China Airlines

My flight from JFK New York to Beijing China was 14 hours long. I was pleasantly surprised that the quality of my requested dietary preference was excellent. The meal times also were appreciated because the cabin crew requested all passengers move their seats back to the upright position. I am 6 feet tall and when the seats recline the passenger in front of me ended up crushing my knees. The bathrooms were top notch. On a long flight I expected them to be a disaster but they were always clean. The inflight entertainment was good and kept my kids busy when they were not eating or sleeping. Compared to other long flights I have been on before Air China better than I expected.

San Francisco - Manila via Taipei. Boarding was smooth I was assigned a seat with bulkhead directly in front of me limited leg room however no seats getting tilted back on me. The TV and dinner tray are built into the seat in this arrangement so the seat is even narrower than normal. I am a fairly average size guy and I was cramped due to the reduced width. The service is OK served two meals offered water twice coffee or teas once and received a warm towel once. The movies were fairly new although I watched foreign movies with Chinese subtitles didn't understand a thing. The flight to Manila was uneventful the transfer in Taipei is really smooth. The return flight was quite more eventful. Boarded only to find my assigned seat was already be used by a young child apparently the ticketing agents changed the seat assignment by simply writing it on the boarding pass. I was one of the last to board so I just stood in the galley and kept fingers crossed for possible upgrade. No upgrade however I did get an aisle seat so win-win family stayed together and I was in a better seat. All things considered given the price I was able to book this flight for the overall friendliness of the staff the quality of the food and the choices of entertainment I would say "Do it take a chance be adventurous."

DEL-PEK-SFO. After great service at Delhi departure check-in it was downhill for the next 2 flights. None of the cabin crew spoke a word of English or Hindi they were rude and unhelpful. Food was still frozen coffee and tea were not served without a hassle. I booked for convenience of arrival time and it was a mistake. I fly to India once a year and have flown many Asian airlines and they are excellent. When you have 21 hours on a plane you really do expect movie choices more recent than 1960's. I could deal with bad food and no entertainment in a comfortable seat but they should give the ones they have back to the bus they got them from.

Hong Kong to London Heathrow connecting in Beijing. Multiple schedule changes prior to departure. Flight from Hong Kong to Beijing delayed - no explanation or apology. Flight form Beijing to London delayed by over an hour - no explanation or apology. Cabin crew had little and in some cases no English skills and few if any manners. Wine ran out half way through the meal service and tea and coffee was not offered afterwards. Films in English language consisted mostly of black and white offerings from the 1950s. Checked in luggage did not arrive at Heathrow and it took 3 days for it to be sent to my home. There is nothing good to say about this airline - its the worst national carrier I have ever travelled with.

Travelled from Sydney Australia to Tokyo Japan planes were new and clean food was excellent airline staff were immaculate and friendly for the budget price we paid you can't go wrong with this airline.

HKG-PEK flew in Economy and did not expect that there would be inflight entertainment but no headphones distributed. Luckily I had my own set. It was good that the broadcast was in Chinese through the right ear and English through the left. The service was good and the food was adequate.

CI007 and CI0018 on 4/12 and 4/18. It had been about 6-8 yrs since the last time I went on China Airlines. I was impressed with the improvements made to the entertainment system kept me busy the entire time besides sleeping there are over a hundred movies and my two kids were kept busy. The food has improved a lot. I love the teriyaki chicken rice dish and the porridge was pretty good too. On our way to Hawaii we had a layover in Japan. The only thing I think they need to improve on is the attentiveness of staff on board their uniform is so outdated.

Flew from London Gatwick to Tokyo via Beijing. My 2 teenagers were a little apprehensive after reading some negative reviews but were pleasantly surprised by the experience. Modern aircraft to Beijing with inflight entertainment and a Boeing 777 to Tokyo with no entertainment console but only a 3 hour flight. All flights left on time and the transfer through Beijing was relatively painless as all flights in same terminal. Meals were very good for airline fodder and plenty of them along with water and drinks. Staff were well turned out and efficient but as pointed out in another review quite emotionless. A couple of smiles wouldn't go amiss! My only gripe was the complexity of the inflight entertainment remote control. Took a bit of working out and couldn't get my daughters to work on the outbound journey. However as travelling in economy goes I would say Air China were one of my better experiences and would be happy to use them again.

Beijing - Moscow 2 weeks ago in Y class. The worst flying experience I have had. The aircraft was old and everything was outdated. I have never seen such a dirty plane: tray with dirt ceiling splashed with food and coffee food splashed on side wall floor dirty seat pocket full of debris inside toilet not cleaned sink and out of stock. The food was awful. The worst part of journey were the FAs. They were very rude no smile no English. They did the minimum during the whole flight. Never again.

PEK-IAH April 2014. First Class 777/300. Flight departure time 3.00. My wife and I were at the gate 15 minutes before boarding and the pushing had already started. There was no sign for a first class line so both lines were 20 passengers long. When I finally got the attention of the gate agent she pointed to the front of a line. After boarding we took our seats 1L and 2L. We were served a drink and told we would be the only two in FC. Here is where it starts to go downhill fast. After take off we were served dinner. When I checked the menu on their web site it was supposed to be Australian Beef. They didn't know anything about that but they had a beef meal the only Western choice. OK I'll try it. Soup was cold so I sent it back and it came back cold. Now for the beef. It looked like pot roast with cold lumpy gravy. I sent it back and it came back exactly the same. Dessert was something round the size of a half dollar. Tasteless. Red wine was supposed to be French but I think it was Chinese brand Great Wall Wine. Not drinkable. The AVOD wasn't bad so I watched a movie and tried to sleep. Should be easy with only 2 of us in FC. Then crew moved to empty seats to sleep. Just when I thought I would fall asleep the FA's started cooking in the FC galley. Banging dishes and glasses. The cooking smell went on for several hours. Arrival in Houston was a welcome relief. Priority tagged bags hit the belt about 10 minutes after the first bag. Air China has a long way to go to compete in the International market. They actually make United look great. I was using miles for this flight. I would have been more upset if I had paid for it. When I checked their web site FC one way PEK-IAH was $13.000. Hard to believe they operate this flight with limited English FA's and horrible food as a United codeshare.