Air China----experiences, opinions?

[Larry Language Lover]

I just bought tickets on Air China.  Have you guys used this airline much?   Afterwards I stumbled across TripAdvisor and almost all of the reviews are really bad.  I wonder why this is?

[suMMit]

Pre-covid I used to travel a lot for work, including on Air China(all domestic). It's not Swiss Air, or whatever airline is a luxury airline, but it's fine. All the Chinese airlines are pretty similar, I guess I'd rate Hainan a wee bit higher. They all make you take off your headphones from take off to cruising altitude and descent to landing(at least in country), which is annoying. Food is not going to blow you away. All of the Chinese Airlines have nice, new and clean planes, safety is not an issue. Legroom seemed about the same as any US airline to me. No idea about entertainment, because I always just bring my own. Flight attendants and airport staff are normally friendly, tell them you are learning Chinese. What are they complaining about on trip advisor?

[Jan Finster]

I agree with everything Summit said. Last flight from Germany to Shanghai, if I were to complain about something:

 

Limited drink options (juice optiins, no alcohol-free beer...) 

Food largely catered for Chinese

Limited English movies (only 50 or so, not 200 like Emirates) and screens maybe not top notch quality 

 

 

Otherwise perfectly fine

 

 

 

[becky82]

I've used Air China both domestic and international.  No frills, but they always got me to me destination.

[Larry Language Lover]

I bought and paid for my ticket yesterday on trip.com.   This morning I got a message saying Air China had changed my flight.  My ticket is non-refundable and any changes can be expensive.  But it looks like they can change any time they want.   I had to choose another time that I don't like at all,  but at least they give you a few options to change to with no charges.

[abcdefg]

On 7/12/2024 at 11:35 AM, Larry Language Lover said:

I bought and paid for my ticket yesterday on trip.com. 

 

Always book directly with the airline, especially for international flights. Gives you more scheduling flexibility; makes changes easier.

 

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/dont-book-through-online-travel-agency/ 

[Jan Finster]

If this provides comfort, this weekend I flew back from China to Germany with Lufthansa. 

First, they did not have headphones so you could not watch movies ("because the caterer forgot to pack them") on a 12 hour flight. 

Second, the cabin light went on and off randomly during a overnight flight. 

 

I could further talk about the overhead cabin doors not opening properly, the toilets being dirty and the drink options being limited, but I just stopping caring. 

From experiences like these I come prepared with headphones, I bring my own oatmeal and snacks and some pour over coffee. So far they never ran out of hot water. Lastly I leave any expectations at home. 

[amytheorangutan]

I haven’t flown Air China but I can confirm Lufthansa is horrific and I will have to fly with them again in October. I dreaded it. Last time I flew with them the screens and the phone charger on our whole row of seats didn’t work on a 14 hours flight. The food was inedible, I ate the weird breakfast roll they gave me and I ended up sick. It’s impossible even to get water from the stewardess at night and they clearly hate their job so much, when they were giving out food and the cart got a bit jammed they just rammed the trolley to our seats a few times. Not to mention they were late both ways. I felt like I was on a night bus instead of an airplane 😫 unfortunately they are the most reasonable option in term of flight time and price from UK to Beijing. I wish I could afford Cathay 😔

[vellocet]

On 7/13/2024 at 12:35 AM, Larry Language Lover said:

I bought and paid for my ticket yesterday on trip.com.   This morning I got a message saying Air China had changed my flight.  My ticket is non-refundable and any changes can be expensive.  But it looks like they can change any time they want.   I had to choose another time that I don't like at all,  but at least they give you a few options to change to with no charges.

Ctrip - now called Trip.com are scammers. Never use them, delete their app from your phone. They often did the same thing to me, changing or cancelling my hotel reservation without notification. The last straw was arriving at the hotel in Bali  to discover they had no record of the "all inclusive" package I had booked and paid extra for. Nope, just a room.   Obviously someone at Trip.com pocketed the money. 

At one time, they were the only game in town for booking in China in English.  Now, use literally aything else.  If you can read Chinese Qunar is the go-to for most travelers. 

Flying Pig 飞虎 let me down by me booking an airfare and then not showing it in the app the evening before early travel.  When I got to the airport my reservation was there, but I could not make it show up in the app to confirm.  So I got there way too early because there was another flight an hour earlier and I had to make my destination.  Oh well, won't be using them again, either.  

[suMMit]

Used Ctrip to book every hotel on my recent month long trip around northwest China. Had zero problems. Booked most hotels only a day in advance. Canceled many, many times to change date, refunded me every single time. Good prices, told me every important detail, lots of helpful reviews. I have booked flights on it in the past. No problems. I disagree that it's a "scam". 

[abcdefg]

My experience, admittedly now several years old, was that CTrip was fine for domestic hotels, so-so for trains, and not very reliable for air flights. Used them a lot between 2006 and 2020. I used them at first for everything at a time when I could not comfortably negotiate a Chinese-language website. The main issue I ran into was that they would book me on flights which had already been changed by the airline, but had not yet been changed in their own booking system. This sounds like what happened to @Larry Language Lover.

 

The other annoying thing I found several times is that an air reservation made through their portal would not show up in the airline's own reservation system, which made it impossible to independently confirm the details of the flight. Never had any reason to think they were dishonest; just not always efficient.  

 

All this stuff changes so fast that the experience of others becomes out of date and irrelevant very fast. These companies go through mergers and buyouts and downsizing which alter their operating style while leaving the corporate name intact. Personally, I find it best not to put all your eggs in one basket. 

 

 

[Larry Language Lover]

On 7/20/2024 at 2:00 PM, abcdefg said:

My experience, admittedly now several years old, was that CTrip was fine for domestic hotels, so-so for trains, and not very reliable for air flights. Used them a lot between 2006 and 2020. I used them at first for everything at a time when I could not comfortably negotiate a Chinese-language website. The main issue I ran into was that they would book me on flights which had already been changed by the airline, but had not yet been changed in their own booking system. This sounds like what happened to @Larry Language Lover.

 

 

It looks like all is good.   I can find the flight booked on trip.com on the official AirChina app and can even choose seats.  Third party reservations cannot be handled on the webpage and it states that only flights booked on the AirChina webpage can be found there and they direct you to their app.

[abcdefg]

Good. Glad it worked out!

[Larry Language Lover]

UPDATE:  Today I was able to check in for my flight tomorrow on the AirChina app and be issued an electronic boarding pass.  I was also able to select my seat on the app for both parts of the trip.  So here's hoping all else goes equally smoothly!  

[abcdefg]

Sounds good. I'm sure it will be fine.

[Larry Language Lover]

Update:  AirChina was great!  No complaints whatsoever.

 

Trip.com was fantastic.  I booked my flight to China and back on trip.com.   While in China, I and fellow students used trip.com to book our hotels and train to both Lijiang and Dali.  Very smooth and great experience.   While in China I used trip.com to book my train tickets in Spain online for my return home in Spain.  I ended up using local ride sharing in Spain and smoothly canceled my train tickets and got my refund.  This website worked well for everything in my experience.