Air China

✅ Verified Review | My girlfriend and I flew with Air China from London Heathrow to Bangkok via Bejing, and everything was fine. The staff were friendly and helpful, food was as good as can be on an economy flight, and the beer (a chinese beer) excellent. The entertainment was good, but could be better. We had only paid GBP330 for these flights, so we were realistic with our expectations. Air China were no better or worse than other airlines, purely on price they would come higher than some premium airlines. Air China is a Chinese airline, therefore the majority is going to be catered towards the Chinese. I recommend this airline for comfort, safety and all round enjoyment. But more importantly to try the Yan jing beer.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Manila to Moscow return on Air China a few days ago. Beijing to Moscow legs were flown on a Boeing 777 that belongs to the 90s, ie. no PTVs and 2-5-2 seating in premium economy and economy classes. The flight was 95% packed with tour groups who were unruly (unwilling to queue) from the boarding gate to the flight where they spoke with one another loudly, strolled along the aisles, stretched every hour or so, congregated in small groups even during turbulence, constantly made a beeline for the toilets, among others. The crew remained calm, willing to serve passengers, and tried to keep the toilets usable, the upgrade to premium economy on the Beijing to Moscow sector meant extra legroom. Manila-Beijing sector was on a basic Boeing 737-800, while the A330-300 used on the return leg had comfortable seats, AVOD with reasonable content, and crew that aimed to please. Next time, if there are other options that are competitively-priced, we should spend a little more for a (hopefully) enhanced pleasant inflight experience.

Copenhagen to Melbourne via Beijing. Do not fly Air China!! I flew with Air China for the first time in January 2016. The flight itself was not too bad, a bit old and dated, not the best food and the entertainment system was pretty useless (poor selection of movies/ shows, and was only working intermittently), however, nothing I can't put up with for the duration of 24 hours to get a cheap flight. My nightmare experience begun when Air China sent me a change of schedule email for my return flight, which is in July, which did not fit with when I needed to be back in Europe so I called the Australian number provided on their website, to change my ticket. Nowhere is it stated that it is a very expensive pay number, so I ran out of credit while waiting in the phone queue before I even got to talk to anyone. I somehow managed to find a free phone number which operates between 10am-5pm, but calling this number means you're connected to somewhere else in the world (they must not have an Australian office??) where conveniently enough it's always night time and no supervisors or managers are present. Dealing with the call center staff is painful as the vast majority of them are incompetent and give conflicting information, the night staff seem particularly unable to answer any questions and are generally useless. It took me six weeks and over ten calls, not to mention how much phone credit, to change my flight, and all but the last person I spoke to blamed the Beijing office. Strangely the last person I spoke to managed to change and confirm my new ticket within five minutes. She was obviously one of those rare people who actually knew what she was doing. Three weeks later I got an automated email informing me that the second leg of my return trip, Beijing-Copenhagen, had been cancelled, just like that! No information on why or what to do to get a refund - nothing!! Again I called the AU Air China call centre, was advised that I'd get a full refund because Air China was responsible for the cancellation, it would take 3-4 weeks to process though. A confirmation email was supposed to be sent to me but never arrived so I called again a few days later, they blamed my email and then proceded to tell me that the first person I had spoken to was wrong to say that I'd get a full refund- that was up to the Beijing office. Long story short, over the past 8 weeks I have spoken to five different people who have all given me different information about how much I'll be refunded and when. All of them failed to inform me of/ send me the refund form that apparently has to be filled out in order for them to start processing the refund. I only found that out yesterday when I spent $20 on a 10 minute international call to try to get hold of a supervisor or manager to complain about this ordeal. The latest news is that I will (probably) be refunded for the second leg of the flight (Beijing- Copenhagen) but not for the one from Melbourne to Beijing as that is still departing according to schedule!? So I should go to Beijing and be stuck there, or only get a partial refund? It will also take at least 7-8 weeks before any money gets paid back into my account. So for someone like me, who doesn't have a lot of money, I had to borrow money to buy a new ticket with Thai Airways so that I can get home for my holiday, I have spent way too much time and money trying to sort this out and still have to wait two months before I potentially get any money back. I will never fly Air China again!

✅ Verified Review | Air China flight from Nagoya to Geneva via Beijing was not very good, although the cabin crew made an effort. Inflight experience is inferior if compared with other Chinese airlines. Unfortunately this is the only company flying directly from Beijing to Geneva. In the lounge I was instructed to board as soon as "now boarding" appeared on the screen. Problem was that the system did not work properly and as the time of boarding approached, they announced "a last call" at the loudspeaker, without even a first call. Passengers had to run from the lounge to the boarding area, which was on the other side of the airport. During the flight, the crew could barely speak English and the food was not at the same standing of other Chinese airlines. The seat is not a flat bed and it is difficult to have some privacy.

✅ Verified Review | Advantage of flying Air China between Vienna and Beijing is that both inbound and outbound flights are overnight. Seat on A330 is not very private but it is very good for sleeping. As on my previous flight, cabin crew were friendly. Food gets very predictable after first flight with Air China. I live in Chinese speaking environment so I try to avoid Chinese food when on plane. Western options on all of my 4 flights with Air China were steak with polenta. For breakfast there were only 3 sets of western breakfast onboard. So even though I was seated in second row, there was no western breakfast left when it was my turn to order breakfast. I had difficulties choosing any film I would want to watch. But as it was an overnight flight, it wasn't a big problem. The flight from Vienna to Beijing was delayed one hour (delay caused by strike of French air traffic controllers as the plane was arriving to Vienna from Barcelona) so I missed my connecting flight to Tokyo. There were only 2 Air China staff attending about one hundred people queuing at transfer desk (with no business class counter, and when I asked one of the staff if there was a business class transfer desk, I was rudely told to go back to queue. I can speak Chinese so there wasn't any language barrier when communicating). So I had to spend almost two hours in the queue to get a new boarding card. Overall the flights with Air China were still good value for price I paid.

Heathrow to Manila via Beijing. I was somewhat apprehensive about flying Air China after reading the reviews. I can say both my outbound and return flights were quite pleasant. The flights were on time, cabin crew were pleasant enough, the food was palatable and the entertainment system was adequate. The level of English spoken by the cabin crew was not particularly high but isn't impossible to overcome. Let's not forget this is a Chinese airline which seems to cater to a largely Chinese clientele. Value for money was excellent and I would fly with them again.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Air China from Munich to Shanghai with A330 aircraft in economy, seat pitch is okay but cushion is a bit hard, not comfortable for long flight. The meal was terrible, no taste, drink service with limited of choice only. Meal and drink service was far below standard compared to other Asian carriers. Return flight from Beijing to Frankfurt, seat in premium economy. The seat was the same as in econmoy class, except it had larger leg room and a higher resolution screen. Again the food was poor along with the drink service during the meal. Ping signal for fasten seatbelt when flying into turbulence was always late. Not worth paying a premium fare, there is no additional value in premium economy class.

Hangzhou to San Francisco via Beijing with Air China. Terrible airline service, will never fly with Air China again despite competitive pricing. The first plane delay was our flight from Hangzhou to Beijing, our flight is at 11 am. When we check in at 9 am, the counter service did not notify us at all that the plane will be delayed. We go to the gate to board the plane at 10.40 am and we just find out that the plane will be delayed until 12.30 pm. We have to catch Beijing to SFO flight at 3.10 pm and that will leave us with only 40 mins to transfer. The person at the gate ask us to go back to the counter to change the flight to 12 pm. Once we are at the counter, we ask the person at the counter to switch the flight, we got into some argument and she told us that 40 minutes should be enough to transfer the flight which is extremely ridiculous - We finally get her to do the work to change the flight for us but we have wait to until 11.30 am to confirm that the 12 pm flight won't be delay - with the help from the manager, we got written commitment that the airline will be responsible for the cost of delay. We also ask her to ensure that they will correctly move our luggage that already check in to another flight. She just brush us off and told us that it will be taken care of. We are suspicious and we can't do anything at that moment. We finally get on the plane but it was delayed for 20 minutes. We finally make it to the connecting gate at 3.30 pm. When we land in SFO, our luggage was not there. We were trying to file complaint through phone but were ask to write it to customer service via e-mail. Got a reply that I should call local service (same number that we call before). Worst experience ever.

✅ Verified Review | Singapore to Ulaanbaatar via Beijing. Had little choice in choosing operators to Ulaanbataar from Singapore. Either Air China or Korean Air were only valid options but big difference in pricing and timings so was forced to fly Air China. The A330-200 standard economy seats were extremely comfortable for 6-7 Hour flight to/from Singapore Beijing. I am 6ft 3. No issue with legroom or pitch. Aircraft was clean. All flights left and departed close to on time. One delay from Beijing due bussing operations. Cabin crew were pretty attentive. Checked Bags arrived no problem despite very tight connections. In-Flight Entertainment offering for English speakers was quite limited (bring an iPad) and the food offering was very substandard. Ground Staff in Beijing were quite rude. The very bad transit in Beijing can be very frustrating for international transit passengers - 2 needless queues. This is an airport security requirement and appears to be outside airlines control. Recommend sitting in front of aircraft for all arrivals into Beijing to be at the top of the queue.

✅ Verified Review | Worst flight I have had with a 23 hour delay on the flight from Paris to Beijing. After providing a hotel for the night the next day we had to wait 7 hours at the departure gate with the flight being delayed more and more, with nobody from Air China to inform us or help us. We had no information at all about what was going to happen or our next flight. We finally took off the next day, 23 hours late with only the information that we would be taken care of in Beijing. In Beijing they provided a hotel room that I had to share with a stranger and gave us the new flight time but couldn't help for my last connecting flight which was not with them. Finally arrived in Melbourne with a delay of 27 hours and I had to rebook and pay for my last flight to Hobart. I would never recommend Air China, the lack of help and information was an outrage.