Air China

Used a check-in machine at Stockholm Arlanda airport to get the boarding card and seat selected. Worked nicely - my earlier attempts to check in via internet failed even on several attempts. All flights on time. The seats however were very cramped, 30-31" pitch at the most so people with long legs beware. I had a window seat and both mine and my neigbour had broken screens. The stewardess tried to restart several times without success. So a long haul flight without entertainment, I was not surprised. The meal was okay but not tasty. Same meals in both directions. Chicken or Pork. Free beer or wine (okay but not nice) was served - but only after the meals which was strange, again I was not surprised. I would only use Air China again if on a very tight budget or if I saved a lot of time.

I traveled on 4 Air China flights, from Los Angeles to Chongqing, China via Beijing, and from Lhasa to San Francisco via Beijing. 3 of 4 flights were late 1 hr or more. On the trip from LAX, the delay caused me to miss the connecting flight. Although I was assured that a hotel had been reserved for me and I was rebooked to the next day, there was no hotel reservation upon my arrival in Beijing. I ended up in a hotel somewhere in an industrial zone. On the trip back to US, the flight was delayed over 2 hours. Upon my arrival in Beijing I was informed that the checked luggage had been taken off the plane in Lhasa. I was able to catch the connecting flight, because it was also delayed, but without luggage. I eventually arrived 3 hours late, and the luggage arrived 9 hrs later. Unfortunately, Air China is not yet ready for the big league. Although the in flight staff and service are nice, things fall apart outside the airplane. Staff do not have adequate English language skills, and system logistics and management have not yet reached an acceptable level.

Air China delayed the flight for almost three hours without any reason! They waited for transit passengers from Chongqing or somewhere. There were no announcements or anything like that. This is unacceptable from a national carrier and a Star Alliance member! Interestingly, my seat did not recline back to the normal position. The air hostess tried her best but it did not work. Thank goodness the seat next to me was empty.

First class in quiet cabin, only 2 of 8 seats occupied. Nice suite type of seat and very nice for sleeping. Give you a nice duvet, but seat does not have a mattress and seat cushions a bit worn. Food is okay, seems to be the same menu year in and year out, and Chinese options are better than the western menu that I chose. Staff were friendly enough, and reasonable language skills in speaking English. Of course not up to the levels of Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific, but if you can get a cheapish ticket its not bad. Inflight entertainment is terrible - very limited western choices and system very slow and not responsive.

I had 3 trips on Air China, from Beijing to Xi'an and Harbin to Beijing. Both flights were excellent, comfortable seats, good service and clean. I had 3 flights on China Eastern in the same time. By comparison Air China flights were better in every measure. They transport the first class passengers from the plane to the luggage area - this is a nice feature. The Air China lounges are far superior.

We flew LHR-HND via PEK, and then returned from NRT to LHR with a 72 hour transit visa stop in PEK. Despite the many negative reviews about Air China economy class, the fare was too good to travel with another airline. Overall, the experience wasn't too bad. We booked via an online travel agent, so were unable to select our seats online, but it wasn't a problem to contact the Air China customer service team and have our seat selections noted. The seat pitch was the same as most other economy class flights, although the foot rest on each seat was made for smaller people so it restricted leg room when raised. The crew didn't speak much English, but they knew enough to get by, and the in flight announcements were understandable. The inflight entertainment selection didn't have a lot of English language options, and was very limited overall when compared with airlines like Emirates. The food wasn't great, and the only wine available was a choice of red or white Great Wall Chinese wine, neither of which were nice. Overall, I'd fly Air China again if I wanted to travel to or via Beijing, but probably not again otherwise.

The seats and leg room was serviceable. The only thing about the staff that was a concern was most of them spoke basic English. The entertainment also was very biased. For a 13 hour flight their content generally catered only to Chinese people. Luckily I spent most of that time sleeping so it didn't matter. The meal options were limited but the food wasn't bad. The only think I will warn is that if you're on a long flight and you don't like Chinese food don't take this flight because that's what you'll be served throughout the entirety of the flight. Chinese food is okay to me but it did get tiresome eating just that. Everything was clean the seats came with clean pillows and blankets and the plane was at room temperature which is always good since some planes can get cold.

We flew from JFK to PEK then on to Kunming and returned from Kunming thru Bejing to Houston for our return in economy class. The planes were no less comfortable than others the entertainment options were limited with very few current movies in English. the music selections were standard. The crew were very nice but English skills were very limited. The food was awful on all segments. Almost inedible out of Beijing. Air China changed our schedule after we booked resulting in much longer layovers. Travelocity was unable to give me access to my booking on line and I was unable to contact Air China regarding seats. Will try not to use either Travelocity or Air China again.

I took a flight from São Paulo to Madrid (headed to Beijing) during the Christmas holidays. The flight was at least an hour late and the attendants had no information it was late. The food was not very good and looked a bit old. The attendants were friendly but hard to communicate with. I think the worst part were the passengers there were families with a lot of luggage who made a lot of noise screamed from one seat to another changed seats all the time. The bathroom was beyond filthy. It's probably worth to pay a bit more on a clean flight not to have to put up with this for over ten hours.

Economy flight April 15 from Beijing to Chengdu (PEK-CTU). Flight was on time fully booked up. I was the only western guy. Chinese pax loaded with tons of bags and suitcases (never heard of checking it in?) terrible chaos to find a place for all this bags bags scattered all of the plane in the overhead compartment. No way for this on a western airline. Seat legroom very very small seating comfort not available (hard as stone). Small breakfast (some kind of filled bread roll muffin) and 2 times beverages (coffee tea water juices). Standard behavior of flight attendants. I will never fly economy on a Chinese domestic flight.