Air China

MEL-PVG-LHR-PEK-PVG-MELin J Class. PVG-LHR was code-share using Virgin so won't comment on that. CA178 was my first long-haul with CA. Mostly it was a pleasant trip with good service. A330 was in good condition. A few scuff marks at feet level. Bathrooms were clean throughout. Captain spoke excellent English and FA announcements were clear English. Requests to FAs were mostly understood. Service when the call button was pressed was very prompt. Meals were fine. Presentation was a bit naff but food OK. The seat was good the design made me think of J in Lufthansa. I worked the whole trip so didn't try it as a bed. Access to the power point and headphone socket was fiddly under an armrest. The overhead light was not accurately aimed at the table. Amenity pack was OK. Mostly working so not much time for AVOD. Video feed quality was excellent. Headphones not noise cancelling but adequate. LHR-PEK - Departed on time. Good quality pyjamas provided and the bed comfortable. Blanket a bit on the small size. Meal service was fine. Choice of movies was OK. Headphones were very good with noise cancellation. PEK-MEL - First time trying PEK as a transit. Not good. Arrived in T3. After walking about a kilometre reached the transit desk. Half an hour later I was through. Had to take the train then finally get to the domestic lounge. Was called to the gate but stood for 45 minutes waiting for the bus to the plane. Plane to Melbourne was via Pudong. Lunch was OK then arrived at PVG. A man with a flag rounded up all the MEL pax and herded us to the baggage claim area then to immigration. Bit of a queue there. So after about a 750m walk arrived back at the same gate same plane. All in all I came away with perception of 4 star service for the air portion. 2 stars for the transit service at PEK maybe 2.5 stars for transit at PVG. A pity because Air China itself was fine.

CDG-Beijing / Shanghai-CDG. First class on the way out business class on the return. Check-in at CDG was smooth and Air China own staff greeted each first class passenger and was escorted to the passport check area. The star alliance lounge has friendly staff but pathetic choice of food and tired facilities. On board the seat was comfortable and turned into a bed. It was however like a Turkish Airlines long haul business class seat but with more privacy. Male flight attendant was very kind and nice but definitely needs a touch up on grooming while female flight attendants were immaculate in grooming but need a brush up on service skills. Bizarre meal combination with Chinese spicy chicken and prawn served with Risotto. Whole service lacks refinement and sophistication of other airlines but very efficient. Return check in at Pudong was fast and friendly. Did not have time to visit their lounge. Flight was operated by an old A330 but still with a seat that turns into a full flat bed. Did not eat and slept for a good 8 hours. Cabin crew on this sector were all attentive and very friendly. English did not seem to be a problem on the flights I took as others experienced. Inflight entertainment has a lot of choices but has a strong focus on Asian / Chinese speakers.

SYD-PDG-MXP-PEK-SYD. Original flight cancelled. Offered to fly 2 days earlier or 2 days later. The flight over was in a very old example of an A330. The delay on the "media" system was about 30-40 seconds per touch instruction. The "food" was inedible. Flying through Shanghai I could not check my luggage through to Milan but had to collect it and go through customs and Quarantine and Re-check in. Shanghai Airport was not air conditioned during my 6.5 hours layover. I had to carry my luggage with me as I could not re-check-in outside 2.5 hours before departure. Contrary to my expectations my luggage arrived at the same time I did. If you have a choice fly with other airlines.

Flew HKG-PEK-FRA-PEK-HKG all in ECO. Short haul flight the Crew was much nicer compared to the long haul flight. Connex was good and efficient. PEK-FRA-PEK. The crews were very robotic and just spoke the necessary minimum quite harsh tone when preparing the cabin. Flight wasn't full so crew couldn't be stressed. Food was nothing special Entertainment OK (selection was a bit outdated). Value for money was good and it fulfilled my expectation. Even though next time I would rather spend a few Dollars more to fly one of the established airlines direct connex.

PEK-LHR checked in early and got a window seat. Security at T3 something of a nightmare each checkpoint (of which there are about twenty) has it's own line which pass through a barrier and when joining the line it's impossible to see but every other checkpoint is staggered so the checkpoint might be just on the other side of the barrier in which case there are about five people ahead of you or it's much further away in which case there are thirty people ahead of you and the difference is worth about an extra twenty minutes. One last complaint about the airport at least in summer - it's incredibly hot so despite preparing for comfort on a long flight one always boards sweaty and uncomfortable which is rather awful. The route has been upgraded in July to a Boeing 777-300ER. Boarding smooth with a final security check in the jetbridge reducing congestion at the aircraft door. Every seat was filled except the one separating me from my neighbour which was lucky. Pushed on time and made a smooth takeoff and climb. Meal service was tasty and hot chinese seafood and noodles. Air China still have one terrible habit of (even on a daylight flight) insisting - at times rudely - that all window blinds are closed. Why on earth is this? It's an all-day flight that arrives late afternoon a lot of sleep in flight is actually quite counterproductive to beating jetlag. I opened it an inch to enjoy the sights of Russia enough to see out but not enough to incur the wrath of the cabin crew who were kind and laid-back on every other issue - top up a drink? an extra bread roll? no problem. Want to look out the window on a daylight flight? I enjoyed the excellent on- demand entertainment options which included plenty of first-rate western movies. Second meal service was another tasty hot meal as we left Russian airspace. Landed on time at Heathrow. Baggage claim was pretty quick. Cut out the nonsense with the window blinds and get some aircon in the flagship terminal at their capital city and Air China will have the makings of a pretty good national airline.

DXB-PEK and PEK to Zuhai 8/07/13. Flight was late and no welcome onto flight. Seating was bad choice of entertainment had no proper functioning remote. After reaching Beijing connecting flight was cancelled due to bad weather but they had no help organised and had to stand for 4 hrs in line to have ticket changed. Took 7.5 hrs from landing to getting to hotel. Initially thought of taking an upgrade and paying but looking after the service not even interested to fly economy class. Overall bad experience.

A two-leg journey from Shanghai to London transfer in Beijing but we sat on the plane in Shanghai for 4 hours. Ground staff knowingly had done nothing to accommodate the event - maybe they considered this too normal! When we finally arrived at Beijing well passed midnight put in a hotel nearby and told to come back the next morning. Lucky we got squeezed onto a a BA flight.

LGW-PEK-HKG. LGW to Beijing on a A330 delayed 40 minutes and was completely full. Reasonable inflight AVOD entertainment system containing a selection of Chinese and Western movies. Food served was edible and expected from economy class. I liked was the super fast removal of food trays. Beijing International Airport is huge and with less than 2 hrs to catch our connecting flight proved stressful. Found no time to relax look around or for something to eat. Onward flight on a A320 seemed to have more legroom. On arrival at Hong Kong in the early afternoon one of our bags had not been put on our flight but fortunately delivered to our Hotel later that evening. Found return journey stressful due to time constraints. Flight delayed and so had just over an hour to get our connecting flight. Fortunately flight delayed 25 minutes so we managed to get on board. Our ticket price to HKG was quite cheap but I probably will not consider this route again.

Flew last month from Singapore to Beijing to New York JFK and return. Flight to Beijing and JFK went without trouble and the food in flight entertainment and service were reasonable. However upon landing at JFK we found that our bags hadn't even left Beijing. Had to wait 2 days for our bags to come to us. Flight from JFK to PEK was horrible as the air conditioning was not working and we sweated for 13 hours. In flight service was very good as they moved us closer to the front so we could catch out connecting flight to Singapore. Flight to Singapore was delayed for one hour in which we sat on the airplane for an hour with very little explanation. Same in flight service as the flights going to JFK even though it was a month later. Upon arrival in Singapore one of our two bags did not arrive. Very poor airline. I do not recommend if you have time constraints or you have lots of luggage and have connecting flights.

HKG-PEK-LHR CA118 and CA937. Outward journey had been fine. Return terrible. Sat on plane in Hong Kong on day of departure for about 8 hours in total with short break for lunch in terminal. Told unconvincingly that the problem was bad weather in Beijing. About to take off at 5pm when told fuel had overheated and flight cancelled. Following day had to be up at 2am for 6am flight that was then delayed. Told in Hong Kong transfer would be on to Gatwick not Heathrow but at Beijing told we were back on flight to Heathrow. Asked staff to ensure baggage was put on correct flight and assured it would be. Baggage did not arrive with us and two days later Air Canada who deal with Air China baggage problems do not know where it is. Air China seem to be impossible to speak to directly. Will never choose to fly with this airline again.