China Eastern Airlines

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.

Colombo to Incheon via Shanghai Pudong with China Eastern, with my family (3 children between 2 and 7). Both flights were delayed by more than one hour. At no time company has informed about the delay. At check-in counter staff assigned us separated seats whereas I was traveling with young children. I had to argue for more than 10 minutes and finally call the manager to have seat together. Staff told me that I could bring the baby stroller at the gate of the plane but when I arrived at the gate of the plane stewardess told me that she would not take care of the stroller and that I had to come back to boarding gate. I folded the stroller and left it in front of plane gate and she finally took care of it. The inside of the plane is like the service, very poor. The cabin seats were worn and in poor condition. Strips missing from seat armrests, seat cover had some old stains, and the headrest cover was marked with hair from previous traveler. Inflight entertainment is one tv for 20 passengers. Connection at Shanghai (PVG) was just a nightmare. We had to queue for more than one hour at transit counter. Fortunatly we had 3 hours to catch the next flight. Boarding gate was used for several flights at same time and there was no information on the displays so it created a huge traffic jam. When embarking I noticed that the escalator which was going to the plane gate was not working and that there was no elevator. So I asked someone from the staff to help me with the baby stroller. Staff just acted as if they did not hear me. Once again I had to complain several times to finally have someone help me. Just avoid this company.

First time on China Eastern opting for a direct flight, as normally use Qatar Airways. What a big mistake, even if I saved about 5 hours in total! Whilst the fare was cheap I now know why from this experience. Seat comfort was okay, but had the misfortune to be squashed between two Chinese passengers that talked (shouted!) across me much of the time, and one proceeded to spit into the seat pocket on several occasions. The meals were awful - very cheap standard underlined by fatty and inedible meat. Staff started out okay with a smile, although they could not understand any English off a very brief script, but after the meal service they disappeared. Getting up and walking around midway through flight, I peered into second business class cabin and saw FA's were sprawled out sleeping there - 6 of them! IFE needed rebooting several times, and while okay for a Chinese airline, is pitiful compared to most airlines. If you're lucky you will get a thimble of wine, as they run out before they have even done one service in the economy cabin. Pilot maintained total silence from boarding to arrival - I assume there was one? Wouldn't have mattered as the other staff announcements could not be understood. I had high hopes for a direct flight, but will now avoid China Eastern like the plague.

Dubai to Narita via Shanghai return. Seats have excellent legroom and seats booked beforehand were honoured on all flights. IFE was excellent with plenty of movies. Food had 2 options, but not of great quality and sometimes it was inedible. Drinks options very limited. Friendly staff. Will use again and excellent value.

Sydney to London via Shanghai Pudong with China Eastern. The aircraft was modern and fairly clean. The cabin staff were polite and attentive, overheard them handle some anxious passengers who seemed to be asking for Kosher food that had not been requested. I was eating Hindu (because I like the food not through religious conviction) this was excellent outbound from SYD and okay outbound from Shanghai : seems to depend on airport more than airline. It is true there is limited alcohol available. I had no problems getting water, there was a regular walk up and down with a water jug. Seats are what you expect in economy, maybe a tad more spacious than some. Seemed like a reasonable range of Hollywood movies, good range of Chinese movies. Limited but sufficient range of European movies. Flights were on time or early. As noted elsewhere they put the aircraft into might mode more or less anytime (PVG to LHR was a long afternoon flight). You can open the blinds and look out but it is all quite organised. Personally I think the night mode does encourage young passengers to nod off rather than cry/laugh/shout. I asked for and got complimentary food vouchers via email to the London office. This worked very well and were met both times at Pudong by ground staff giving us vouchers. Baggage was checked through from SYD to LHR and arrived not much the worse for wear. Overall great value for money great staff.

Shanghai to Hong Kong. Flight left Shanghai late, although that seems quite normal. Crew smart with their uniforms and lots of smiles. Can't remember the last time a member of the crew, without even asking, placed my wife's luggage in the overhead bin. The meal on the short flight to Hong Kong was excellent and wine offered twice. All announcements clear and safety was top priority. No hesitation to fly with them again.

Melbourne to Shanghai. The seat was average for Economy class, food was alright, and the inflight entertainment provided plenty of options. We chose China Eastern Airlines because of low fares, and would recommend it to people who don't want to spend much money on a trip to China.

We flew on a very old China Eastern Airlines plane from Shanghai to Paris, filthy in every aspect, no films nor music on this flight, no online check in or seat selection available, no white wine, limited red wine and beer that they didn't want us to have anyway, inedible food, almost no snacks and no water brought during the flight unless you asked for it. Seat had almost collapsed with no support, reclining was broken, no soap in toilets after 3 hours. Be careful when booking though Skyteam as although the flight had an Air France flight code that was not made clear until I received the online Ticket - very naughty. A word of advice on departing from Pudong Terminal 1. There is almost nowhere decent to eat in this depressing place, just a Starbucks with 4 tables and a Subway with 2 tables. Stock up with some munchies or better still, stop off at the Ramada Hotel just 5 minutes by courtesy bus as they have a pretty good International restaurant where you can get Western style food like pasta. After an 8 hour layover I was about to jump off the roof.

Osaka to Singapore via Shanghai and Kunming with China Eastern. Flight from Singapore was delayed for more than 1 hr, causing us to rush like hell collecting check-in baggage when transiting in Shanghai. Were given the few back rows and the crews behind were practically chatting non-stop during the whole flight. When returning to Singapore, 1 of our 3 baggage did not turn up. Reported to SATS baggage and had to call the hotline several times before our baggage was found in Kunming. The reason given by the airline was the baggage tag was until Kunming, not Singapore. When we were at Kunming, the airline staff even brought us to a waiting area whilst waiting for the inspection of our 3 baggage and confirmed to us our baggage passed the inspection and will be sent to Singapore together with our flight. If the tag is only till Kunming then what for we waited at the waiting area! Already 5 days since we came back to Singapore and the airline are still holding back our baggage at Kunming despite the fact that SATS had told them the tag indicated final destination as Singapore not Kunming! Very disappointed and frustrated with the poor service and low efficiency of China Eastern Airlines.

Bangkok to New York JFK via Shanghai Pudong. We attempted to book a flight with China Eastern for April 2016 and instantly regretted our decision to fly with this airline. The website is incompetent to say the least; when we booked, the page loaded for ten minutes before sending us to an "Error" page through their website. My credit card was charged despite receiving no confirmation email, ticket information, flight details, booking number, or anything at all even noting that the order was processed. We are currently living out of the country and called the Sydney office to see if we could fix the error; they told us that because we booked from the US website, they were unable to help us. After spending hours on hold with the offices in both LA and New York (to no avail), and sending out multiple emails to each office, we finally received an email saying that they only had a record of a canceled flight from us and that was it. We are still desperately trying to get ahold of them and fear that our money is lost. If we are having this much difficulty trying to simply get confirmation of our tickets, I cannot even begin to image how hard it would be to get our money back. I am dreading the day of our flight.