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

[skylee]

I assume you considered the Cathay Pacific flight to Amsterdam? I really like Cathay Pacific.

No, IIRC I have never bought a CX ticket. The few times I flew on them it was either a shared-code flight or that I was in a tour group or using an award ticket. CX tickets are just toooooo expensive, and its travel packages simply do not cater for single travellers (I once wrote to CX to complain about their discrimination against single travellers, but of course I got the reply that single travellers were always welcome to buy CX tickets and hotels separately). I almost always exclude CX from my travel plans.

I agree that CX's in-flight service is good, as long as the cabin crew don't treat Hong Kong customers as dirt.

[Guest realmayo]

as long as the cabin crew don't treat Hong Kong customers as dirt.

Do they sometimes? Often they're all from HK, no?

I like Cathay a loads, their sliding seats are great for me because I'm not very tall, and they have those AC plug things.

[amandagmu]

Ah! I flew ANA twice within Asia and could not agree more. Great food, foot rests, first-class service in economy, and even some English-language newspapers for free.

[ccaraway]

I really recommend Hainan Airlines for your trip and future trips, and FWIW I think they're the best airline for domestic Chinese flights too.

[skylee]

Thanks very much for everyone's input. I would just like to report that I have just bought an Emirates return ticket to Milan for my trip in April.

When I started this thread, I was trying to get a ticket to Rome. The MU deal (to Rome) disappeared soon after I had seen it, and the prices kept rising. At first the MU ticket costed about HKD5,000. The next day, it was about HKD6200, and now it is over HKD7000. A Qatar ticket to Rome for the dates I want (Easter) with reasonable connection costs about/over HKD10000. This is crazy.

On the other hand people seem to have forgotten Milan (at least for the moment), which was why I could find a ticket at a reasonable price (less than HKD7000). The connections are not ideal but they are not the worst either - waiting time of about 4 hours each way, which is about right. (Transit process is getting more complex and airports are getting bigger and bigger, making longer transit time preferable; unless you use the airport in Helsinki ... which is quite small IIRC.)

I think I can make a good vacation in Italy, though I don't know what I want to do yet.

Thanks to this thread, I have learnt that I should try Hainan Airlines next time if I want to go to Berlin again. And I can forget about MU and Air China's long haul flights.

[skylee]

Based on the comments above, I have just recommended Hainan Airlines' Beijing to Berlin route to a friend.