Air China

✅ Trip Verified | Sydney to Madrid via Beijing. OK for the price. Their website is very difficult to use, their cabin staff only perfunctory, and the onboard experience lacking. The aircraft were reasonable with seatback screens but the movie choice was very limited and the system slow and hard to navigate, especially with the oddly placed armrest controls. My 777 screen stopped working entirely after 7 hours. The flight attendants did not appear to be happy, warm or welcoming. Their English was passable but their pronunciation poor so cabin announcements are difficult to understand. Beer is available on the drinks round but wine is only available with meals and they like to give you 1/3 of a cup. Asking for a second glass was not received well. The meals were tiny. Taste was good but they sometimes served the same dishes twice per flight. I booked a transit hotel in Beijing both ways, but the process was cumbersome even after I spoke to their call centre. Both ways it took 3 hours to get the transit visa and go through immigration and customs, so be prepared. The Air China service desk is through customs at the door to the terminal. The hotels were quite good but there was nothing nearby either of them. If you have a very cheap fare and do not mind a long break mid trip in PEK then Air China are an option, but other airlines will probably do the job better for not much more money.

✅ Trip Verified | I had serious concerns about this airline before taking my trip, but ended up having a very good experience. So I promised myself I will write a review about it. Best value for money: what caused me to book was the offer of flying a flat bed C-class seat from JFK to Shanghai for $2,200 (return tkt), only with a quick stopover of 90 minutes in PEK. Pre-flight concerns: - I kept receiving automated emails from the airline that my itinerary has changed and that I should contact them and I can change/get a refund for my tkt. The small change that happened once was a 5 minute change in departure time which increased my layover in PEK (good thing, since you need those 90 minute to transfer) - customer service: it's impossible to reach them by phone, the line is not manned. So I emailed them. They responded within 24hrs (or so) and said that my flight's transfer time in PEK is too short and my tkt needs to be changed. But when I went online I saw that my same exact flight itinerary was still being sold on various websites, incl. airchina.us. - The inconsistent response from their customer service really got me worried about the reliability of this airline, so I did some more research online on helpful reviews. I mostly read terrible reviews on how delayed the flights were, people missing their connections and being treated very poorly. That's when I got really worried about having booked this ticket, but figured I will take the risk. Also TPG wrote a fairly good review on them, so that felt comforting. Flight: - Outbound: upper deck of Boeing 747, half empty cabin. Seat was perfectly comfortable (flat bed). Service was smooth, food was good/fine - meat a bit chewy. Staff are friendly and helpful, though be aware they only speak limited english. - Inbound: Boeing 777-300 - full cabin. Seat perfectly comfortable (flat bed). Service was great, they accommodated my specific food requests despite not having ordered in advance. Overall a great flying experience. - All flights were pretty much on time - In-flight entertainment is ok, limited movies selection / limited music selection - no WIFI. Transfers in PEK: - 90 minutes is definitely needed if transferring. You need to take a quick 'airtrain' trip from domestic to intl., even if you don't change Terminals. The connecting flight to and from SHA was a tarmac parked aircraft with bus transfers, so that added time as well. I was traveling with filming equipment and I've never had to spend that much time at security, unpacking my entire bag with all the equipment and letting it run several times through the x-ray.

Not Verified | Bangkok to San Francisco via Shanghai. What a nightmare. Staff did not recognize my Star alliance status and told me to que with the rest of the chaotic crowd. Seats are tight and the food is less than mediocre. To make matters worse, you have to go through customs in Shanghai, even though you are transiting. Never again

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Ho Chi Minh City. This was my maybe 10th flight on different routes with Air China and again a really bad experience. Splitting the 4 people (1 infant, one 2 years old, 2 adults) to 3 different seats across plane can happen. But I would at least expect that ground staff would try to solve it. Attitude of the ground staff was that they do not actually care - in their words "we can do nothing with it". It is OK when the system screws it up but then I expect staff to work towards the customer service, not to let a 2 years old sit alone. In the end we solved it ourselves on the plane thanks to other nice passengers but again Air China staff didn't helped much. Overall service and quality of plane was as well poor. Food is most of the time badly smelling and taste is low quality. Inflight entertainment almost none and even the magazinnes are mainly in Chinese.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Phnom Penh via Beijing. Not the newest of aircraft but plenty of space (due to old style 3-3-3 seating rather than 3-4-3 favoured by many airlines). Acceptable food (better than BA but not to Emirates or Qatar standard). In flight service efficient and staff on both flight were keen to help and engage with passengers. I was particularly impressed with the Purser and Crew on our second flight who handled the cabin very well and professionally during turbulence and showed care when dealing with passengers. I would put air China somewhere above the volume US Airlines (who tend to serve food in boxes), around BA but below the Middle East airlines. For the price point (circa £450 round trip) they are very good.

Not Verified | Vancouver to Bejing. When we arrived in Beijing we had a 8 hour stopover. We toured the Airport and arrived back at our gate about 1 hour before departure. We heard a Chinese Announcement about flight to Manila and repeated by a very bad English. When we approached our gate about 3 mins later than boarding, we were informed we missed the flight. The plane had not left terminal.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Shanghai via Beijing. The flight arrived late into Beijing and I missed the connecting flight to Los Angeles. They made everyone wait in an area for forty minutes, then put everyone in a bus that got lost twice and took ninety minutes to get to a hotel. No food was provided, my bathroom had no shower door and had a clogged sink. I was the only Caucasian amongst all Chinese. Not a word of English was spoken. When flying from Los Angeles to Shanghai five days earlier the same thing occurred. My flight from Shanghai to Beijing was cancelled due to weather and I was forced to spend the night in Beijing. Rather than accept their accommodation I took the money they offered, forty six dollars and found a four star hotel that cost $250. Air Canada had its passengers stay at the same, pricey but reasonable, hotel. The following day, after spending three hours on the tarmac, without any communication from the pilots, the flight finally departed for Shanghai. Returning from Shanghai I was wiser but no less lucky. My flight from Shanghai to Beijing showed that it would be delayed and I knew I would miss my connecting flight to Los Angeles. An hour prior to the flight leaving I informed the airline staff that I would miss my connecting flight and requested they instead arrange another one. I even showed them flight options on my phone. The answer was no answer. I had to take the flight or be left on my own in Shanghai, not knowing what would happen. I took the flight to Beijing and was then taken to the hotel. I kept asking myself, why can’t Air China run some very simple regression analysis to determine the chances of customers making flights given variables like seasonal weather patterns and historic flight delays. The only answer I could come up with was they either do not think it is important or do not know how to do it. Why do airports in China suffer some of the longest delays in the world? As mentioned in the Economist, “The first reason is that its airports err on the side of extreme safety.” This is consistent with state run ideology. Play it safe. No mistakes, and you won’t get in trouble. According the South China Morning Post, “Like the rest of the world, the biggest cause of delays according to CAAC is the weather, which accounted for 56 percent of flight delays ” No one thinks this excuse is legitimate.

✅ Trip Verified | Milan to Fukuoka via Beijing. Bad Service. I booked a kosher meal for the flight. The flight attendant didn't checked the special meals, trying to serve me same as others. When I asked for the special meal, she returned to the galley and brought me an open box though it was written on it in big letters that it must be open ONLY BY THE PERSON WHO REQUESTED THE MEAL. DO NOT EAT IF IT WAS OPEN BY SOMEONE ELSE. After I complained, the flight service manager briefly apologized for the "little" mistake, returned to the galley and after a while brought me a small plate with a piece of a fish and salad from the business class. He was in a good mood, laughing, and obviously not comprehending why I refuse to accept the food, saying repeatedly that it was much better than my kosher meal. As a result, I was left without food. How could such a person be a flight attender MANAGER? I have never felt such humiliation and ignorance of passenger needs. Shame on Air China for the service! In addition to being left without food for a 10 hours flight, I got my checked luggage (a hard suitcase) at the destination destroyed by 4 big cracks.

✅ Trip Verified | I have just used Air China for the first time and had a horrible experience. We traveled to Beijing from Houston late October with tickets bought in May. Our return to Houston was scheduled for October. We arrived at the airport to be told the flight was canceled due to aircraft problems to be told the following day that was a lie. Apparently, for financial reasons Air China canceled both Friday and Sunday flights months ago but didn’t tell everybody. Now changing a very long, costly international flight is already a very poor customer service, but not making absolutely sure everyone realizes such a major change has happened is the worst I have ever seen in an airline. To make matters worse we had to fight to get a hotel and were sent to a very very poor, dirty one. Food was promised to be included but we got there only the buffet consisting of cold chicken nuggets and old eggs were included. Real food had to be paid. When every airline would be trying to make it up, since it was not my fault the flight was changed, getting a nice hotel and food, and an upgrade, Air China simply got us even worse service. I also had to buy my own food since the option was not edible. I travel a lot, have used multiple American and European airlines, being frequent flyer on several. Air China is the worse. Ever.

✅ Trip Verified | Air China is the worst airline ever, their customer service is inexistent, they do not answer calls. On hold for over 2 hours each time and half their Phone numbers for customer service do not work / are paying. Their premium economy is a complete rip-off, you basically get the same seat as economy with one seat next to you empty. I will never fly this airline again and do not recommend anyone to fly it. With this type of customer service.