the price if you can get SQ on a discount) this new refit offers great value for money.

For a good night's sleep, SQ or CA will do the trick, but if you want some of the creature comforts or rely upon inflight entertainment then stick with a non-Chinese carrier.

Also check your transit times. Each possible flight I looked at had long transfers in either Beijing of Shanghai.

Thanks for reading my first ever TR - I hope it provided some useful information to you and I welcome your feedback.

TrayflowInUK

Thanks for the great TR!

I see the CA A330 whizzing above my house every day (Drummoyne) and sometimes wonder what it's like on board... sounds like the newer equipment is the way to go.

Intrepid traveller Jacob_m did an excellent trip report a while back that included the CA ex-ARN, and his experience on the 777 mirrored yours. The legroom on this equipment is laughable, especially for a *A carrier in C.

Iceland's great. It's one of my favourite places anywhere, and I'd love to go back.

sydunipete

I'm at Drummoyne as well and when working in the back yard will often look up and wish I was onboard (depending upon the airline, but particularly the SQ A380s that just seem to float.)

Sigh. It's some time before my next trip unfortunately.

AJO

Great report, can't remember too many reports on CA, so always interesting to see something new.

One small point of criticism: Xi'An is XIY, XIE seems to be somewhere in Laos.

sydunipete

Thank you. I stand corrected. It must have been the smog that clouded my view. (Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

TrayflowInUK

I had the pleasure of being on the SQ 380 that floated in above my house last Thursday morning... sigh... wishing I was back on it! Those business class suites are unparalleled, at least in my experience.

You can imagine the rolled eyes from the wife. No sooner have I arrived home from the airport and showered, I'm telling her I can't wait to get on another longhaul!

chicagodesi

Hello,

GREAT TR! I would love to see pics from your time in Iceland, as it's one of the countries I would love to visit someday.

sydunipete

Sure, I'll put them up in the coming days. I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would for two reasons. 1) the country is really harsh and barren and 2) the light is difficult at the time of year I was there. The sun never got too far above the horizon, so it was like taking photos shortly before sunset.

But one spectacular night was watching the Northern Lights despite it being about minus 10 (Centigrade). The photos have been put on Facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...5907659&type=1

Let me know if you can't access the photos and I'll put them up somewhere else.

tangof1

delete

tangof1

Great TR! I love to go to both Iceland and China, went to China last month on a tour (only for a day to Guangzhou) hopefully if i can spare some time will hit Iceland next year but will be in the summer so will see how different it is. Did you do any type of tours in Iceland? apart from the Northern Lights one of course

Regarding China, you said you did a tour, what type of tour did you do? how long was it? and what sort of place did it take you.

Dave

MtlChris

I'm on the same ARN-PEK B777 in C in a few week... would you recommend the bulkheads ? I can't find a definitive answer to this.

sydunipete

In that aircraft yes. There won't be any less storage, TV screen is the same (pitifully small) arrangement and you wont have the recline of the seat in front to worry about.

Have a good flight and I welcome your thoughts in comparison to mine once you return.

sydunipete

I did day tours in Iceland. This is the way I normally like to visit places so I can eat where I want to eat and have more flexibility. There seem to be 3 tour companies in Iceland all offering pretty much the same tours.

Iceland Excursions and Reykjavik excursions are the two biggest. (Reykjavik Excursions run the Flybus which is a great way to get from the airport to town and return.)

But my recommendation would be Gateway to Iceland (GTI). They were consistently cheaper, but more imprtantly their tour sizes were smaller. Often we would be in a mini coach while the other tours would turn up at the same place in a full size coach. I found their service and their personal approach to be excellent.

One comment about Reykjavic Excursions : on the last day they forgot to pick me up from my hotel for my return to the airport. When my hotel rang to check, to RE's credit they sent a bus around just for me. They held the main bus for me and I made it with less than a minute to spare.

The city tours are just ok, Golden Circle is great and I wouldn't worry too much about South Coast unless you have a fair bit of time. I missed out on Blue Lagoon because of the time and I feel I should have missed the South Coast and gone to Blue lagoon instead.

As for China:

I went with Wendy Wu for about 10 days and visted Shanghai, Xi'An (Terracota Warriors) and Beijing. Depending on your interests I think this provides a good oversight of China. It's a pretty busy tour, but I still found time to go out and visit bars by night.

I would like to have seen the three gourges and next time I will go out west to see the pandas.

I thought the tour was well run and given the complexities of travel in China I would do a tour again there (whereas everywhere else in the world I'm an independent traveller).

My only complaint was the food. There was plenty of it (3 cooked meals a day) but it was bland. I understand they needed to find places that would cater for tour size groups, be reliable, be safe, be acceptable to people with a broad range of tastes and at all these things they did a greta job. But it was boring. My best meal by far is when I escaped from the tour during a shopping trip and the tour guide pointed me towards a muslim restaurant. The lamb stew on flat bread with some lamb skewers was delicious and one of hte highlights of the trip for me.

But overall I would recommend Wendy Wu.

tangof1

Thanks for the info, also where did you stay in Reykjavik and how good are the prices there (to eat and shop)