China Eastern Airlines long haul flights - how good/bad are they?

[skylee]

Has anyone flown long haul on China Eastern (MU) lately? I might use it on my next trip (probably HK to Europe via Shanghai) and I wonder about how good/bad it would be. I would appreciate any information on this, like legroom, are there personal TVs, food quality, service quality, punctuality etc. I would expect that safety would not be an issue.

Re personal TVs, the last long haul flight without them that I took was a KLM flight, which was a big surprise to me. But it was back in 2009. I think personal screens are pretty standard nowadays.

Oh and of course I am interested in the condition of economy class only. I can't afford higher classes.

[anonymoose]

I have no idea about long-haul on MU, but Chinese domestic flights seem to meet international standards.

If you want good quality at (usually) reasonable prices, consider Emirates.

[skylee]

I flew on Emirates last October. One leg was on an A380. It was not bad at all. But their schedules are usually quite poor for my itineraries (a journey that should take less than 20 hours could end up taking about 34 hours on EK). Actually my latest favourite is Qatar Airways, but very sadly it has been raising its prices too.

I've flown on MU many times between HK and Shanghai, and I am not impressed by their service. But a HK-Shanghai trip only lasts for 2 hours + so it doesn't really matter. I would prefer better condition (as far as I can afford) for 17-hour journeys. Thus the question.

[amandagmu]

I don't know where you're going in Europe, but I flew Hainan from Beijing-Berlin and back for the holidays (roundtrip cost for that flight right now is ~650 euros and it's direct--about 9 hours one way and 10 the other direction). It flies into Tegel airport in Berlin because it has a partnership with Air Berlin. I found the leg room to be about as good as anywhere else in economy, the food OK, personal TVs with many selections although sometimes buggy, and the service excellent. It's clear to me that the crew was definitely not 北京人.

[Yang Rui]

Chinese domestic flights seem to meet international standards

I wouldn't agree with this. I flew on domestic flights with them several times from Shanghai and the flights were always delayed, cabins run down, service cold, no communication from cockpit to cabin etc. Very different from most of the short haul European flights I've taken with major European airlines like BA, KLM, Austrian etc. I would certainly avoid China Eastern for long haul if I had any choice in the matter whatsoever.

Skylee, you might find this website useful: http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/c_eastrn.htm

I set it to the China Eastern page but they have hundreds of airlines on there. From reading the China Eastern reviews, the basic flights seem ok, but there seem to be problems when people have to change flights. E.g. I don't think there is much in the way of support in Shanghai if your incoming flight is delayed and you miss the connecting flight. It looks like they're fine, if basic, for very simple, direct flights, but if things go wrong, they go really wrong.

[skylee]

Thanks for the advice. I wish I were going to take Hainan instead of MU.

Things can go wrong no matter which airlines you take. I dare not choose a destination north of Italy in case that Iceland volcano (or are there more than one) erupts again.

But a brief glance on the comments on the webpage provided by Yang Rui suggests the I must lower my expectations considerably. No wonder MU's tickets are cheap.

[felipe]

I flew China Eastern LAX-PVG. Leg room is regular, as bad as any other airline IMO... There is no on-flight entertainment at all, but it has a very nice feature that I have not seen on other airlines: Standard AC Plug on every single seat, right in front of you. You can plug-in your own entertainment device (iPad, iPhone, mobile, personal DVD, whatever) without worrying about the battery charge.

[roddy]

Chinese domestic flights seem to meet international standards.

If your international standards come from Russia and Kazakhstan.

I've always been happy with Emirates, but they lose a lot of the price advantage if you try and get quick connections in Dubai. The new terminal at Dubai is good though - had ten hours last time through and to be honest it went surprisingly quickly. Free wifi and lots of power points helps.

Standard AC Plug on every single seat, right in front of you. You can plug-in your own entertainment device (iPad, iPhone, mobile, personal DVD, whatever) without worrying about the battery charge.

This is becoming more common, and it's very welcome. Have also seen USB ports so you can watch your own stuff on the TV, although never tried that.

[skylee]

it has a very nice feature that I have not seen on other airlines: Standard AC Plug on every single seat, right in front of you. You can plug-in your own entertainment device (iPad, iPhone, mobile, personal DVD, whatever) without worrying about the battery charge.

Even in economy class? This is indeed a nice feature.

Somehow I prefer Doha's airport to Dubai's. I think people in Doha are nicer to me.

[jbradfor]

I would appreciate any information on this, like legroom, are there personal TVs, food quality, service quality, punctuality etc

Are you familiar with Seat Guru? It answers some of those questions.

[skylee]

Actually I check Seat Guru for the seat plan before I check in online every time. I don't find it very helpful, though. And I have not read the rest of the website. But it is not that I don't know that there is such information on the internet. I just thought I would ask here.

How about Air China? It is one of the Airlines that offer cheap tickets (the other is Aeroflot).

[anonymoose]

Well I've never been to Russia or Kazakhstan, but from my domestic flights in China, on China Eastern and others, the cabins have always been clean, most depart on time, and inflight service whilst nothing amazing is no worse than on many European airlines.

[johnk]

Hi,

Last month I flew China Eastern from London -> Shanghai -> Kunming and back.

The outgoing flight from Shanghai to Kunming was late so I arrived in Kunming at 3:00 am (about two hours late).

Similarly the return flight from Shanghai was about an hour late leaving. But considering I had to wait for over 1.5 hours for my Chinese friend to get through UK immigration ...

I found the Flight conditions to be OK. There was no personal entertainment, so no matter what movies they show on the overhead screens, someone is going to be unhappy.

The staff were friendly and helpful. The food was 'airline' food but it was Chinese airline food which was novel to me. I am not a fussy eater and I don't mind about food so long as I have enough. I got enough to eat on the flights.

Seats and legroom could always be better on a long haul flight. But I found China Eastern to be no worse than other airlines I have flown with.

One thing I did find, it was hard to sleep on the long flights. The cabin air seemed very dry. Not sleeping well on the flights was a bummer because I was very jet-lagged.

All things considered, I would fly with China Eastern again.

regards,

John K

[jbradfor]

I assume you considered the Cathay Pacific flight to Amsterdam? I really like Cathay Pacific. Flew them a couple years ago SFO -> HKG, and they had these interesting seats (in coach) in which rather than reclining the seat back, the entire seat rotated, so you didn't have the issue of the person in front of you bothering you with their seatback going down.

[imron]

I hate those seats on Cathay Pacific. As a tall person, it pushes your legs straight into the seat in front and makes it quite uncomfortable. At least with the other seats, if the person in front of me put their seat down it's mostly the top part of the seat that moves which doesn't really affect leg room that much.

[rob07]

Flown Sydney-Shanghai on China Eastern a couple times lately. No personal TVs. The communal TVs are small and can be hard to see depending on where you are sitting. I don't mind as it makes me read/sleep, and they are cheap. Food is edible, no more. Service/punctuality made no particular impression on me. I used to live in the same apartment building as the Sydney base for the China Eastern stewardesses, every couple of days there used to be a horde of them being loaded onto a bus just outside the front door.

I remember Air China as being quite good, but haven't flown with them for a while.

[felipe]

Even in economy class? This is indeed a nice feature.

Yes, in economy class, but I think only for the long-haul flights. I haven't seen it on domestic flights.

[roddy]

But considering I had to wait for over 1.5 hours for my Chinese friend to get through UK immigration ...

As an aside, I've seen Chinese-UK couples traveling together ask and be told they can both join the UK citizen queue. It's the same staff and computers, after all. It might have just been a common courtesy at a quiet time though. Similarly you could ask if you could join the slower queue to keep your friend company.

No personal tv's would irritate me as I've got used to them flying on Emirates my last few long-haul trips. Rotating seats sound like fun though.

[imron]

Rotating seats sound like fun though.

Nope, because they're not rotating in the way you think. I'd describe it more like seat slides foward rather than rotates.

If it wasn't for the fact that on my last two visits to China the most convenient flight schedule was with Cathay Pacific (effectively giving me an extra day compared to other airlines), I would have avoided them just because of these seats.

[abcdefg]

I've flown long haul between US West Coast cities (San Francisco and Los Angeles) and several China gateways including Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai. Also once into Taipei. Trips have been on several Chinese carriers, including China Eastern, China Southern, Air China, Cathay Pacific, and EVA (Taiwan.) A few trips were in first, several in business, others were in economy.

Hands down the best experiences have been with Japanese carriers, particularly JAL and ANA. Next best were Korean carriers, particularly Asiana and KAL. I only book Chinese carriers for long haul flights when other options are not practical. FWIW, I also try to avoid American carriers for these long haul flights to China.

I cannot speak to flights specifically between Hong Kong and Europe, so the above doesn't really help you much with your decision.