China Eastern Airlines

✅ Verified Review | The cabin offers nice full flat seats. Cabin staff were correct. The amenity kit does not offer much. Pyjamas are offered which I appreciated. The seat is good to sleep in, with a thick duvet, that can double as mattress, as the cabin was very hot. The food was acceptable, but not on par with that offered on airlines like KLM, Air France or Korean. No choice of wines, the menu is just opened and you have to make a choice on the spot. The portions are small. The Chinese dish was nice however. No choice of wines, just a glass is given (wine was good though). Not asking if any more was desired etc. Dining is more a necessity than something to look forward to. The selection of movies was quite good. The maintenance of the cabin was poor, with loose seats or cover elements. A bit cheap. The business lounge in Shanghai is the worst I have ever seen in a large airport. In fact, there are many lounges with every couple of gates. Seats very uncomfortable, rather poor food, lots of noise, not nice to spend a long layover. China Eastern has lots to learn from its Skyteam peers, even simple things that do not cost money. For a good sleep on a long flight without long connection it is good value for money.

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to Nanjing with China Eastern Airlines. The flight was seven hours delayed, every airline employee at the airport gave different excuses, so I assume none of them was right. Beyond that, staff at the Beijing International Airport was not able to speak English. They used some translation app on their mobile phone to "talk" to me. The comfort of the seats was horrible, far too small, seat pitch made for very small people, not for people like me (6'4"). Food was terrible (a cardboard box with a dry piece of bread and a dry piece of cake plus one bag of dried apple slices). Drinks were served in half-cup sizes, ie. the already very small paper cup was only filled half. Flight attendants were unfriendly and distant, in other words: a farmer treats his livestock much better than the flight attendants of this airline treat their paying customers. No in-flight entertainment except some advertising videos on the overhead screens (no personal screens). Terrible airline! Would like to give -1 stars in every category, if possible.

✅ Verified Review | Hong Kong to Shanghai Pudong. I booked with some trepidation after reading less-than-flattering reviews of China Eastern. I was also aware that this particular flight was on average an hour late, and not infrequently several hours late or even cancelled. Fortunately, the experience exceeded these low expectations. The plane was quite new, the cabin airy and spotless, if relatively spartan. Seat comfort was good. Onboard service was professional and efficient. We were served a hot meal (spaghetti bolognese) even though this was a mid-afternoon flight. To be honest, this was filling more than anything else, but the dessert of fresh melon chunks was refreshing. The flight departed about half an hour late and endless taxiing on arrival in Shanghai added another half-hour delay. We had to take a bus to get to the terminal. All in all, nothing spectacular but a reliable and competent service for a very cheap fare.

My experience wasn't as bad as some of the horror stories here, but they made my return travel unnecessarily painful, which could have been avoided. My issues are not with the on-board experience, which was acceptable. On my flight, there was no individual entertainment, but we had a collective screen. This means China Eastern had to find a compromise in terms of entertainment, a common denominator, which turned out to be - a cockfight. The real problem with China Eastern was their logistics. I flew with a partnership between Air France and China Eastern, going first from Geneva to Paris, from Paris to Shanghai, and finally from Shanghai to Phnom Penh, and three weeks later the exact opposite sequence. There were absolutely no issues the first time round, the Air France ticket counter issued three boarding passes, and my luggage was sent all the way through. However, for incomprehensible reasons, the return wasn't as easy. China Eastern check-in refused to issue all three boarding passes, giving me only the boarding pass to Shanghai, and insisted that I leave the airport at Shanghai, only to check in again, for a flight that was to connect four hours later. So I wasn't able to go through the regular transfer circuit, instead I had to go through immigration, customs, and then check-in procedures all over again. Chinese officials did not understand why I was to leave the airport since my flight was leaving a mere four hours later, and neither did the check-in lady, admitting that this procedure was lacking basic logic. It took me a lot of explaining each time, so the whole process took three hours. I did not have to check in my luggage again, because surprisingly, my luggage was allowed to transfer immediately to Paris, unlike me. However, this actually proved to be a problem. They refused to send my luggage any further than Paris, which meant that I had to leave the system again, to wait for my luggage and recheck it, even though by this time I had already acquired both of my remaining boarding passes in Shanghai. I had 1.30 hours transfer time in Paris, but due to significant delays in getting off the plane this was reduced to 25 minutes. In this time I had to pass the French border check, customs, wait for my luggage, run to another terminal, check in my luggage, and go through security again. Exhausted from a long flight, I ran all the way, begging the other passengers to please let me cut in line. Fortunately everyone in Paris (CDG) was very nice. Once more, the check-in lady admitted that this was all very unusual, not understanding why I hadn't received three boarding passes, and why my luggage had not been checked all the way to Geneva. Fortunately for me I made my flight in the nick of time, but not thanks to China Eastern, whom, through a serious lack of logic in their logistics made a stressful day out of a journey that could have been very straightforward.

Sydney to London and London to Guangzhou via Shanghai with China Eastern. To be fair, the inflight staff service was alright and they were pretty friendly. The worst bit was that my connecting flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou was cancelled twice. The staff onboard and on the ground were no help at all, they were impatient, rude, and unhelpful, directing me to different lines. I spent 7 hours at Shanghai Airport being sent to different queues where the staff there just shrugged and didn't care. I stayed until midnight where luckily one staff member was nice enough to help us reschedule our flight (our flight was cancelled that night). They offered no accommodation, no apologies, despite it being their issue. I spent 300 AUD on accommodation out of my own pocket. The next morning I was again told my flight was cancelled, the main issue was that if I don't fly to Guangzhou and use that part of the trip, my flight back Sydney would be waived too. After struggling at Pudong airport for another 8 hours, the next day, I decided to go to Hongqiao Airport and was lucky enough to get a China Southern flight to Guangzhou. Although China Southern had flight delays, the staff apologised and offered free meal services. I was told to call the China Eastern service centre to check whether my flight from Guangzhou to Shanghai and back to Sydney was cancelled, the call centre advice was dreadful. Tired of their service, I spent another 1000 AUD and bought a ticket from Hong Kong to Sydney via Cathay Pacific, the Cathay Pacific service was much better. I would never fly with China Eastern again.

✅ Verified Review | Seriously not worth wasting your money, China Eastern is by far the worst airline I have ever caught. I had to catch 4 flights (Sydney to Rome via Shanghai, and London to Sydney via Shanghai with China Eastern, all flights were international 10+ hours flights and I regret taking this airline. Flight is always delayed and they tell you after it is already delayed and you’re sitting at the gate or on the plane waiting. China Eastern never warns it’s passengers or give them advance notice that there will be a delay. Every single flight I took had this problem, the worse was Shanghai to Rome. Everyone was waiting at the gate for 3 hrs and the board does not say ‘delayed’ and the airline workers do not tell you how long you have to wait for, they just give you a bad attitude and say “just wait”. On all 4 flights the flight attendants were rude. They complain under their breath right after you ask for a cup of water or if you are standing at the back to stretch your legs. It’s like they are trained to be rude, if you don’t want to serve people, don’t be a flight attendant! I heard 2 female attendants complain right in front of my face about how annoying I am in Chinese because I am standing with 4 other people at the back of the plane. They do not offer basic needs. No tooth brush set, no extra blanket. You cannot ask for another blanket if you are feeling cold, the flight attendant will say “one per person”, I had no one on the seat next to me so I asked to be given a blanket. the flight attendant says he “can’t find it”, I didn’t even see him try to find one. I was not the only one surprised by this on a 10+ hour international flight. Everyone who is considering this airline due to the low cost, please don’t. Just pay a little bit more and get China Southern or a better airline that treats you like a human. You will find that you wasted your money going through all these problems, and it is much better to be comfortable and treated like a person for a long international flight. This is going to be my first and last time with this airline.

✅ Verified Review | Paris to Tokyo via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines. The lay over in Shanghai Pudong was supposed to be 2 hours long with transfer to MU569. However, while checkin in in Tokyo that day we were issued boarding passes to a different flight MU553 leaving 12 hours later than the one we initially booked. This was done without notice from the staff and we did not pay attention to the change indicated on the boarding pass. During the transfer in Shanghai we realised the boarding pass issued was different and tried to seek support from the local staff because my wife was 6 months pregnant and we in no way intended to wait 12 hours at this airport. This experience was traumatic and mostly unsuccessful : almost no english speaking staff in the entire airport - mostly lack of interest in the problem. After being sent from desk to desk for hours to only meet obviously annoyed staff from china Eastern airline we decided to wait for the given flight. As a result we had to wait 12 hours in this unpleasant airport and reached our destination with a delay of 12 hours.

✅ Verified Review | Vancouver to Sydney via Shanghai / Nanjing. I booked the trip myself online and thought that the routing was a bit odd as we landed at one airport in Shanghai, then went from another airport in Shanghai then flew from Nanjing to Sydney. I assumed the airline would at least assist us to get between the Shanghai airports but they gave zero help. When we got to the second Shanghai airport and looked for our gate we learned that we had to go by train to Nanjing. It took forever to find where we could get our train tickets. The airport staff - not China Eastern staff - were helpful or we would not have made it. Overall the worst airline I have been unfortunate enough to use and I have done a lot of traveling. Food was poor and cabin staff not friendly and service very poor for business class.

✅ Verified Review | China Eastern Airlines have a bad meal service. The Economy Class depart from Sydney to Shanghai, for Economy Class,two choices - Chicken Rice or Pasta, the chicken rice is very bad, the other dish also very bad. The ground staff is good, the seat and IFE system is OK, but next time I will choose Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific.

✅ Verified Review | Amsterdam to Shanghai. They just started flying to Europe with their new A332 planes, so I went ahead and purchased the ticket. Big mistake. Please do not follow my steps, I am quite a bargain-seeker myself, but no price can justify such a bad experience. During check in my ticket was allocated a "standby" boarding pass, meaning I might fly or not. Due to that reason my bags were only checked to Shanghai, despite me having a connecting flight to Manila later. I insisted to check in directly to Manila. Not possible. At the gate I was allocated some random seat (not negotiable), despite willing to pay for upgrade to business, I was told not possible, no seats. Funny enough, some 6 or 7 people got upgraded from economy or standby to business right after me. The worst part was still to come - the seat. Literally, I have never experienced such small pitch in a intercontinental airline, they say it is 31-32 inch but it is not - 29, maybe 30. I could hardly fit in (I am 185cm), with my knees hitting the seat in front. Comparable to Ryanair, but that for a 12h flight. Recline was normal, but the seat moved even further forward - making it impossible to fit the leg straight in the gap between the seats. It was a nightmare. Inflight service was quite slow, staff English level limited, food normal. Mind, they only fill 1/3 of a cup of beverage, "so that it does not spill", granting a few walks to the back galley for refills (there is no further service after dinner). Entertainment system works, but there is a very limited selection of movies, which were all dated 1-2 years. I managed to find only one that I have not watched already. Shanghai Airport is big, and of course I had to go all the way through border control, customs and back again to check in to handle my bags 1.5h process, I wonder how that would work on a short connection, Connecting flight to Manila was delayed by 1.5hrs, of course no information or apologies given. In general, this airline entered my never-again zone.