Air China

✅ Trip Verified | Taipei to Munich via Shanghai. Overall excellent experience with Air China. Flight attendants were very friendly and the food was quite okay. Seatbelt signs were often left on even when turbulence was nonexistent or minimal, but had no trouble using the lavatories anyway. It would have been nice to have been able to check my baggage at TPE much earlier and still take a train to visit a nearby area for example like Zhongli. I arrived at the airport 5 hours before the flight since I had to check out of my hotel anyway. But then I had to wait until about 2.5 hours before departure before I was allowed to actually check my bag in, so I ended up spending a long time just sitting at the airport.

Not Verified | I advise to avoid this airline at any cost! Cabin crew on the international flights can’t communicate in any other language than Chinese. At the same time you would not find them neither attentive nor friendly nor pleasant at occasion. Food is very average. What was the worst part of the trip is how unfriendly I was treated when relocated myself and occupied free seat in first row. They literally had all the seats unoccupied in the first row (apparently unless you pay for these seats during booking, they won’t even open them during checkin), so I decided to take the seat (being 190cm tall) for that 11 hours journey, it didn’t take long for a flight assistant to approach me and insist I return to my original seat (still same coach cabin) because “these seats were 100$ more expensive”. The overall experience was very bad for that flight and service and I next time I would do anything not to fly with Air China, so should you..

✅ Trip Verified | Seoul to Guangzhou via Tianjin. This was the worst travel experience I have had yet. The first leg of my journey was fairly smooth, but the airplane itself was old and threadbare. When it came time for the transfer, the flight was delayed and the gate changed, but this was not announced clearly and no staff was left at the old gate to redirect passengers. The second plane was also careworn and foul-smelling, and it would be generous to call the food mediocre. The plane was quite old and uncomfortable. When I tried to raise the headrest on my seat, it wouldn't move, so I had to stand up and push harder. At that point, the headrest flew off the rails and into the row behind me, hitting the man and woman there. The seat in front of me could not be put back fully upright, so that passenger's seat was leaning into me, even during mealtime. I would need to have a huge price margin between Air China and the next closest competitor before I would fly this airline again.

✅ Trip Verified | I was supposed to be flying from Tokyo to Hanoi via a transit flight through Beijing. The two flights was supposed to be 9 hours maximum, but due to a 40 minutes delay of the first flight, a lot of other customers and myself missed our transit. Even though the ground staff in Haneda airport assured me that I would meet my flight, I suddenly found myself freezing and stranded in the unknown land of Beijing for 9 hours, waiting for the next flight. To make matters worse, it was not to my intended destination. I had to take a flight to Seoul, waited there for another 4 hours, before flying another airline from Seoul to Hanoi. To sum it up, I wasted 26 hours of my time travelling whereas I should only have spent 9. The airline did not bother setting up accommodation for any of the guests, offering only a meagre amount of 200 yuan (less than 30 dollars) as “compensation”, which, realistically speaking, is nowhere near enough for a hotel room. The staff were rather unhelpful and unprofessional. As far as I am concerned, I did not receive any apologies throughout the whole ordeal. The only “explanation” given was that “More than 20000 other guests are also in the same situation”. This “explanation” to me sounds more like an admission of inefficiency on their part than anything really. My luggage, which was stuck in Beijing, was handled without an ounce of care. It was just put randomly in front of the Air China office with no one to look after and could have been easily stolen. The ground staff were extremely unfriendly and unprofessional. When I came to the Air China luggage office, despite the fact that there were 3 staff members on duty, they did not respond to my questions despite my repeated gesturing, preferring to chat among themselves instead. Overall, I had an extremely unsatisfying experience with ChinaAir and will not ever use this service again. I do NOT recommend this airline to anyone.

✅ Trip Verified | Air China started flying to Panama a couple of times a week, and I decided to try them to travel from Panama to Qingdao. The ticket price was very reasonable (1000 dollars cheaper than the nearest alternative) and my previous experience on Air China 777's was pretty good. I regret to say that the overall experience left a lot to be desired. The plane was fine. Their B777 Business Class is in a 2-2-2 configuration which is not fabulous but is perfectly comfortable. The seats are good. The planes lack wifi, which is a real pity, but otherwise there is a good IFE system. The crews work hard and try to please. They lack coordination and finesse in the sense that they bring you the meal, and 20 minutes later, after you're finished, they pass out the bread. But those are minor issues compared with the real problem of this flight. The routing goes through Houston (they call it a "Technical Stop" but there is nothing technical to it). Get your stuff. Get out of the plane. Pass US immigration. Wait for your luggage. Clear US Customs. Then haul your luggage to a different terminal to Check in all over again. Clear security again. Then wait for the flight. The experience was horrible! It is clear why they have to leave set aside 4 hours for everyone to pass immigration and get their luggage and check back in. If they had arranged the "Technical Stop" through Canada, it would have been much simpler, I think. You still need to clear immigration, but at least you don't have to wait for luggage, clear customs and then find a different terminal! In Mexico you don't even need to clear immigration during the stop. The same circus happened in Houston on the return trip. So while it's great that the Air China have started flying to Panama, they really need to re-think their routing, because what they have is awful. Ideally, they would use a 787 and fly nonstop, but if a stop needs to be made, the worst place to make it is in the US. They would have been better off doing the technical stop in Mexico or in Toronto. It's a pity, since they're spending a lot of money to develop the route, and their equipment is good, their safety record excellent, their employees work hard and are professional, and the whole experience gets botched by their choice of "Technical Stop". I hope they rethink it.

Not Verified | Newark to Manila via Beijing. We arrived to Newark via United, plane was on time. At check in Newark was informed the plane from Beijing to Manila would be late therby missing connection to Manila. We and 45 other passengers were given option overnight in Beijing or wait 11 hours in Newark airport for next flight to Beijing. The attendant said she would be back. She returned to tell us that now the other flight was overbooked and layover no longer possible in Beijing. Here take the 15$ meal coupons and wait here in Newark, and by the way you have to keep your luggage with you. 15$ only buys fast food in a US airport inally they changed again said they would put us on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong to Manila. We still waited 11 hours had to go thru Cathay Pacific was great very helpful. We got to Manila after spending 11 hours in Newark thanks to Air China. I believe Air China uses "load levelling" we have heard of them doing this a lot. We bought the tickets in October 2018 for a January 17, 2019 flight. On the return trip our reservations said Feb 4 (we verified these at Manila hotel) at Manila airport, we are told reservations were changed Dec 1 2018 to Tuesday Feb 5 supposedly by email we did not see? We told them our previous story and they insisted we go on Tue February 5 so another day forced to wait in Manila. They made no effort to accomodate us or upgrade us coming home. That flight was ok and uneventful. The Manila to Beijing portion was on half full leading us to wonder how full was the previous days flight. Bottom line do not fly Air China unless you like being jerked around on both ends of your flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Vancouver. My connecting flight from Beijing to Delhi was three hours late which resulted in me missing my Bus from Delhi to Punjab which I had booked tickets for. While coming back the flight was again delayed from Beijing to Vancouver. We were supposed to catch our connecting flight at 1200hrs on January 22, when we saw that flight is late we kept asking the crew that how we will catch our next flight but they kept saying we don’t know anything. Throughout the flight we kept worrying about our further arrangements. Although when we came to Vancouver we were told that we were transferred to next connecting flight at 1500 hrs. We were very disappointed with the whole experience. In addition vegetarian meal was very disappointing as well.

✅ Trip Verified | Paris CDG to Taipei TPE via Shanghai PVG, 18h journey including a 5h layover. Was a bit worried about flying them when I saw how cheap they were compared to other airlines, and because both their website and app make no sense in both French and English. It looks like the Chinese version went through a translating software and left that way. Playing around clicking on everything through their app made me realise I was admissible to free VIP lounge access due to the length of my layover, that was not long enough to be allowed out of the airport (EU citizens can request free 48h visa for any international transfer in any major Chinese city, HongKong/Macao/Taiwan included, but the customs decide if they will let you out or not by judging how long your layover is). Online check in on the app crashed, and made me wait a bit longer at CDG for manual check in. And my flight wasn't eligible to online check in anyway because there is no baggage drop counter for Air China at CDG. Went through a messy process but always on time. They did check the weight of my hand luggage. On my way inbound clerk was new and asked me if I was ok getting my luggage back in Shanghai and re-checking it in. I said no, she went for help and managed to check my luggage for transfer. Was a bit longer than usual but it saved me the hassle. Boarding was only 20 minutes before departure but it didn't make them late. Layover in Shanghai was a long process through customs and health check. Then despite being economy I had free access to VIP lounge with free food, drinks and bathrooms with showers. Food buffet was like a good hotel breakfast buffet. Everything was comfy but WiFi was pretty bad though. The snack on my short flight from Shanghai to Taipei was just not edible though. I still don't know if it was supposed to be cold noodles or celery because it was tasteless and texture was like plastic. It was a snack and I wasn't hungry thanks to the lounge buffet so whatever. Boarding and unboarding in Shanghai was always by bus, so boarding time was 1h before take off. Aircraft was old 330-200, had crumbs everywhere and the old carpeting smell. Seats were clean but definitely old (especially when deploying my tray). Seat and legroom felt a bit cozy but it didn't feel tighter than other companies. IFE's touchscreen was dead on both ways and I had to use the buttons on the armrest to use it, and it was laggy but usable. I pre ordered a fat free meal, got steamed fish and pasta with veggies and plain tomato sauce and mushroom omelette outbound, fried tofu noodles and carrot puree with veggies on my way inbound. Looked way better than the other regular meals (greasy noodles and porridge). No snacks. Drinks were served 4 times, no black tea, only green tea, and would often come to suggest drinking water. Staff were not smiling but they were efficient and not being rude, I was fine with that. They also prevented two passengers from fighting. In the end it wasn't my best flight experience, but it was far from being a nightmare. And to be able to travel to the other side of the globe for the price I paid with lounge access, I definitely recommend it.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Shanghai via Beijing. Awful experience. Maybe I was on an older plane, but they had no USB ports in business or economy. This is unforgivable, it’s now become a basic requirement. Their mobile app is unfriendly to use, couldn’t change seats easily. They clearly haven’t bothered to look at the apps of the Middle Eastern airlines which are flawless in design and experience. No travel kit for economy passengers, not even a toothbrush. Again, a basic requirement which most other competitors provide on long haul flights. Antiquated entertainment system. In summary, they have a long, long way to go.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Vancouver was my worst experience so far. While waiting to take off, 3 passengers cancelled so i requested to be transferred but the male flight attendant told me to stick to my original seat assignment but even upon pleading him it was due to a medical condition, he left by saying he will see what he can do, and after that i never heard any word from him or even a follow up. I also observed how disorganized the flight attendants during the meal distribution. Due to several special meal requests from other passengers, staff were skipping one row from another and during my turn when asked for my choice for a regular meal the attendant left to attend to another special meal request leaving me hanging without food tray and waited for few more minutes. When finally i was handed my food tray and started to eat, a second food tray dropped upside down into my lap leaving me startled and mad with no apologies coming from the attendant. As i started to clean and pick up, the attendant only said its okay and she will take care of it later. I also observed they were more enthusiastic in serving their Chinese passengers. On the second meal service, the chicken dish i was served has the same sauce/taste from the first meal beef dish served, When i asked for another option, i was given a beef over pasta dish and ended up tasting the same beef dish topping from first meal served and lost my appetite for good.