Air China

✅ Verified Review | Frankfurt to Shenzhen via Beijing. The key to tolerating a long flight is a good entertainment system since you are stuck in the plane with nothing else to do. I was shocked and disappointed at how bad the in-flight entertainment was! It's a small screen that was extremely pixelated, not touch screen, with a wired hand controller that dates to pre-internet days where you have to tab-tab-tab-select and oops you missed your target so start all over again tab-tab. The choice of movies and shows were kind of okay but catered to the Chinese. They also provided English subtitles but as the resolution was so poor it's not possible to read them! The more recent movie choices in English had the qualify of having been pirated. The audio was just awful. I gave up on the entertainment system an hour in, and read ebooks off my tablet instead! In this day and age, such a bad quality entertainment system is just unforgivable. The Chinese food was not too bad. The seats were just ok for an average-sized person but when the person in front of my reclined back, the entertainment screen was practically in my face and I had to in turn recline all the way back so I would stop kissing the screen. They wouldn't let anyone use any phones, even in flight mode! I would only fly again if there was a huge difference between the cost of their ticket and that of a more reputable airline. There are no USB hubs, and don't get excited when you notice there are power supply outlets under your seats, as they don't work! Our luggage arrived on time with no damage.

✅ Verified Review | Bangkok to London via Beijing. Absolutely shocking service from Air China. while the inflight experience is not good, this is nothing in comparison to what I've experienced since leaving the aircraft. First of all my luggage was left behind in Beijing. No big deal - this happens with all airlines. What's terrible is how Air China resolved this, or rather didn't. After chasing them many, many times over email (with up to two weeks passing between replied from their customer service team), they finally agreed to pay me the due compensation of £46. Great, I thought, a resolution. But when the envelope finally arrives through the post, I find it contains not a cheque but a voucher for travel with Air China. As I have NO intention to ever fly Air China again, I find this next to worthless. Reading back through my emails I now find (of course) that Air China did make one very discreet reference to a 'TCV' (or Travel Compensation Voucher). I think it's disgusting that they use a jargon-y acronym to hide their true intentions. The whole experience reeks of complete disregard for the customers that keep their shoddy business afloat and I would recommend that you avoid this airline. (and I could write a whole different complaint about the 5 hours I spent sitting on a badly air-conditioned plane awaiting take-off on the way out).

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to Hong Kong. I had such a terrible experience, in that my colleague's gender was listed wrong on her ticket. She's a female, and somehow booking through the agent her gender was listed as male. Air China refused to correct this, and made us cancel the ticket (and pay the cancellation fee) and also purchase a more expensive ticket. Never before have I been so disgusted by incapable customer service representatives who just pass the buck. It was a really soul crushing experience.

✅ Verified Review | The one thing that I learned from flying Air China from Washington to Ho Chi Minh City through Beijing and back is that I will never do it again. I have flown IAD to SGN three times before on other airlines but Air China was the worst. The seats were uncomfortable on every flight. The food was mediocre at best - like something you'd find on a mediocre airline, not the flagship air carrier of one of the largest countries in the world. And don't plan on listening to the hours of music you downloaded to your iPhone because Airplane mode is not good enough for this airline; your phone must be turned completely off for the entire flight. And since the flight was late taking off, most people on the flight had a snowball's chance of making their connections in Beijing because of the mess that transitting in Beijing is. But you will have to read about that in a review of PEK. I will not fly Air China ever again. I would rather pay more.

✅ Verified Review | Bangkok to LAX via Beijing. Flight from Beijing yesterday to LAX was unbearable. Seats were torture. Maybe I slept 2 hours out of 12. People 7" shorter than I were equally miserable. Larger people were pacing the aisle trying to release leg cramps. Zero room to make yourself even minimally comfortable. Staff had little English and were remote. Also Air China's connecting flight from Bangkok to Beijing was delayed til 4:30 a.m. Miserable and compressed connecting time to something resembling chaos. Over and never again!!

✅ Verified Review | London Heathrow to Bangkok return via Beijing. I picked this airline as it was the cheapest and saved £100 compared with Emirates. But I think in the future for a long trip 12 hours or longer I would pay the extra £100. The TV screen was not working, food was OK but I would recommend bringing something with you. And the staff weren't very helpful. I asked could I be moved as my TV screen was not working. And there was loads of free spaces. One of the air hosts said she one check and would come back to me, but never did. I thought they could be a little more helpful

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to Newark in Business class. Overall a terrible airline to fly. The entertainment system was not working, everytime we asked about it they said they would be rebooting the system which only after 5 different attempts and 2 hours later we were able to switch to alternative seats in Business class. The meal service leaves a lot to be desired, for business meal and service it would not even compare to most other airlines economy meals. Flight staff is robotic in their actions which means if you ask them a question that's not a common one they do not know how to respond all they can do is smile since their language is a barrier.

✅ Verified Review | London to Singapore via Beijing. There was no personal TV from Singapore to Beijing (such rarity for long haul). Food was really bland, 3 hours delay. Baggage delay, this is the funniest part, as if being delayed myself wasn't enough, my baggage didn't come on the same flight, it came the next day, 13 hours later. On a side note, Air China lounge is really terrible too. The only good thing that happen were the cabin staff who were nice and I am sure if given better facilities and opportunities, can deliver a better experience. I would gladly pay twice the fare I paid if it means any other airline.

✅ Verified Review | Los Angeles to Bangkok via Beijing. We had a horrible experience with Air China and wish we had chosen another airline. They staff were paranoid and rude. It clearly isn't in their employee policies to try to make a customer happy or comfortable on a 13-19 hour trip. There were 40 Empty seats on the plane. We and many others make repeated offers for people to pay to upgrade ahead of time, over the phone, at the ticketing desk and the boarding gate, they refused to accommodate extremely tall people and allow them to pay to upgrade to a larger seat. They were so concerned with fluid safety on the plane that they were dumping out all fluids purchased within 10 feet of the gate. Even if it was sealed. We had already gone through security twice. The entire company is on a power trip. I wish I had traveled on any other airline.

✅ Verified Review | New York to Bangkok via Beijing with Air China. Going to Thailand they gave us Premium Economy which was fine. We didn't understand why so many people had complained about this airline. Coming back was a different story. The flight was delayed 4 hours and no one contacted us about the delay. We had to wait from 1am to 4 am at the airport. No answers. When we got to the ticket counter, we specifically asked the lady, even if we had to pay more, to allow us to travel in Premium economy and she said she had upgraded us for free, because of the delay, but we would be able to double check once we got to Beijing. When we got to Beijing, there was no one at the counter, and we waited. Finally, minutes before boarding we saw a person that we met on the way to Thailand, and he said they had changed the gate. We rushed to the new gate and they immediately put us on a bus and took us to the plane. Food, service and the cramped-up seats made for this one of the worst experiences ever. Not to mention that it's hard to argue or explain anything to staff who speak extremely poor English. Never again.