Air China

LHR-PEK-Tokyo RT in Business. One-word comment: Impressed. More: A330 on the long legs; 777 to Narita then A321 from Haneda to PEK. All flights on time; all aircraft clean and comfortable. A330 lie-flat seat up there in the business comfort stakes. Not Emirates but better than BA. Food acceptable if (for a westerner) a little idiosyncratic in the order of service. Decent wines - no whisky onboard the return from PEK to LHR. Instant coffee! IFE is probably good if you're Chinese! Very limited choice for English speaker.

Flew long-haul SGN-PEK-LAX. Services were adequate considering the prices I paid. Leg room was better on 737-800 (SGN-PEK) compared with 737-700 (which I flew in 2007 SGN-PEK-SGN). Food portion was a bit small. Drinks service was good. Connecting at PEK took time. They should have opened one or two more counters. Two hours were just right enough to complete the transfer formality. Seat pitch on their 777-300ER was decent could stretch and sleep well. Food portions were small and a bit salty (for me). Drinks services were good during the course of the flights; we could also "help ourselves" at the galley. Overall you get what you pay for. A lot of people comparing CA with some other airlines but they forget how much they pay for each of the airline they mention.

I have been doing a lot of travel with this airline in 2013/14 and now 15 within Asia between Beijing Ulaanbaatar Singapore Bangkok and Ho Chi Min. My experience has been very positive. Lots of room planes in good condition friendly staff. Their Economy Class is one of the best. I have used this airline for international trips between Beijing Vancouver and San Francisco in all classes. A totally different experience.

I flew from PEK-YVR with Air China on CA 0991. This flight was part of an Aeroplan points redemption ticket. I can say that the quality of the airline compared to other Star Alliance members is very poor (comparing staff food seat comfort and entertainment). When I got on the flight I found a plastic knife in my seat left over from the previous flight. This was fine and I started to settle in for the flight. After the safety video and taxiing we were informed there was an issue with the plane. We stayed on the tarmac for around an hour then we all gathered our things and were bussed back to the terminal. Once there there was very little communication. Eventually our flight did go around 6 hours later. My major points with the airline: Very few staff members spoke English and those who did had communication level. Staff members also gave conflicting information about the delayed flight and were unable to answer most questions in English. All major communications were given in English but it was broken and often very confusing. Inflight the staff were not very friendly would barely make eye contact. Inflight meals were poor. The second meal they gave two options I chose the chicken option and it turned out to be the exact same meal they had served earlier. Inflight video quality is poor and screens cannot be dimmed which makes watching movies overnight very hard on the eyes. I would not recommend travelling with this airline.

Was flying to Hangzhou via Frankfurt and Beijing. Almost impossible to make the connecting flights my luggage arrived half a day later etc. On the return leg was served food of really cheap quality main meal being a cheap hotdog sausage in some terrible bread (I'm usually not difficult with food but this was terrible). Breakfast was horrible. My seat was dirty there was some food from the last passenger left on my seat on both flights. I got conned into booking with them as they are part of Star Alliance but this is complete tosh. The reality is they are worse than a budget airline.

Beijing to Delhi Dec 27 flight CA 0947 was cancelled and rescheduled and coming back from Delhi to Beijing flight CA 0948 on Jan 20 was cancelled for 10 hours and CA 0991 from Beijing to YVR on Jan 20 was cancelled for over 40 hours. My flight was cancelled and re scheduled going and coming back it was delayed in Beijing for 12 hours going to my destination. Coming back it was delayed in Delhi for 10 hours with no explanation. The result of this delay was to spend another 48 hours in Beijing. Staff spoke no English to communicate. this was the worst service I received in my life. Apparently this happens often with this airline. To my knowledge they left some passengers behind who had the same delays as me not sure when they will reach their destination. Please do not use Air China if you don't want to ruin your trip.

SYD-PEK in First Class on B777. New First Class hard product looks great is functional roomy and comfy. Inflight entertainment very Chinese focused slow and very poor International movie/TV selection. Screen size large but low in resolution for a new product. Food and Beverage service Premium Economy standard at best. After 1 hour into the flight the staff ran out of Champagne which is ridiculous with only 6 people in First class of which only 2 (including me) had a glass of Champagne. Service was friendly and tried but obvious standards are lacking displaying lack of training or procedures. In short: Hard product can compete with the best but service is not international First class standard at all.

LHR-PEK 2 day stop over PEK-REP and REP-PEK-LHR on the return. Easy to check in at all times and points in my journey. Easy international transfer at PEK on the way back people jump the queue but that happens whichever airline - that's the airports fault. Faultless flights really. The staff aren't overly friendly but then I refuse to fly BA because of their staff. The food was a bit grim but find me an airline where it isn't. The inflight entertainment on the PEK-LHR route was ok (there was no entertainment on the PEK-REP section). The only thing that really annoyed me is that you can't have your phone on even in airplane mode. This seems a little old fashioned. I paid less than £600 for my flights so I'm not complaining. Get what you pay for.

Flew SYD-PEK-LHR 25/12/2014 and returned LHR-PEK-SYD 15/1/2015. Great flights comfortable seats pleasant staff and ample enjoyable meals. I happened upon cheap flights for the festive period so was not expecting too much especially after reading negative reviews. How wrong I was to presume. The return flight was much fuller than the outward flight however on both legs boarding and feedings were performed with a minimum of fuss. Longest wait was for an over packed young couple at Heathrow followed by a wait time for take off at Beijing. Hardly anything to complain about. Will most definitely be recommending to friends and looking at their website for flights in future. Breaking the Sydney to London journey at Beijing is just about 1/2 way - a great plan.

Flew YEG-YVR-PEK-BKK return. Flight from YEG-YVR return was on Air Canada. Travel from YVR-BKK return was on Air China. Seats for YVR-PEK return was selected at booking time however when confirming flight info of trip at later date no seats assigned as there was a change in aircraft - this resulted in having seats in less desirable area of the aircraft. Confirmation was obtained regarding return flight info for departure time and seat assignment. The outgoing flight to Bangkok was on schedule. In cabin service was fair - they did not go out of their way to offer water or snacks on a 13+ hour flight - passengers had to serve themselves the majority of the time. Meals offered were edible. Return flight from Bangkok was a complete nightmare. Arrived at Bangkok airport at 4am for a 6.10 am scheduled flight to Beijing - no listing of flight - it took over an hour to find someone who eventually advised us that the flight had been rescheduled to 1.50 am that morning and that we missed our flight. Advised that we would have to deal with Air China rep who will show up around 11.45 am to check in passengers for a 2.20 pm flight. Attempts were made to make contact with Air China in North America and Beijing - no success 7+ hours later the ticket wicket opens however no Air China rep shows up until numerous requests were made. Another hour goes by before boarding passes are issued for BKK-PEK. Required to fly standby for the remainder of the trip which resulted in an overnight stay in Beijing. Attempt to obtain boarding passes for PEK-PVR and was advised we missed our flight>had to explain the whole scenario again - after 45 min boarding passes were issued and advised we have no seats from YVR-YEG and will probably have to overnight again. Client service provided in YVR was excellent ticket agent met us at the gate upon arrival and ushered us through customs and to the Air Canada kiosk for the issuance of the final boarding pass to YEG. I will definitely not fly with Air China again It is not worth the frustration I had to encounter trying to rectify a situation that resulted from them changing departure time without advising their clients. Spend the extra money and fly with a better airline.