jlisi984

The service began quite quickly after we took off, so I moved back to the centre seats to have dinner together. Of note, I do not think it is possible to have dinner together in the window seats as the ottoman does not have a seat belt.

The service began with the lifting of the tray table, which came out of the ottoman and was a complicated affair. This also meant that the ottoman could not be used for stowage.



The benefit to this setup, however, was that the table could be kept open right next to the IFE screen. The practical reasoning is most likely due to the double-bed setup, which would not allow for a tray table to be deployed from the centre console.

Speaking of the IFE, the selection was acceptable - there were western movies and they were of good definition on the screen.



There is also a divider screen in the middle seats, should you happen to be traveling with a stranger in the middle seats. This screen, however, was quite flimsy and difficult to pull down or up.



Service started with the hors d’oeuvre:



The flight attendants were smartly dressed, and soon placed the tablecloth:



Followed by the napkin, beautifully folded:



The butter was in the shape of the China Eastern logo, another nice touch:



The plates were quite nice, but the glassware was rather clunky. The cutlery was embossed with the China Eastern logo as well - very nice branding and logo placement.



Bread basket, with warm breads.



Starter:



Salad:



Soup:



This was the western main of grilled chicken:



While this was the Chinese main of beef:



Fruit plate:



Cheese selection:



Together with smiling flight attendant:



Toothpick:



Dessert choice:





Though there was a copious amount of food and it was presented quite nicely, unfortunately the taste was not good at all (bordering on inedible). To be fair, I do not know of any exquisite catering out of China, but this is definitely an area where China Eastern could improve - and believe me, it has a long way to go.

TPJ

Wow... Definitely better than CA F.

I would not expect this from normally fairly mediocre MU...

AA_EXP09

And Australia.
(As an aside for the OP: great report! MU longhaul F is rarely (if ever?) covered here.)

FlightNurse

I'm pleasantly surprised on how nice the cabin looks, and food looks great too, however, they lost mega points on that cheese serve, plastic wrapped cheese

jlisi984

Absolutely agree 100% - way better than CA F.

Don't think it's ever been covered... anywhere (at least not in English!).

I don't think the cheese was wrapped in plastic...

Hope you liked the food

Thank you!

Yes I agree, leather is fine if there's a mattress... but the leather has to be maintained and clean.

Haha... they're far away from that, believe me!

Interesting...

agreed!

Yes there was enough of a selection (!) that you could certainly find something you'd like at cruising altitude. Though before you did, you might end up completely hammered!

There is no lounge seating... it's just empty floor space. Think 747 nose... on KE. Don't remember which PJ size I took but they were perfectly fine - much better than the old TG or OZ ones.



Cabin was very clean... save for the smoky smell.

Purim

Boy that cheese tray is dire. The parsley looks the most appetizing....

The folks over at Mouton Cadet must be very proud....

jlisi984

While dinner was being served, the bar area had been set up:





I asked the flight attendants to prepare the double bed, and they went to it - three of them at once, in fact. I enjoyed watching the process, which started with the lowering of the seats and middle armrest:



Followed by the spreading of a mattress pad:



Didn’t quite work the first time:



That’s better:





Then a sheet was placed on top of the mattress pad:



Followed by the blanket/duvet:



Very nicely done:





The flight attendants had noted me taking photos, and made the bed as double only for that opportunity. They then switched the top duvet to two singles for us for more comfort.

A note on the service: the flight attendants were attentive and kind, and truthfully I didn’t encounter any language barriers. I would rate the service on the level of other good Asian carriers in First class.

jlisi984

The bed was very comfortable, and I was only awoken twice - once by the faint smell of cool cigarette smoke (the kind that has gone through the air conditioner) and once by the election results. Yes, the internet did work onboard, however my pre-registered codes did not - luckily there was an option to sign up onboard. The speed wasn’t the best, and content was limited to what China allows. But free is free, and I appreciate the effort. Regarding the smoke, it was annoying but happened only three times during the flight, and was quite faint. Obviously it is not my position to fix the airline policies, though I cannot imagine the work environment as a non-smoker. And honestly, I had to laugh at the novelty of faint cigarette smoke onboard an ultra-modern aircraft.

Upon waking, I moved to the window seat:



I was served coffee, which appeared to be of the instant variety (not that I mind, actually):



I noticed there was a peep-hole camera when visiting the lavatory:



Complete crew with one pilot:



The window shades are trendy and cool, and look great, but aren’t my favourite in practice - I like being able to quickly open the window to see if anything interesting is outside. The solution on A380's and LH’s 74H's is already quite cumbersome and slow, but in this case it’s even worse, with three windows opening simultaneously, making literally the entire cabin bright just to glance out the window.





Service began for the pre-arrival meal:



The butter dish, again:



Bread basket:



(no, I did not eat those shrimp!)





I think this was an espresso, but frankly I’m not sure:



Fruits:



Here’s the aforementioned table:

Madone59

Wow, this is a product we do not get to see a lot of. That double bed looks like quite the place to sleep though I'd worry about sitting up and hitting my head on the center bar.

Thanks for sharing!!

offerendum

Interesting report. For me a no go with smoke in the cabin.

P.S. What was wrong with the crab?

Seat 2A

Thanks for this nicely photographed report. I look forward to more from you. ^

Aergales

Great report

good improvement for Skyteam airline

jlisi984

At this seat, they hadn’t replaced the water, and I noted the still water was supposedly from Canada.



“The Production of Canada”… right.



Nice view of ORD on approach:



We landed significantly early - this seems to be the norm with China Eastern’s schedule, which is excessively padded.

Unfortunately, the L2 door was used, so we were behind some business class customers in disembarking. On the other hand, I could take a picture of the business seat:



As expected, there was no “welcoming party" for First class passengers. Unfortunately Global Entry was down, and I couldn’t use the automated kiosks because of my particular visa. This meant I had to fill out the form and go to a counter, where I explained everything about my visa to the agent, who promptly stamped me in as a tourist. “Excuse me, but I actually should enter as an O1!” Oh! Right! She proceeded to cross out my stamp and “fix" it by hand. The baggage was already on the belt by this point, but we were delayed again as we were sent to secondary, where the Chicago Polish mafia was in full force and laughed that we got secondary. Finally, United decided that the baggage tag “doesn’t scan" and had to reprint it. Welcome to the USA, I suppose...

Final thoughts on the flight - absolutely a fun experience and very practical in my circumstances, but I would not go out of my way to fly China Eastern again. It was a quintessentially Chinese state luxury experience - the basics right, but the essence wrong. China Eastern First class ranked highly on some points, but on the other hand the food quality left a lot to be desired - ultimately that’s what first class is largely about. (I should add, just to make it clear, this is definitely the worst First class food I have ever had.)

jlisi984

Yes that bar was a bit odd... "Double bed" is subjective as of course you could not lie sideways - there's a very hard portion that's not padded in the middle. However it's still very spacious...

The shrimp was cold and looked pretty bad. Smoke wasn't such a problem though it is a bit out of place.

Thank you ^

Hehe don't rain on SkyTeam - they have a few good ones now (AF, GA, KE).

CappuccinoAddict

I have to say the hard product looks phenomenal. I am particularly impressed by the fact that they have a mattress pad/sheets to make a proper double bed! The lack of that on SQ is a big pet peeve of mine!