China Eastern Airlines

✅ 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.

✅ Verified Review | Beijing to Chicago via Shanghai. I was very sceptical about flying this airline after reading reviews from different websites, but we had a wonderful experience. We were upgraded to 1st from Business as our PEK-PVG flight was late arriving in PVG because of bad weather. The flight attendants were outstanding and very polite and professional. The food was top shelf and the entertainment was equal to other airlines.

✅ Verified Review | Fly frequently with China Eastern Airlines and an Elite plus member, but I have to say that their services are not great, a 3-star rating is not under-estimation. Flew to Toronto from Shanghai in Business class round trip at the end of May with family. Price was excellent, that’s the main drive I took them. Starting with check-in at PVG, check-in staff I met at PVG T1 First/Business Zone was not great. They processed our check-in with a bad emotion, and were careless. He printed out 2 boarding pass with same name, hence missed one. Lucky, I verified all boarding pass in front of him, and pointed that out, and asked him to double check. Then, he processed it again quickly, and pass to me without a sorry, and again with errors! If I didn’t pick up those errors, and made queue till border check, I would have had to return to make check-in again. The lounge at Shanghai PuDong T1 cannot be considered as a normal lounge among top tier airports, very limited choices of foods and drinks, and you won’t have desire to eat them. Seats are aged and not comfortable. The lounge is crowded, staff shout for boarding calls, noisy just like at a local market. China Eastern Airlines use Boeing 777-300ER for PVG – YYZ, the one I got has excellent condition, as only 1 month old. Inflight entertainment starts only after take-off and ends before descending, selections of movies and shows are so so, not very up to date. WIFI is offered during entire flight, but you have to register online before your flight, Internet Speed sounds like 2G, but better than nothing. Business class has 1-2-1 layout which has great privacy, seat is comfortable for sleep. But seat is not clean, you can see soup trace on the seat. I cleaned it up by myself. FAs were with commercial smiles and tried to be attentive, but you won’t feel warm. Again staff are efficient, sometime too efficient and become careless. You can tell they just want to finish their jobs. I asked them to push my 1st meal 2 hours later, the FA first-of all looks surprising, then keep asking me every half hour. Foods were quiet good, tea selections were excellent! Services on the inbound flights were quiet similar, but FAs were more attentive and patience, without issue with ground stuff. Overall, don’t expect China Eastern Airlines to match its international competitors, or even other Chinese airlines such as Hainan Airlines or CZ.

✅ Verified Review | Flew Shanghai to Ho Chi Minh return with China Eastern Airlines, and overall not a great experience. Check-in in Shanghai was an absolute nightmare. The rep didn't speak a word of English and insisted we needed a visa to Vietnam, although we were Spanish and UK nationals (no need for tourism). Eventually after much consultation and sign language, all was ok.. Outbound flight was delayed, still showed "On Time" on the screen an hour later than the scheduled departure time. Eventually left with 2 hour delay with no explanation or apology from the airline. Plane in good order, especially on the return as it was a newer one. We were stuck in the last row which does not recline. Flight attendants had very limited English and were quite rude. I got yelled at for having my table out, even though the announcement in English to put it back hadn't yet been made (they were in the midst of the Chinese announcement). Would probably fly again because they are far cheaper than the rest, but only if you have flexible travel plans and no short connections to make.

Fukuoka to Paris via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines. Overall a pretty bad experience. We flew four times with them and every flight was late. The cabin crew were rude and visibly displeased with having to do their job. The entertainment selection was not so great and the in-flight game controllers were so bad they made the games unplayable. The bathrooms were disgusting and one didnt have a working sink. On the brighter side, the meals were ok, the seats relatively comfortable, and it was cheap.

Let me begin by saying I don't have a problem with staff or facilities of the airline, however, there is one thing and one thing only that an airline must do correctly and that is to have a schedule that can be relied upon. I've flown with China Eastern many times, each time I swear I'll never fly with them again, each time I'm attracted again by their cheaper fares. My last flight I flew business class from Chicago to Wuhan via Shanghai because there were no other cheaper fares available and I needed to be home in time for my mother's funeral. Once again China Eastern Airlines "delayed" a flight (in this case for 13+ hours), with no reason given and in increments of 2+ hours instead of simply canceling the flight and offering passengers alternative transportation or accommodation. No staff member could tell me anything other than, "I don't know". Fortunately, I was already familiar with this practice and so arranged to have a taxi driver me to my mother's funeral, Shanghai to Wuhan, an overnight trip at a considerable cost. If I had waited to catch the next China Eastern flight I would have missed the funeral by 4 to 5 hours. China Eastern's response to my dilemma,"very sorry, we can't do anything". I haven't had a single trip with this company that didn't have at least one delayed segment. My last trip has finally brought home how important it can be too have a reliable airline as my first choice.

Shanghai to Frankfurt with China Eastern Airlines. This has been the by far worst experience and I will certainly never fly this airline again. Our flight has been delayed by 10 hours (entailing an overnight wait). No explanation was given at any time. No hotel or anything at all was offered to us and I was traveling business class by the way. We couldn't even take a shower because they were supposedly "out of towels". And maybe worst of all, no apology for this whole impossible situation was ever offered. Basically, there has been zero communication or crisis management throughout. Their so-called business class lounge is a dump, I've never seen anything like it with old stained chairs and a hot water maker which had signs in Chinese only and was not working, smelly toilets etc etc. All in all, I honestly can't believe this whole thing has actually happened and has cost me ten hours of my life. Thanks for nothing China Eastern, and see you never, ever again!

✅ Verified Review | Nanjing to Los Angeles via Shanghai with China Eastern. The domestic flight from Nanjing to Shanghai was on time and fine. The flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles was a disaster. The lounge for business class was overcrowded and very loud. The boarding was delayed for over an hour without any notice on the board in the airport. Once boarding started we were not alerted! By checking the gate itself we determined boarding had started. Once on the plane, we waited a long time after all passengers were on before the door was shut. Next the plane moved 8ft from the gate and sat for more than two hours without an explanation as to why or what was the problem. We were not offered anything for over two hours. The given fruit, cake, ice cream- nothing to drink. Needless to say, we took off over three hours late from original departure time. I have flown business class to and from every continent in the world and this was the worse airline ever! The food, lack of service, and lack of effort by the staff was extremely poor. The dinner when it was finally served - there wasn't a cocktail with appetizer offered - was not edible. When Asked for water I was told I had a bottle in the rack! Breakfast was a joke! In the menu a western breakfast was offerred; however, the western breakfast offerred on the plane was pork and rice - when I replied that is not a western breakfast, the attitude was a shrug of the shoulders with oh well that's all there is! Then instead of going to get the cloth to cover my table, she tried to give me fresh fruit with a fork! I said, no please get the cloth for here. That took 30 minutes before someone else came back and did that. In the meantime I asked for coffee - after 40 minutes of waiting and asking two different stewardesses, I went to the galley and asked to please have a cup of coffee - I was told ok and to please sit down. It took another 10 minutes for my coffee and 10 minutes more for creamer and sugar! Needless to say the only edible part of breakfast was 2 slices of watermelon! The toilet in the business class bathroom was dirty, trash was overflowing and the sink filled with soapy water. Usually business class offers lotions in the restrooms. As to sleeping, after the lights were finally dimmed, people behind me continued to talk in loud voices. Overall I rate this international flight poor in all areas and recommend to not fly with them. I know there are better choices and I will not ever fly internationally with them ever again!

✅ Verified Review | On 13th June, an 8.5 hours delay because of rain from Beijing to Shanghai. Then 2 hours waiting in the plane. Only one comment: "We don't know", the support is disaster. Today on the flight back, delay again without information. No respect of flying blue seat preference. Treated like animals. Take it only if you have no choice.

✅ Verified Review | Singapore to San Francisco via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines. Got an exit row seat at no charge. Flight was 2 hours late arriving into PVG and missed its takeoff slot, so an extra hour on tarmac. Ground staff were not able to supply any information as to why the flight was late. In fact, there were no ground staff at the gate. My vegetarian meal wasn't available (I had ordered it), but the staff improvised and I ended up with boiled cabbage and rice. I was starving but grateful. The cabin staff brought me an iPad with a roster of vegetarian meal orders to prove that my order wasn't on it, and I was therefore to blame - never mind. At least they offered me food. Plane seemed rather old, no inflight entertainment, no charging and no wi-fi. But it got us to SFO safely. Not the most comfortable experience, but I paid $580 for a round trip from SFO to Singapore, so I recommend China Eastern to anyone on a budget. The staff try hard (in a difficult corporate culture), to be friendly.