China Eastern Airlines

Vancouver to Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines, and the service was good, seats comfortable. The food from Vancouver was the best we have had on an airline. Staff were very pleasant. All the electronics did not work, and the movie selection was geared to Chinese audience, but we were a minority. But otherwise no complaints.

Delhi to Seoul Incheon via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines. No source of entertainment, seats not comfortable, Food was ok. I had a stop at Shanghai where I had to change to another China Eastern flight going to South Korea - which was 3 hours late (despite our 7 hours transfer and 3 hours delay). It was the worst 10 hours of my life and the flight was the worst.

Shanghai Hongqiao to Chengdu. Two full-price tickets for Chinese New Year but the flight obviously only sold half and have to merge with previous flight to Chengdu - so why no discounted tickets offered? Plane was delayed. The ground service is very unfriendly. Captain made no announcement and the crew apologized perfunctorily. Seats very uncomfortable and tiny, making it hard to fall asleep at midnight. Very boring movies and disgusting meal, not fully heated. Attendents refused to move bar cart to allow a passenger to go to the lavatory. I witnessed an attendent playing cellphone in the sky while all Chinese airlines forbid passengers to do that.

Sydney to Frankfurt via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines was the worst flight and service I have ever encountered. Some of the flight attendants were arrogant and impolite. But the worst was the customer service in Shanghai. Most of the staff at the service counter for international flights can hardly speak any English. I had applied for a free transit hotel on their official website, but they never replied. So when asking about it in Shanghai they pretended that such offers did not even exist and I was forced to get a hotel at my own cost. Never again!

I bought a return trip from Auckland to Manila, with both trips having a 15-17 hour layover in Shanghai. A few days after buying my ticket, which I bought well in advance of my trip, I was told there is no courtesy hotel when I asked. One of the passengers on the same flight was also from New Zealand and on the same connecting flight. He was told that he can get a courtesy on just one way but not both and it is up to him to choose which one he'd like to avail the courtesy hotel. When I wanted to have my courtesy hotel, I was told that I sent my request under 7 business days but I asked for it when I bought my ticket! They lied to me. Another China Eastern person told me that courtesy hotel is only available if flight is delayed. When then was my friend offered a courtesy hotel when the flight has not even commenced yet? They lied a second time.

One of the worst airlines. Flew China Eastern Airlines from Delhi to Vancouver via Shanghai on January 9th. Flight cancelled from Delhi for no reasons. Got on to the flight next day. Old plane with no TVs on Seat, no alcoholic beverages. Flight Attendants rude. Arrived at Shanghai at midnight, was told that I will be able to catch 13:30 flight next day - but that never happened. Waited two days to arrive in Vancouver. Spent hours at Shanghai airport and of the worst travel experiences of my life. Avoid this airline.

Colombo to Busan via Shanghai with China Eastern Airlines was shambolic. The worst was the queuing at Shanghai for transfers. Multiple flights arrived pre dawn and had to wait for two hours for a boarding card. Most of those waiting already had boarding cards and had to wait all the same for their boarding cards to be rubber stamped. The queues were poorly marked and no staff guided them resulting in abundant cutting in line and queue hopping - some intentional, some not. At one point a member of staff bypassed a huge section of the queue leaving many trapped in a limbo loop. It was like a mob. Out of 9 counters, 5 were set up though only 3 were operating. Remaining staff lounged about cluelessly chatting behind the closed counters. Entertainment was awful. Food a disgrace to Chinese culture. Drinks barely existent. What a disaster you are China Eastern.

Sydney to Dubai via Shanghai and Kunming, returning to Melbourne. A nightmare and terrible. Not just because of the the oil soaked food and entertainment which was horrible and limited (no alcoholic beverages), or the touch screen LCD which is not working, but China Eastern Airlines added a connection which was not there in the ticket. They added an airport called Kunming to the route. I did not know where we were. We were shipped like cattle - the whole plane - and squeezed into one small bus like a can of sardines. Then forced to go through the immigration / passports check, in other words forced to get a visa, then again had to go through security, who are impolite and uncivilized. The airport authorities forced me along with others to sign a paper written in Chinese. I don't know what I signed on, as they refused to give me a copy - I was in a city which I don't know it's name and was not in my ticket, and we are supposed to be connecting there only. Even at the security screening, passengers should expect to get pat down search by the opposite sex. They just do not comprehend what the word courtesy means. By the way, it is a big fat lie that China Eastern offers a hotel room if the layover time is more than 8 hours.

I flew China Eastern from Rome to Sydney via Shanghai, returning to Frankfurt. All flights were great and on time, they had in flight entertainment - except Shanghai to Frankfurt which didn't have TVs to my surprise. Nice hostesses and comfortable. Food was the only let down, which was greasy Chinese food, but for the price you pay is fine.

Shanghai to Melbourne. Our family of 5 booked flights with China Eastern as they were cheap - what a mistake! Plane modern, departures were on time, food wasn't bad, entertainment was good, but I was very dissatisfied with the lack of customer service. On arrival at Shanghai China Eastern check in we were told there was a problem with my infant son's passport, that he needed a transit visa for Melbourne (we were only transiting in Melbourne before flying to Auckland). We were told to wait 10 minutes. There were no seats. We had 3 young children and finally after an hour of sitting on the dirty floor were given our boarding passes. No explanation. No apology. No transit visa. This is terrible! Left a bad taste. Onboard the flight, limited smiles from cabin crew who were clearly tired and were spotted sleeping in the business class section. Also no word from the captain - nothing. To hear from the Cockpit reassures passengers and is something most airlines do. If they want to compete with other airlines, customer service needs a big improvement! I will not fly with this airline again.