China Eastern Airlines

Frankfurt (FRA) to Shanghai (PVG) on Airbus 330-200. I booked this flight because it was by far the cheapest. Boarding was on time and the cabin surprisingly modern. There was in-seat-entertainment (on the flight back there were only overhead displays) though the choice of movies very limited. The cabin crew worked well but they didn't have time for talking or at least smiling. The seat was a little too small for me although my height is average European. Food was okay not more not less. What I liked were the warm towels handed to you twice and the morning work-out presented by flight attendants. In conclusion you get an average flight experience for a good price.

Beijing-Nanjing on a mid-week flight. After what seemed a never ending delay in departure (partly due to a sick passenger) the flight was reasonable except for incredibly uncaring fellow passengers who consistently wandered up to the toilet while the aircraft was still taxiing or put their seats completely into recline before the aircraft had even taken off. First Class on these domestic flights is closer to a cheap business class flight in a country such as Australia. Nevertheless food and service was quite good although the glass of white wine I had must have been the warmest I have ever encountered. The business lounges available at Beijing were extremely rudimentary.

UK to Sydney via Shanghai for Christmas/New Year Dec 2011 - this airline was the cheapest. I purchased an Australian Visa with my flight but had to buy a second visa at Heathrow as China Eastern were adamant I didn't have one and would not issue me a boarding pass until I purchased an emergency one for £35! I would advise taking your own entertainment as the initial first leg of the trip was the only one with a personal TV system every other flight only had communal TV screens showing Chinese films with English subtitles. Food was mainly meat with noodles or fish with rice you may want to consider becoming vegetarian for the trip. I had an overnight stop over in Shanghai nothing was very co-ordinated at the airport - ensure you have a hotel booking slip from your agent. All stopover passengers from my flight didn't seem to have a reservation at either of the airport's hotels the majority of us ended up paying for our rooms on a credit card.

LAX-PDG PDG-LAX and a few domestic flights in China. Seats were comfortable on the transpacific flight and electrical outlets at every seat. The IFE was strange so a laptop comes in handy. Meals were hot and tasty but expect Asian-style cuisine. Obviously FA's speak little English but ours seemed friendly. They brought out hot towels after each meal which was a pleasant surprise. Domestic flights were pleasant and uneventful. Only issue was when a storm the previous night caused out flight to be cancelled. We would have been out of luck if our Chinese-speaking guide hadn't been there to speak with the agents.

Singapore-Shanghai-Seoul. Surprisingly prompt departure and arrival time at all destinations no flight delay as described by other passengers. Food quality was poor and much improvement needed leg-room was only slightly better than budget aircraft's. Service staff were generally helpful.

I am China Eastern Gold (Elite Plus) member and fly with almost every week on Shanghai-Changsha Shanghai-Chengdu Shanghai-Kunming Shanghai-Guiyang and Shanghai-Beijing. Other than the VIP lounge I never got any other special treatment. Most of MU flights have delays from 30 minutes to 1.5hrs very tight legroom for all flights poor quality food served. MU is far behind the China Southern in terms of service quality if you travel within mainland China.

Shanghai-Beijing with A330. The flight from Shanghai to Beijing had very decent hot meal surprisingly. But the return flight from Beijing to Shanghai had only a sandwich. Not sure why it was so different. No individual seat-back monitor available. Both flights were almost on time with only minor delay.

Xi'an to Beijing Capital. Nice Airbus A320 flight with o/h Video playing comedy programmes during short 1 hr 22 min duration. Cabin crew worked hard to serve Lunch pity that the Beef seemed on the tough side and rice was rather cold. Cabin crew give out details of flight progress nothing from flight deck crew which seems to be the norm in China.

Two very different experiences with China Eastern. I recently flew Melbourne to Shanghai and returned three days later business class. First surprise the plane was a Shanghai Airlines B767. Seat 2E was comfortable enough with good legrest and went back to about 150 deg not flat but enough to sleep. Welcome drink was water or a glass with about 1 cm of sparking wine - very odd. Lunch consisted of small salad reasonable main course and plate with four pieces of not so fresh fruit. Dinner consisted of same small salad and same poor quality fruit plate with noodle dish in between. The silliest part was that utensils were the poorest plastic I have ever seen. They were so thin the tines of the fork could not be used to pick up the meat or the vegetables - so I had to eat with fingers which is not terrible just really silly. Business class toilet was out of service but crew did their best to give us access to one of the forward economy toilets. Return flight out of Shanghai was quite different. Same type of plane same seat. Welcome drink was normal glasses of orange juice and white. Toilet worked. Dinner consisted of salad very good appetizer seafood main course and fruit or ice cream for dessert. All served with silver cutlery which debunked my thought that plastic was used out of Melbourne for safety reasons. I do not know how the quality out of Melbourne could be so bad as I have used many airlines out of Melbourne and never had such bad food or accessories as on the Eastern China flight and what makes it so strange is that the airline has such good standards out of Shanghai. It was almost like two different airlines - I would never pay business class to fly the first but I would for the second.

SYD-PVG-LAX. SYD-PVG leg on an A330 - seemed quite new. Flight Attendants aren't overly friendly and quite concise and to the point. Food was okay not overly pleasing. PVG-LAX on an A340. Seemed similar in generation of the A330. Flight Attendants were more friendly on this flight. Some meals were poor quality. Return flight LAX-PVG was extremely similar however meal quality was significantly improved. Return flight PVG-SYD was extremely full due to a ticketing malfunction. Food was quite poor.