Air China

CA 176 13th July 2014 left 24 hours late so we went 14th July and return was CA 173 23rd July from Beijing. This is the worst airline I have ever been on. 1) 24 hours late leaving. 2) The return flight had the rudest staff I have met. 3) There was one bottle of white wine in business class. 3) The movies are ancient or straight to DVD. 4) The food is disgusting. 5) The seats are uncomfortable. I could go on and on but save yourself grief and fly someone else.

Business Class flight from Bangkok to Beijing (CA980). Air China uses on this flight a 737-800 with 8 seats in business class. This business class is possibly one of the worst of its kind: old and bad seats no footrest in the front row very little reclining possibilities no individual entertainment decor and atmosphere totally depressing. In addition horrible food (tasteless boiled shrimps on rice no dessert) champagne without bubbles (bottle must have been opened many times and kept warm). Only highlights: decent toilet kit friendly attendants good schedule for connecting flights from Beijing (only reason for me to take this flight. This class is an insult to business class it would not even qualify as economy de luxe on other airlines and as to the food it is better to eat before the flight. Air China is a shame for Star Alliance.

Flew JFK-PEK-PVG rude staff at JFK not enough food on planes good seats friendly staff at Chinese airports.

Flew SFO to Beijing in business class. Worried from some of the negative reviews. It was excellent. Flight attendants were great. Food excellent. French wine. Seats laid flat. Plenty of entertainment. Great flight.

For half the price almost for travelling return to Athens Greece from Sydney Australia 27/7/14 and 28/8/14 I can't really complain. Only differences I found from Emirates Singapore and Etihad: No spirit drinks in Economy class. No cold beverages just room temp (no ice). No mini toothpaste and toothbrush. Very bad entertainment system takes 10 mins to find a movie and only option is tab button to navigate. On the positive: Travelled safely and on time. Staff smiled. Very clean toilets staff cleaned toilet after every 6th person. Mostly Chinese passengers that just slept all the time. Very fast to board for flight and passengers were not pushy. Transit in Germany was only 10m from gate. Cant wait to travel again next year hopefully.

Travelled from Singapore to Beijing and back on CA970 and CA 975 respectively. Delighted to note that Air China's services on this route improved both in terms of amenities as well as crew services. The crews especially those on the return flight had warm smiles on their faces and took care of the passengers comfort and convenience. They offered great care and assistance to a young flyer sitting in front of me. These improvements make it a promising flying option.

Flight CA174 SYD-PEK 21 July. A Business Class trip with nothing good to remember. Seat: inadequate for sleeping. Inflight entertainment system: practically non-existent. Food: chose the western menu - bland left me with questions about what it was consisted of breakfast (served almost 3 hours before touch down) inedible. Flight attendants: elementary to non-existent English expressionless never smiling robotic disappeared when finished serving dinner. Lavatory conditions: mediocre. Flight announcements after deafening three gongs: long loud most of them meaningless - again trying to understand the English language no information from the cockpit. Duvet and Pillow: without any packing left me wondering about sanitation. The only nice touch: the Occitane amenity kit. A Star-Alliance member? Come on let us be serious. Certainly will avoid flying with them in the future and surely can not recommend them.

ICN-PEK-HKG and back to ICN in economy. All flights on widebody A330 except PEK-HKG on narrow A321. All of the planes were of different quality. Some had new seats some had old seats some had seatback entertainment on demand (others on loop). Planes showed a little age but nothing worrisome. Onboard product varied greatly. Many delays due to ATC in Beijing. That meant maybe 30 mins to 1 hr of just waiting to take off for a gate you name it. The cabin crew and pilots did their best to keep everyone informed though. The cabin crew was polite and welcoming. As they were short flights I never had to ask for anything. They spoke basic English but oddly on ICN-PEK and return only one attendant spoke Korean over the PA only (pax about 50/49 Chinese/Korean and 1% Westerner). Airline food is not supposed to be gourmet in economy but Air China's food was completely inedible. Dry noodles that stuck together no sauce no flavor just horrible. Normally I can eat all of my food but I definitely just left it untouched. All flights were short (under 3 hours) so the seat was comfortable and didn't cause any problems. AVOD selection was limited to perhaps one or two recent western movies some really old western movies and lots and lots of Chinese selections. The price was right for this trip (500 USD) at peak vacation time in Korea. We only had one layover in PEK on the return to ICN. It was quick and painless. I'd fly Air China again.

Went PEK-ICN. Before flight service was quite nice with them inviting me into the first class lounge for being a Star Alliance Gold member. In-flight entertainment was also good with a variety of options available on the system. However I rather dislike how they don't allow the option of choosing a seat when making the flight booking as I ended up in the exit row right in front of the lavatory. The flight itself however was okay with service being acceptable although not as attentive as one might expect (they seemed to begin offering landing cards and then walked away several times etc.).

We flew from Houston to Beijing in Biz Class - then First Class on the return. There were a few of the attendants that had language barriers but that did not effect the trip whatsoever. The food was good - not great. Although the duck coming back from Beijing was great - but there were only a few servings of that available. The wine selection was okay - and the movie selection was fine. The GPS/Mapping system was fun to watch as we went over the arctic circle. End of day the business class seats were great - my wife was able to sleep most of the trip there and back. I had a harder time in business class being 6'5" - I was able to stretch out straight but my feet were at a 90 degree angle b/c of seat in front - since I laid on my side most of the time it really wasn't an issue except for when I wanted to stretch out. This wasn't an issue in first on way back. Our boys were in economy and I took water bottle back to them - that was a different world back there but they appreciated the water. (A lot of the windows were "open" and it was quite a bit noisier in economy - not surprising but it was a bit of a shock going from the dark quiet of biz class to economy). We did read one review that mentioned how hot the plane was in Houston b/f takeoff. We experienced the same thing. I don't think they lease the A/C equipment at the airport or something like that - b/c we didn't have that problem in Hong Kong or Beijing - and both of those planes were on the tarmac during the heat of the day (Houston flight was at 1am). Problem went away shortly after takeoff. We would fly them again!