Air China

New York to New Delhi via Beijing. Disgusting food. They ran out of chicken and shoved beef on us which I protested and they had the nerve to hand me cold sandwiches with white bread and a thin layer of some meat they said was pork/chicken/beef which I handed back to them as well. The drinks are not refrigerated, open juice boxes sit in the galley, all you get is apple, orange, or tomato juice - you can't ask for a can of anything except Pepsi (if they have any left). They don't ask reclining passengers to sit up straight during take off. The announcements in English were barely understood. Staff is rude and not fluent in English. On other airlines, the pilot announces his route or tells us his name or does some small talk to make the passenger feel welcome - with Air China it's only a canned announcement as soon as you get into your seat. Hated my arduous experience on the round trip between NYC and Delhi via Beijing. There are limited Western movies available, and not sure why other reveiewers thought their inflight entertainment was good.

Beijing to Los Angeles. If you work on an airline that frequently stops in the US you should probably learn some English. Smiling is an international language that Air China certainly have never learned. The flight attendants were rude and unhelpful. During the scariest turbulence I've experienced (over the mountains in Alaska), no one said a thing except "fasten your seat belts and care for your children". A pilot on an airline in the US would have told us what was going on. People were praying. Our bodies lifted from the seats. Babies and women were screaming. No one asked if we were all ok. The food wasn't horrible but it wasn't good. The only thing that was ok on this flight was the individual entertainment at each seat. I will never fly Air China again.

I was a bit worried about flying Air China. Flights were booked via an online travel agent to travel Auckland to Seoul via Beijing. We arrived at the airport 4 hours beforehand and unfortunately the flight from Auckland was delayed. The check in staff apologized, gave us requested seats in the aisle and a window, and voucher for food and drink. On the plane, crew spoke good English, seats as expected in Economy and we were given 2 meals and a snack, and crew offered different rounds of drinks. All in all was a good experience. Entertainment system was in English if chosen as an option and worked well, albeit a slightly limited choice. Flights were good from Beijing to Seoul and return. Only strange occurrence was the fact that Air China don't seem to utilize the seatbelt signs - they're always on and people just ignore them.

I flew Air China from New York to Bangkok via Beijing. It was terrible. All flights had delay for an hour which meant I couldn't catch up the connecting flight. I had to wait in Beijing for another 6 hrs for the next flight (also last flight for the day otherwise I will have to wait for the next day). Also the flight was delayed for another hour to reach to Bangkok. The food was horrible. Choice of chicken with noodles or Beef with rice. I think they were both horrible. There were three pieces of chicken and the taste was very blend. The staff was so so and not really helpful. No bottle of water. Inflight entertainment was ok, new movies but my touchscreen didn't work and I had to use the controller at the armrest. I booked Air China because of the unbeatable price - it was cheap, but I could pay a little more for ANA, Cathay Pacific etc to get a better experience next time. No Air China again.

A return flight from London to Toyko via Beijing. On arrival at the airport we were informed that were were no longer flying to Narita Airport but Haneda, however they had failed to inform us. It also meant we only had a one hour connection in Beijing. In addition the flight out of London was delayed. The baggage assistant at first tried to send out bags just to Beijing if we had not at the last minute spotted this and got them to change the luggage tags. The inflight experience was poor with inedible food and possibly the rudest cabin crew on any flight I have ever been on. The plane was old and grubby. We arrived late into Beijing and with no assistance in a huge airport only just made our connection. Again followed by more rude cabin crew and inedible food on the journey to Japan. On arrival into Japan we were not met by our luggage. JAL ground staff however were extremely efficient and helped us fill out the forms (not an easy task in Japanese) and highlighted the difference in customer service between the two. Out return flight was not much better more inedible food and grubby planes and cabin crew who simply did not want to be there. This time a four hour connection in Beijing bit over and hour to get through security which could only be described as chaotic at best with many people having connecting flights the ground staff simply didn't know what to do. The final leg to London saw us met by the final group of rude cabin crew and mysterious food. We arrived in London to find despite a four hour connecting time in China that our bags had failed to make it on the flight and nobody knew where they were. My advise is to pay the extra money and avoid Air China at all costs. You get what you pay for, and although cheap the added stress and worry was simply not worth it.

Frankfurt to Changchun via Beijing. Have to travel Air China often for business reasons. Mostly long haul from Europe. Although they improved a bit over the last 3 years they are still one of the worst airlines to fly with : incompetent European call center that is regularly unable to cope with changes to bookings, unfriendly (close to ill-mannered) staff both on and off the plane, and planes that are either filthy, badly maintained or technically not up-to-date - mostly all of that at once. My experience with staff yelling at me, mixed up bookings, broken IFE, missed planes due to wrong information given by bored staff not interested in providing any service is countless. To every fellow passenger: do avoid Air China at all costs, unless you can fly for half the price all other airlines offer and you are able to show a great deal of apathy when it comes to lost luggage, missed planes, or bad seating.

Due to heath issue I had to cancel my trip to Philippines, flying Air China from London to Manila via Beijing.. I submitted a refund form with Air China and was waiting patiently for their reply. Unfortunately they decided to ignore me completely. They have not replied to any of my emails, the Air China UK office was not very helpful, the phone number I have does not even ring. I haven’t had a 'pleasure' to fly with them, but if the flight experience is as good as their customer service, I don’t regret it.

A decent internal flight from Beijing to Chengdu, the flight ran on time and the service desk were helpful. Beijing Capital is a lovely airport from which to fly. I was surprised to receive food on the flight, but it was inedible, so would not recommend trying it. The seats were comfortable. The problem was the constant barrage of announcements, many of which were superfluous and unnecessary which made it impossible to truly feel at ease. Otherwise I would fly Air China again.

Sydney to London via Beijing with Air China. Having travelled many times worldwide I would avoid using Air China ever again. The standard of food is poor, the seats were narrow on the B777-300 but ok for anyone under 5ft 8 I guess. Overall the aircraft looked tired and could have done with a refit. When we got to Beijing we had to wait for buses to pick us up from the aircraft then be driven to the terminal then make our way to the international transit point - only to find out that the staff on duty spoke no English and just pointed when approached for advice to proceed to security - which is another story sorry to say. For an international airline that is included within Star Alliance I would say that you get what you pay for and this airline is no better than a charter flight and I will not be using them again. There are better airlines out there for a few extra hundred pounds.

Heathrow to Sydney via Beijing, the aircraft were clean, flight attendants extremely helpful and polite. Food was a choice of eastern or western menus all of which were of a high standard, and there was no difficulty communicating with any staff members. We will be using them again to travel this route.