Air China

✅ Verified Review | Singapore to Beijing return. Both flights were delayed with the Bangkok to Beijing flight delayed by over 30mins. Arrival in Beijing was almost 1 hour late. The cabin was neat and tiny. Each seat came with a personal TV screen with a selection of movies and short programmes though quite limited. There was some turbulence during both flights but it seems like the seat belt signs were put on throughout most of each flight eventhough the turbulence had long passed. There were blankets provided although some were sealed in plastic bags while others were just folded without any packaging giving the impression that they were recycled from the previous flight. The cabin crew was efficient and attentive. The flight experience was pleasant although slightly marred by the other passengers who dropped their blankets and pillows in the middle of the aisle or those who insisted on walking around when they were not supposed to. Checking in in Bejing can be quite a chaotic experience. There are counters for domestic flights and dedicated counters for international flights for specific locations. The counter staff in Beijing was efficient but no communication or smile was provided. In contrast, the counter staff in Singapore was proactive, friendly and pleasure to deal with. Air China has lots of potential to be an excellent airline and I will fly with them again if the price is right.

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to London Heathrow, business class. Having flown out on Thai Airways, my trip plans changed and a last minute visit to China meant I got booked onto this return flight. I like China, I know and like the Chinese people, but this airline is just unbelievably awful. The lounge in T3 PEK airport was so crowded and hot, food absolutely vile, and I thought getting onto the flight might improve things. No! My neighbour sat and hacked up phlegm for most of the trip, occasionally spitting this into his glass or cup. God knows what germs he was spreading. The seat was okay, but cabin was dirty and had a pungent and very unpleasant smell. Forget the IFE as choices are typically Chinese limited. After the lounge food offering, it got worse on the flight and truly resembled and smelt like dog food - and this was the western choice I opted for. Final elements of enjoyment was when I walked to the toilet about halfway through the flight and noticed 4 cabin crew (in full uniform) spread out fast asleep on some vacant business class seats! Air China is a disgrace to Star Alliance, the Chinese, the airline business at large, and I strongly urge you to reconsider before ever setting foot on one of their planes. (I flew 2 domestic sectors with China Southern and they are much, much better airline).

✅ Verified Review | Washington to Shanghai via Beijing. Food mediocre, but I have yet to be impressed by any airline food. The stopover in Beijing was a little stressful, not quite long enough, would have liked an extra half hour. I am confused why this airline has such bad reviews. I was dreading having to fly with them after reading all that but I was pleasantly surprised. Really not a bad airline, if you're on a budget in particular it's a good choice. No phone rule on plane is annoying, but not enforced very strictly.

✅ Verified Review | Barcelona to Vienna was a first leg on the flight from Barcelona to Beijing. About 40 minutes queue at Check -in counters. Despite of Barcelona to Vienna flight being within European Union, they forced to go through immigration (and consequently the same in Vienna upon arriving) and it was not convenient and took time. The flight was quite smooth, without delay. Food and services were on the average level.

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to Los Angeles. I did not anticipate the sub-par quality of this horrid airline. Everything was awful - improper disclaimer or explanation as to portable charger in baggage (security seized it), very late flights with no heads up. The single worst airline food my wife or I could ever imagine eating (I'm a vegetarian, she's not, and we both found the food to be incredibly awful, and, on this particular flight, they changed our seats without our knowing, and provided awful cramped seats instead - and wouldn't offer up any of the many empty Premium Economy or Business Class seats in apology. This, paired with the PRC's absurd rules on no phone use in the plane made everything with this airline just miserable. Horrible bag weight limits too.

✅ Verified Review | Los Angeles to Beijing in July and ended up on the tarmac at LA for six hours as they supposedly had two flat tires. At the end of the flight in Beijing they offered us a piece of paper that would supposedly compensate us for the delay. When we took the piece of paper to the Air China desk in Beijing, they said the delay was due to weather (which was a lie), gave us a certification paper that we were indeed aboard and the delay was valid, but informed us that we had to take the paper to the U.S. to procure our compensation. When we did, they just told us to call their customer service line, which we did, and never heard back from them. So we contacted our travel agent, who then contacted Air China, and had this to say about them: "I called the reservation and they don't take care of the refund. Then they gave me the email for customer service and nothing from them. This is the worst customer service I ever experience."

✅ Verified Review | Xining to Chengdu. Many domestic flights in China are not known for their great service, however on this flight I was impressed with the efficiency. The flight left 10 minutes ahead of schedule. Once airborne, the captain gave a welcome and information announcement in Chinese and English. The inflight service was basic, but efficient. Overall, a pleasant experience with on-time arrival.

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to San Francisco. I had a very pleasant experience. Flights were on time both ways. The crew were great and best price ever. I will fly with Air China again.

✅ Verified Review | Chengdu to Xining. Air China seems to make an attempt to offer basic service. My main complaint with Air China is the lack of information when there is an irregular operation. On a recent domestic flight, the flight was about 1 hour late however there were no announcements as to why (either in Chinese or English), no information available on airport flight screens, and no ground staff in sight. When suddenly the flight was ready to board the gate opened and there was a mad rush to get on the plane. Once on board we waited for a long time before we finally took off. Again, no information announcements were made. In flight, service consisted of a snack of stale nuts and water. Flight attendants seemed stressed and frowned for most of the flight.

✅ Verified Review | Taipei to Frankfurt via Beijing than the opposite went really well. Service is average, seat quite good for being an Asian airline (and I am very tall) and there was no problem for me. I only found the airline website a bit obsolete. I was a bit afraid about their luggage restrictions but nothing went wrong.