Air China

✅ Trip Verified | London to Bangkok via Beijing. Do not ever fly this airline. Not only were my flights delayed, but my luggage was lost for several days, with Air China taking absolutely no responsibility, except for the first day on which they told me that the place was unbalanced so they took my suitcase off. Unhelpful aircraft staff, even had an argument in the aisle in front of us, shouting!

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Frankfurt via Chengdu. The worst flight I ever had. Air China is not even able to check through the luggage although the flight was booked from BKK to FRA. I had to immigrate into China - had to get a transit visa. I asked the Air China staff for assistance: Their answer: we have more important things to do. The ground service of Air China is not even existing - if at all they are able to speak a foreign language, like English, which is mostly not the case. The service onboard is better with the exception of the food that is inedible. My advice: never fly Air China! The flight price may be cheap - what you get for it is not worthwhile.

✅ Trip Verified | Return sector from Taipei to Frankfurt via Shanghai-Pudong, including an overnight layover in Shanghai. Check-in staff in TPE to my surprise told me that my suitcase cannot be checked through to FRA as PVG is "not an Air China hub, unlike PEK". Since the check-in staff did not work directly for Air China, I did not make a direct complaint, but this must be mentioned when booking a connection itinerary. The assumption when booking this kind of flight with both legs operated by the same airline is that bags will be checked through to your final destination! This meant that I had to clear customs and haul my suitcase into central Shanghai for the less than 24hrs layover. Furthermore, the transfer visa staff at Pudong was very rude. I did not have my full itinerary printed in this electronic day and age (just my confirmation number written down) and immigration staff insisted on seeing a copy of my onward journey (as I also didn't have my boarding pass for the onward flight because TPE staff could only check me in to PVG). No Wifi is accessible in Pudong Airport to travellers without a Chinese SIM card, meaning I was unable to access my booking on my phone/iPad, unbelievable! This meant that the immigration staff had to physically go to Air China to check the passenger list for tomorrow to see if I'm on it, making me wait 30 min at the counter. Service onboard is below average and smiles seem faked. The food and drinks offering is substandard with none of the alcoholic beverage offerings on other carriers. My IFE touchscreen was very hard to navigate (touch function almost broken), meaning that pausing a film when going to the toilet was not possible easily. Film selection very limited, outdated and often in Chinese. Advice: Avoid Air China stopovers like the plague, however tempting it might seem to explore Beijing or Shanghai! And avoid Air China in general if you have other choices. It's definitely worth spending an extra 100 bucks for service and comfort (especially since my layover costs amounted to this much anyway).

✅ Trip Verified | On Jan 4, 2018, I was on board Air China CA981 from Beijing to JFK, which was the middle leg of 3 connecting flights, with the 1st 2 being Air flights, and the last one being a JetBlue flight from JFK to Boston. My tks were purchased from Orbitz, which repeatedly told me that AirChina was my ticket "stock" holder, or in another word, Air China was in charge of my connection to JetBlue (it seemed to me that Orbitz paid Air China). Due to the snow storm on the east coast, this flight was delayed, and someone, not clear whether it was Air China or Orbitz, did change my JetBlue flight from the evening of the 4th to the morning of the 5th - so far someone was being responsible. What happened next was that CA981 flow to Chicago O'Hare that night, and it would fly to JFK on the afternoon of the 5th, hence there is no way that I can make my connecting flight. On CA981, we were told to get a hotel for overnight on our own, and Air China will reimburse up to $150 of the cost. I did this, emailed the receipt, boarding pass, and a cover letter to Air China. I was cc'd on an email, in which the email of my was forwarded to someone (what's strange was that this email address appeared to be a personal email, instead of official Air China email). It's been 3 months. Since I couldn't find anyone at O'Hare or by phone from Air China to change my connecting flight (Orbitz told me it's Air China's responsibility), I had to waste the ticket from JFK to Boston. On that day Orbitz told me that I should be able to get refund for that leg, since I didn't and couldn't use the tk.(at least I talked to someone from Orbitz, there was absolutely no one to be found from Air China). Later on Orbits told me that I couldn't be refunded since the JetBlue tk "had no value", and they marked that ticket as "been used" on my account. I had to buy myself a separate ticket in order to get back to Boston from Chicago.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Geneva. As Lufthansa and Swiss codeshare with air china, I was unfortunately booked on the return flight with Air China. Firstly they have rude customer service, the flight attendants make you feel that they are doing you a huge favour if you complain. I initially received an email saying that my flight type, had been changed from business to economy. When contacting Air China, I was informed that I would be flying with Air China, however there would be no flight miles on this sector. This is a joke, given that the ticket from Geneva to Xiamen and return cost CHF4400. I had selected the seat numbers during my booking and the seat numbers were clearly indicated in my flight itinerary. However, on my flight from Beijing, we were issued different seat numbers and I did not make a fuss since it was a late night flight and all i wanted to do was get back home. I did not have anything to eat, and fell asleep shortly after take off, I could not get the seat to recline 14A, but thought this was because I was tired. Later on about 2 hours after take off, I again tried with no success. Then i tried to switch on the TV, and called the flight attendant multiple times, they reset 4 times without any success. I approached the manager and initially he tried to refer me another flight attendant to assist. I refused his referral and insisted that he resolved the problem for me. He then informed me that he would try to reset the tv again, and would try to get the seat to recline. By this time it was about 6am in the morning, as we had departed 2am Beijing time. So no chair that reclined, nor a tv that worked. Feeling very frustrated i called the attendant again and told him that this was unacceptable. During all this time, I kept getting these looks, as if to say what do you expect us to do? Finally, he relented and said he would see if he could find me another seat, this was almost 5 hours later. From the onset, why didn't they just suggest this. All the passengers were asleep and i informed him that i didnt feel it would be right to wake the rest of the passengers. I changed 3 hours prior to landing, as I had a terrible backache, but will never fly with this airline again. Small seats in business class, tine screens if you seated in front seats, and more importantly nothing that works. So in effect i could have flown economy as i basically received the same kind of seat and very little assistance from the staff!? Even, my written complaint to the airline had fallen on a deaf ear. This is my first and last time flying this airline. This is the worst airline I have flown with and will refuse to fly with them again

✅ Trip Verified | I warn you do not fly with Air China, it's not worth the cheap prices. I normally don't give complaints because I always try to find the silver lining in situations, but I will this time. Though Air China had some of the best deals, it's only a good deal if everything goes smoothly. I ran into lots of trouble on this trip, and it ended up costing me much more than if I had flown with a more reputable company with better customer policies. I ended up paying lots of money for a very frustrating experience, not even able to take my trip after all. First of all, when I checked my E-ticket, it said the airlines was in "Terminal I" Once I got to Terminal 1, I found out, it was the wrong Terminal! The "I" of "Terminal I" stood for "International." Because of that I missed my flight. To rebook the flight, I was charged about $300. Shortly after rebooking, I found an error in my ticket. To correct the error, it cost me another $200. It also took a period of 5 hours to get all of this sorted! I was on an off the phone with them and had to call them back several times for emails they promised to send me but hadn't. I had my layover in Beijing Capital Airport. Thirty minutes after de-boarding, I realized I left my passport in the airplane seat pocket. After notifying staff (telling them my seat number too), they said they couldn't find it. (Which turned out to be false - several days afterwards, I received a call saying my passport had been found in the seat pocket) I thought they were talking to each other trying to figure out my passport situation. So that's why I followed them and once I realized what was happening, it was too late. They forced me through the security check and back onto an airplane flying back to Japan cause, "If no passport, no be in China!" they shouted at me. Once home, I called Air China to voice my complaint. It took about 2 hours. Rather than taking care of the problem themselves, they kept referring me to another number. In the end, I was fortunate enough to talk to a caring and reasonable agent. But they said there is little that can be done. I spent thousands of dollars, just to have 24+ hours of one frustrating experience after another. I understand that part of it was my fault but also, doesn't everyone make mistakes? I feel Air China has no mercy helping customers with their troubles; instead, seems they prey on the problems as a way to bring in more income for themselves. I definitely do not recommend Air China!

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Xian via Beijing. Worst airline ever, our flight was canceled minutes prior to boarding and there was no communication. I approached a staff member and was told there was a slight delay and should be boarding soon but when I turned around to look at the plane it was gone and still no communications to the passengers. 20 minutes past boarding time the plane disappeared from the gate and still no word was past to the passengers. 1 hour after the boarding time the staff suggested we reschedule our flight, a suggestion and not notification we had to. finally after an hour and a half past boarding time we were told to follow a staff member and once we got about 100 feet from the counter the staff member disappeared leaving us lost on what to do. We returned to the ticket counter and was told to collect our luggage and to come back tomorrow to re-book the flight.

✅ Trip Verified | Hong Kong to Los Angeles via Beijing. Hong Kong to Beijing a comfortable 2-4-2 economy A330 cabin. The flight was smooth and attended by very nice cabin crew. Though their English was not very fluent, they made every attempt possible to communicate. The Chinese fare was good, though many westerners complain. Beijing-LAX leg was a 3-3-3 economy layout, and the seats were quite comfortable and with enough space for my size. The wheelchair provided arrived on time for the transfer.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Hong Kong return via Beijing. I am handicapped and need a wheel chair in airports. I loved every minute on this flight. The food was different, but I wanted to begin my Chinese experience this way. I liked most of it. The beverage choice was great andt entertainment system was fast. I appreciated the kindness of flight attendants, once I sat she came over and took off my shoes and put on slippers. Later on, I went to the toilet and when I returned she helped me turn down my bed and tucked me in. Upon landing was instructed to remain in the aircraft until all passengers deplaned so the wheelchair would be available. The toilets were kept clean. Beijing to Hong Kong portion was in economy, but the service remained as good. I shall fly this airline again.

✅ Trip Verified | Singapore to Beijing and back with my wife. Customer service was very bad. I had selected the seat numbers during my booking and the seat numbers were clearly indicated in my flight itinerary. However, on my flight to Beijing, we were issued different seat numbers and I did not make a fuss since the allocated seats were next to each other. On my trip back to Singapore, the check-in counter staff insisted that I did not select our seats despite showing her my flight itinerary which clearly indicated our selected seat numbers. She refused to accept the documentary proof and issued us the seats separated from each other in different rows. I approached the airline's duty manager and initially he tried to refer me another ticketing agent, but I refused his referral and insisted that he resolved the problem for me. He then offered to upgrade me to Premium Economy , but we had to wait at the gate until the last minute before they could know if they could upgrade us. This, I also rejected as there was no assurance that I could get the upgrade and we might ended up seating in seperate seat in different rows. Finally, he relented and issued two seat numbers next to each other. From the onset, why didn't the duty manager allocate us the seats rather than trying to pass the buck? Even, my written complaint to the airline had fallen on a deaf ear. This is my first and last time flying this airline. This is the worst airline I have flown with.