China Eastern Airlines

✅ Verified Review | China Eastern from Shanghai Hongqiao to Beijing on 31 May. I was confirmed on the 5pm flight but when I arrived at the airport to check in I am told that my flight was cancelled (for no reason, or the airlines feels there is no need to offer any explanation, the weather was too good to be blamed). I had a contact number and no one bothered to notify me. I am a confirmed passenger (flying from Vancouver to Beijing via Shanghai where I made a stop), yet when they cancelled the flight I am virtually not protected on any subsequent flight as is the trade practice. I was only asked to walk half a street block's distance and queue in another counter for 20 minutes to get my passage 'endorsed' on another flight. Only with that I can check in again. There are earlier flights but I was able to get only the 8:40pm flight, a 3hr 40min delay against the flight time of 1h40. This new flight was 'too early to check in' so I was turned away by the counter staff after some quering, and I was asked to come back to check in 1h 30m, holding on to my luggage. There is absolutely no sense of some form of apology - the trouble is all the passenger's bad luck, as this clearly is the airline's attitude. No drink or meal voucher is offered and we the victims are only new passenger with absolutely no responsibility on the airline's part, and that should consider yourself lucky to get a seat on a later flight they allow. Check in staff attitude was rude, and unhelpful, and I was unable to reserve an aisle seat or any seat, just get whatever available on check in. I got on the 8:40 flight and on arrival I lost my ground transportation in Beijing and had to stay in an airport hotel. There is drinks service on the flight but no snack, not even one to purchase. And to think that I should be on the 5:30 flight. I do not know whether there is any law in China governing flight cancellation and passenger's right, but all my blame will go to the attitude of China Eastern Airlines. They simply have the right to cancel without reason and if the passenger had it, it is the passenger's bad luck. I live in China and fly every month so I know airlines. Not all airlines are the same but China Eastern is for me, the worst airline of China, definitely. My advice is that if you have a choice, avoid flying with them.

New York JFK to Tokyo Narita with China Eastern - the flight was decent, better than I expected, especially for the very cheap tickets. The flight from JFK was delayed a few hours so they gave out $10 food vouchers for the airport - this was good as the food is expensive and I was hungry. There was a decent selection of movies (some fairly new ones) and some classical music (my favorite). They even served food on a 2 hour flight. The apple juice was delicious and they served fresh watermelon.

✅ Verified Review | Flew China Eastern Airlines from Vancouver to Shanghai. A smooth daytime long haul flight, quite comfortable though full. Cabin was clean and staff service more than adequate. Check-in was good. Seat pitch is not among the best but acceptable. But standard, not delivery, of food service is slightly below competitor's. Not much to expect of food on an economy flight but the food seems extremely economized compared with competitors. My seat was well-located but I had no choice of my preferred main course. The meal was the lowest cost option, no bottled water, and bread was served well after the meal by the time when you have finished eating. The food is domestic Chinese, for example the salad is beans in a sauce with seasame oil which suits me but doubtful if for foreigners. Good that the Chinese tea is decent. Cabin staff do speak adequate English, compared with flights on a Russian or a East Europe airline. It was a satisfactory flight particularly for value (I took a OW flight).

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Paris was the first time I have flown with China Eastern Airlines, and I won't be using them again. It was booked as a package through a travel agent, so we didn't actually choose it. The seats were okay and the food was okay but the service was slow and some Chinese cabin crew were rude and annoying. For example one of them kept nudging and walking into me as we walked by and spilt cold water over me - I said be careful and she ignored me. No apology nothing. Then we had to sit through and watch a stupid exercise video all in Chinese for half an hour near the end of the flight when some of us were watching films, TV or the map and others were listening to music. Some very strange ways and rude service by most of the cabin crew so I won't be using them again.

✅ Verified Review | London Heathrow to Melbourne via Shanghai. Never fly China Eastern Airlines. We paid for Business Class due to the need for flat bed seats. We got an old plane with seats that didn't recline fully meaning a sleepless flight. The reason for the delay in departure was blatantly untrue (icing on the wings - the outside temp was 9ºC) as was the reason for the excessive cabin temperature (27ºC). We were told that was the normal temperature passengers liked, but after a couple of hours of complaining of the heat, an honest attendant told us the air conditioning wasn't working! We moved seats after a sleeping member of cabin staff was moved out of one of the seats. There was a poor choice of food and it was lukewarm, as the attendant seemed unable or unwilling to heat it to the correct temperature. There was a terrible choice of films. Our stopover was Shanghai, a horrible bleak airport, where we were met by rude and unhelpful ground staff and had to find our own way to a shabby VIP lounge. This was a very long way from where we had entered the airport. Our luggage was left out uncovered in the rain, so when we got to our destination, we found the clothes in one end of my husband's soft case, were very wet. All in all it was a dreadful experience. I can't stress enough that this is an airline to avoid at all costs,even if, as in our case, it came highly recommended. China Eastern haven't the foggiest idea of what good service is, particularly if the passenger has paid the extra cost for Business Class.

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Honolulu with China Eastern was terrible. Hope to never have to fly them again. Traveled with my pregnant wife and two kids both under the age of five. They had no personal tv on the seat back in front of you. Hoarded their water and ice, my wife had to beg them for more than one glass of water. The wine serving was tiny and by the time I asked for a refill they had no more wine. I think each cart had just one bottle of red wine for a few hundred people.

✅ Verified Review | Shanghai to Delhim with China Eastern Airlines. A Hindu Meal (purely vegetarian) was requested with the booking, and the airline served me meat, rice and cabbage. I am an English speaking person, and complained to the cabin crew, but they pertained to have understood nothing - this was despite the fact they were speaking English as per their own convenience during other conversations.

✅ Verified Review | Phnom Penh to London Heathrow via Shanghai with China Eastern. The usual cramped seating, that we expected. A 7/8 hour stopover in Shanghai. We also knew about this but the company (cheapo air) emailed me to say it had changed and they said they would put £3.85 back onto my credit card? We were so confused by these mails that we had to go to the airline in Phnom Penh to make sure that everything was ok. The journey itself was awful. The meals, that you kind of look forward to on these long haul flights, were dreadful - even the Chinese passengers were not eating them. We ended up hungry as we just couldn't eat. Then to top everything off, the steward spilled a cup of hot coffee over my boyfriend!!! They gave him a few dollars by way of compensation and apologised profusely, but maybe they need some extra training.

✅ Verified Review | Sydney to Shanghai, and a new W330 with the latest seat configuration. We left on time outbound and arrived a little early. A little late leaving without an announcement but arrived on time. Lovely FA's each way with good English and the food was fine. Nice selection of wine and a reasonable drink menu. Entertainment/movies were average but ok. Only downside was the lack of quality headphones, certainly not noise cancelling. Comfortable seating with plenty of space for storage. The layout of 1-2-1 leaves plenty of room. Cabin temperature fine. Boarding etc was fine although the lounge in Shanghai is just terrible. Not even a handle on the toilet door! Overall a really nice experience.

✅ Verified Review | Hopeless disgrace of an airline. At least two flights ex Guangzhou to Wuhan cancelled on evening of 17/04/16. Bad things hapoen, of course, but China Eastern could not have made a worse job of handling it if they had actually tried. No communication and zero apology for what is now a totally sleepless twelve hour delay, almost all of which has been spent in different lines/queues (four just to get my bag back, which took so long [but was not optional] that it was almost time re-check it by the time I found it). I fly in and out of and through China a lot. This is the last time I will use China Eastern. Avoid.