Air China

✅ Trip Verified | Booked with Air China mostly for their competitive price. The Airport check in process was acceptable, although a bit understaffed with only 3 counters open for a 300 seat aircraft. The ground staff were very nice to have allocated me an emergency exit row seat, free of charge. Upon boarding one thing that was immediately obvious was the unusually hard cushioning on the seat back, upon close inspection there appears to only be about half a centimeter of foam. The inflight entertainment system also performed mediocrely, with laggy inputs and in this flight in particular requiring 3 separate reboots, with each taking about half an hour. The food and drinks is pretty much what you will find on an international flight like this, although lacking in western style food in general. Overall an average flight that I would recommend if you are either an international studnet or traveling on a tight budget.

✅ Trip Verified | Jakarta to Tokyo via Beijing. Air China was the cheapest airline for our flight to Japan. Check-in process was perfect and boarding procedure commenced very organized. Cabin crew greeted us with smiles offered help to passengers who needed assistance to place the carry on baggage. As for inflight service, the crew showed some dedication. Seats were okay for first hours during flight, however after second to final hours of flight, the seat could not provide enough comfort and lumbar support to rest (unlike for example SQ or EK which adds much comfort to their seats). Meals were fine although they were not perfect. Drinks were served. In conclusion, Air China is for passengers who seek low cost flights with full service. As for transiting in PEK, I should say transferring passengers must be ready to endure the complicated process before boarding to your onward flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Poor expectations (prior reviews) were immediately erased from checking in to boarding the immense business cabin! We were greeted by a most professional crew and amazingly gregarious Austrian pilot! Since our arrival would be too early for VIE we were entertained by the pilot for 1 hour who introduced himself to all business class passengers. The cabin was spotless with the largest space that I have ever encountered! After the tight business seats for 18 hours last week (A350-900 flight on Singapore from EWR to SIN) this A330’s was delightful. My French wine was spot on and all meals were delicious. I look forward to booking Air China on my next Asia trips!

✅ Trip Verified | London to Sydney via Beijing. We were a family of six (kids ages ranging from 16-7). We check in 8 bags, firstly and most importantly I recommend allowing 1.5-2 hours for baggage drop alone, this was our experience in both LHR and SYD. On our outward leg I didn’t appreciate the time needed and so we lost out on our planned dinner in T2, the baggage check in process is outsourced to ground handling companies. Our experience onboard was normal, but much better than the big north American Airline companies, I ate all the food, inflight entertainment selection was significant, although not the most recent. The cabin staff were very courteous & pleasant, our four flights went without incident and I would book with Air China again.

✅ Trip Verified | Newark to Manila return via Beijing. Our luggage, all of 4 pieces, did not arrive with us at point of destination. I had a wedding to attend. I had to find alternatives. Luggage was delivered at our local address after three days of our arrival. Manila to Beijing breakfast served all around us. However, we (my husband and me) were missed. The crew realized their oversight when they came to serve the drinks. They claimed we were asleep which was untrue. Then another excuse was offered -"they ran short of one food choice" which I cannot accept because no one ever even asked us. We were eventually served breakfast, and staff gave their apologies. I told them apology accepted but not the excuse.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew Shanghai to Sydney. Wonderful customer service. Air China crew are outstanding, what a lovely experience. My favourite flight, next to Qantas. Highly recommended! Thank you for making our flight comfortable and relaxed - you’re delightfully charming.

Not Verified | Delhi to Houston via Beijing. I am very disappointed with my travel with Air china. The airline refused to upgrade me to Premium economy or business class in spite of me being ready to pay for the service. The crew was very rude and somewhere discriminated the food was horrible. Our flight kept getting delayed and they refused to answer any questions. I will never fly with them ever again and will not recommend this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | SGN-FRA via Beijing on 3rd January 2019 on a small B737 and then on a large aircraft B777-300ER for the last leg. Check-in in Saigon smooth, they checked my luggage in the whole way for 4 sectors ahead where the last 2 legs were on another ticket with Ethiopian. Both flights on time despite they were both completely full. In SGN they now use the new Saigonnais 3rd party lounge which is wonderful and inspirational, just opened a month ago. In Beijing I used their First Class lounge. Transitting in Beijing is not fun, they fragment all items in handluggage. First flight was eventless and a bit cramped as one can’t stretch out legs in the first row due to bulkhead. Welcome champagne offered. Food is dull and only passable. They had good teas, coffee, and 3 brands of beers onboard. 2nd flight to Germany was on the B777. They took the trouble to call, find, help, and wait for me as I was mistaken on local time while in the lounge. After CA-staff found me, they assisted me by running together with me and my handluggage to enable me to board on the waiting flight even the doors were already closed. Had seat 15H and things went well. Food and drinks were both very good to my taste – and options were well informed through comprehensive Food and Drink Menu cards. Amenity kit. Good entertainment and earphones. Full flight, hard working staff. Call bells answered within seconds. They ran out of beers and icecream before landing. Disembarking smooth and quick.

✅ Trip Verified | We booked from Sydney to Frankfurt via Beijing for $1000 round trip via an online travel website. Awesome! Cheap price. A couple of months later, we decided to change our departure and return dates. Knowing that there would be penalties, we called the Air China call center and we were happy to hear that it would cost about $150 per person to make the change. We called 5 days later to apply the change and to our surprise, the total price to is now $630 per person. After many questions with the support center representative who barely spoke English, we found that we were given the wrong information on the first call. We asked to speak with the supervisor: he/she doesn't speak English! Really?? You are in the aviation industry and you don't speak English? We decided to verify with the travel website: They were going to charge $780! We had 2 choices: 1. Cancel the ticket to get $500 refund and buy another ticket at $1000 (and lose $500 per person) OR 2. Just change the tickets at $630 per person with Air China. Even though it is more expensive, we decided to avoid the hassle and go with the second option. Air China asked us for our passport numbers because their system would not allow them to make any changes without it. How is it possible that we bought the tickets online WITHOUT the passport numbers. They would not accept any other form of identification (no driver license, no national ID, no credit card matching the name of the passenger). This is our first experience with Air China and we haven't even boarded the plane. This is our last experience with Air China because we refuse to board this or any of their planes. Do not book with Air China!! I hope this will help someone in the future in avoiding the issues we had to deal with even before boarding the plane.

✅ Trip Verified | Singapore to Vancouver via Beijing. No complaints about aircraft. My ticket was booked with gluten free meals since I’m a celiac. On the outbound flight - they didn’t have my meals. Cabin crew barely speaks English and this is the first international airline I’ve seen that hardly has any alcohol service - a beer or two and a cheap white and red wine. No other hard liquors to get a mixed drink. No regular black tea-only green tea or coffee. On flight back, delayed extra hour out of Beijing with no explanation, just sat on plane. Than when we arrived in Vancouver, we find out that they messed up our Westjet booking for the connecting flight, thus we missed that flight and had rebook on a later flight several hours later. I am never flying this airline again, even if they were to give me a free ticket! How they call themselves an International airline is beyond me. We won’t even talk about Beijing airport.