Air China

PVG-FRA on A330. Flight was delayed an hour; heading to the gate it still wasn't ready for boarding in the end we left 2.5 hrs late. Seats are ostensibly lie flat but not entirely comfortable. Meals were variable: if you're not a fan of pork or seafood order a special meal. Crew tried to speak the menu options but their English language skills aren't up to the task-just give us the menu please. Since I was going to miss my connection in FRA I was asking the crew what I should do-since there was no indication that CA staff would protect us on other flight options. In the end an excellent Lufthansa service desk agent fixed the mangled booking from CA coached the CA station manager on how to reissue the ticket so she could accept my bag and give me a boarding card.

I flew RT from LAX to Delhi with a flight change in Beijing. The food was horrible throughout. We had requested vegetarian meals and they served us a speck of what looked like boiled vegetables that came straight out of a can. The airline staff were not very helpful either. "We only have two choices veg or non-veg" was their answer to my complaint. A neighboring passenger had the same reaction as mine when they requested vegetarian food and like me they didn't touch the food that was served. We were starving throughout the nearly 24 hour flight time from LA to Delhi. The in-flight entertainment too left much to be desired. It was dated poor selection and you really had to struggle with the seat-consoles to get them to display what you want. Horrible experience overall but luckily they didn't lose my luggage. My first and likely the last time to fly with Air China. It's definitely worth the extra $50 or so to buy a ticket on a decent airline that flies the same route.

Flew Business Class from PEK-KIX. Flight was delayed several hours because of weather. Flight crew were attentive friendly and kept us updated on the progress. Supper was excellent and consisted of three options: chicken fish or pork that was served on the ground because of the delay. The only complaint was the lack of AVOD especially on this route which is not a short flight.

Shanghai-Guangzhou on Airbus A330-300. Just an OK airline the worst Star Alliance member I have flown so far though. Flight was packed and left on-time. No entertainment for Economy passengers on this 2 hours flight. A box with a piece of bread some inedible salad and a small portion of fresh fruit salad was served. Two runs of beverages (water spirits tea coffee) is provided to passengers. Cabin crew is OK and does speak good English. Newspaper also distributed but in Chinese only. Air China/Star Alliance Gold lounge at Shanghai Hongqiao International is terrible: very small and Chinese food only is available.

My experience PEK-CAN on Mar 25 in Economy: If you are in economy do not expect good seat pitch and no entertaining at all on board on a A330-300 that I'm not sure if the color is Beige or use to be white and is ageing. Bring your drinks on board because they only offer Pepsi Seven Up and Water. Do not drink the coffee its horrible. The offer me dinner that I had to leave intact because it has very bad appearance for a western guy like me. I saw everyone eating it but not me. In my opinion they are following very close to UA were economy is just a Low cost carrier offer with very bad international and domestic service. Hopefully CA will react and will improve their economy service. Dragonair Hainan Airlines and China Southern offer a much better service in Economy.

My return flight CAN-PEK on April 2 was in First Class (business class seats) on board of a A330-200 that in my opinion it has a much better appearance overall. Seats were flat bed with amazing great service and options of food between Western and Asian food. I had the Lamb that was quite good they had Pepsi Max (I do prefer Coke Zero) good white wine the crew was always around looking that everything was fine covering your legs with the blanket and helping to put the sleepers before taking off. The crew has very good English on First Class and they are very friendly and professional. It was a good experience.

LHR-PEK r/t in First Class. Used miles for this trip as CA First was 75000 vs 100000 for VS Upper Class to PVG. Overall it was OK. As a Star Alliance carrier we used United First lounge at LHR T2. 777 was clean/new bed and pyjamas comfortable amenity kit akin to US carriers' international Business class. Food was pretty average (JAL economy on subsequent flight was better tasting) wine list ok but limited whisky etc. I avoided the instant coffee. Cabin nice and quiet only 4 pax in First both ways. Glad we weren't in fully-crammed Business class. Staff on LHR-PEK were decent but hard to get a smile return from PEK-LHR food was much better and FAs much friendlier. As others have noted IFE is on-demand but somewhat limited English options. I know it's Air China but they should take a page from other Asian airlines e.g. JAL who have tons of international film/TV options. First Class lounge in Beijing is pretty poor: self-serve bar but no ice or lemon etc so don't even bother trying to make a gin & tonic just pour yourself a glass of warm white Chinese wine and whimper in a corner. Beijing Capital Airport is a beautiful Norman Foster building but don't ever transit internationally in Beijing. Unlike pretty much every airport on Earth you have to go through Chinese immigration just for connecting flights (it's a separate queue but still). We had a full two hour connection and spent nearly 1h45m just waiting to get the passport stamp to then go straight back through security. Incredibly inefficient and infuriating. No special/fast track for First class and no staff seemed to care that the delays were making everyone miss their long-haul connections. On balance CA First is slightly better than BA Club but below VS Upper Class. However for 25k fewer miles than VS to Asia it felt like a fair trade. I certainly wouldn't pay cash for the privilege though.

April 11 Hong Kong to San Francisco via Beijing. Good equipment good seating pretty good AVOD but mediocre service. First of all there is a woeful lack of understandable English. The inflight announcements challenge the imagination. Secondly the handsome menu suggests a pleasant dining experience that does not materialize. (On our outbound flight there were no menus so the flight attendants brought out the frozen dinners and peeled back to foil so we could guess what we were to have.) Drinks are not offered before dinner rather with dinner with no offer of a refill. Finally after the crew dispenses water for the long flight they disappear unless you press the flight attendant button. Unless the price is really right I would avoid Air China since there are so many good Asian carriers.

We flew from London to Beijing leaving only an hour in between to catch the next flight from Beijing to Macau. The computers were down and I was unable to check in online several times. At Heathrow a glitch in the system meant that our luggage could not go to Macau but we had to pick up our bags at Beijing and check in again to resume our journey. As predicted our luggage was not on the carousel. We went to Lost and Found where several staff just stand and chat. With less than 30 minutes to board our flight we were still without bags. Thankfully the lady at check-in (who did speak English and showed compassion) organised our connection located our luggage and had it transferred. On the return journey a week later the flight was delayed which meant that we did miss our plane to London. Air China organised an overnight stay. At Beijing airport we got to the check in desk to collect boarding passes. One would imagine that the person manning the London flights would have some command of the English language. This person did not speak nor comprehend a word of English. Both times we did not receive our requested vegetarian meals and were abruptly given bread rolls as a substitute. The seats are cramped and offer little leg room in economy class. The meals are unimaginative. The only good thing I can say is that soft drinks were available on request. The air hostesses are robotic unfriendly and lack customer service skills. I will never travel with this airline again and I would advise anybody else to do the same.

I flew from Shanghai Pudong to Melbourne. The food served was the smallest portion I have seen on a plane totally inadequate for this kind of flight. I visited the toilets 3 hours into the flight and it was disgusting to say the least. I reported the state of the toilet to the hostess and she shrugged her shoulders and said they would clean it in Melbourne. I had to ask for a cup of water on 4 occasion to get it and then it was almost thrown at me when after 2 hours it finally arrived. The staff were rude to say least never again!