China Eastern Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Flew with China Eastern from Gatwick to Bali via Shanghai and back to Heathrow. Flight from Gatwick was poor compared to the flight back to Heathrow. On the return leg the food was good and flight attendants attentive. However, the flight from Gatwick could be much improved. We were served food within an hour of departure and then didn't see the flight attendants again until two hours before we landed; an almost 8 hour absence. No snacks. No water. 8 hours. Flight to Bali on old a330, no entertainment and again, limited FA presence. However, tickets were extremely cheap and so long as you stock up with water and snacks before the flight it is worth travelling with them for the cheap tickets.

✅ Trip Verified | Chicago to Bangkok via Shanghai. I am a physician, normally fly at least 1-2 times/year, for volunteer medical/surgical mission work. I used China Eastern airline for the first time, flying out Jan 30. I had problem at the airport when checking in, which never before in my traveling experience. My passport has printed out my first and middle name in short and not spelled out in full as in ticket. I showed 3 different government issued IDs to identify myself. The counter agent would not issue me a boarding pass and insisted that my traveling agent change my ticket name. When I called the traveling agent, they would take 2 days, and advised me to ask the airline agent at the airport to do that for me. However, the airport agent and her supervisor refused to help me at all. They were extremely rude to me, literally man-handled me to step aside so they can help other customer. I stood there for over 1 hr. Finally, I asked my traveling agent to book me with the different airline at the same day or tomorrow flight. When I asked the supervisor to do in writing that they refused to issue me my boarding pass and the reason, she came out later and told me that she can now help me correct the name on ticket to be exactly same as the passport. The aircraft was quite old, not a lot of comforting equipment. WiFi was not working, and when asked the flight attendant, she said will let me know when function return, but she never told me for the rest of 14 hr flight. Flight attendant never once ask what I need during the entire flight, I had to press call button and wait for 30 min each time I need something. In conclusion, the service was worst than economy class, despite being business class. On the way returning from Bangkok, I did not have any problem at the counter at all, although took extra 15 min to check in due to my name on passport again. The food was also just tasted like coming from a vending machine. Even though the ticket in business class is $1,000 cheaper than other airline, I will never fly with China Eastern again. Furthermore, my brand new luggage was completely destroyed

✅ Trip Verified | This is a generic review for China Eastern. As usual, I need to add 30-49 minutes on each keg at both each airport because Chiba Eastern is too cheap to pay for an actual gate. 85% of the time when flying on MU you will need to take a bus to and from the aircraft which causes so many additional delays.

✅ Trip Verified | Cebu to Chicago via Shanghai. This was the worst flight I have ever flown. The staff was not very friendly. The food was terrible, and this has been the only airline that didn't have me verify your food choices before the flight. I was told that I needed to have done that before somehow (never has this happen before), this meant they didn't have anything vegetarian to eat unless ordered before. There was only one food option for the other people and again never had a flight with only one option. Staff did dig up a couple small things like a fruit cup, donut etc which was greatly appreciated for the 14 hour flight. Hugely dissatisfied with this flight experience and would never use again.

✅ Trip Verified | Toronto to Cebu via Shanghai. I stayed up the night before my flight, petrified of of the terrible reviews I was reading. It wasn't a bad experience, well worth the price of my roundtrip from Canada to the Philippines with a quick stopover in Shanghai. You can't expect premium service for bargain prices, but I'd say nothing was bad about this airline, just average quality (minus the wi-fi, which was non-existent). I found the food perfectly fine- no vegetarian options, but it was served hot and was serviceable, though definitely nothing to write home about. The staff were pleasant enough and had decent English, the in-flight entertainment had an average selection of movies with Chinese subs, and the plane itself was very clean and comfortable enough, if a bit cramped. What matters was every flight left on time and got me to my destination in one piece. Overall I'd recommend it for the price.

✅ Trip Verified | Kuala Lumpur to Toronto via Shanghai. Absolute worst. Booked a flight with China Eastern for May 16th (Kuala Lumpur 2a.m. To Shanghai arr 7:30a.m./Shanghai midday to Toronto 2:25pm. That same day). I then booked a independent ticket to my final destination Montreal couple hours after my planned arrival in Toronto. After couple weeks, get an email that the airline has modified my itinerary. My flight from Shanghai to Toronto remained the same, but my flight from Kuala Lumpur departs at 4p.m. And land in shanghai at 10:30pm. How am I suppose to then leave from Shanghai at midday if I only arrive hours later. Obviously I can’t. Trying to contact the airline is the worst, no email address, totally useless on Messenger, several phone number for HotLine. Unfortunately, they keep you on hold for ever and if you luckily Finally get to talk to someone, they just hang up on you. It is a rather stressing process, and costly as having to pay for all these minutes of International calls while oversea. Luckily for me, I booked through an agency which finally managed to get me on a flight a day earlier which would get me to destination. I tried still to contact the airline has they usually would have to accommodate me for the now 27 wait I have in Toronto, but they refused to do so. Even worst, they did not even apologize for the inconvenience and extra cost this is causing me. They were also denying they changed the flight at first, trying to blame the agency, telling me I should had ask for support while on layover in shanghai, etc. She finally admitted the first flight I was booked on had been cancelled,etc. Still no kind of compensation, no apologies. i had tried contacting the airline for more than 6 weeks by now, which I had proof of. For the flight experience it is not terrible but pretty average. The flight attendant were not helping people store their luggage in the overhead compartment, so boarding was a bit chaotic. Also many customer were too short to access these compartments. Seat area is spacious, thank God on a 14 hrs flight. Flight entertainment offers an average and limited selection. Flight attendant were not rude, but not really friendly or helpful. They did not respond to the service button request. We got served two meals and a snack on a 14 hrs flight. The snack was a tuna sandwich (quite hard and dry), since I don’t like fish, I asked if there was another option. The flight attendant told me next meal is at midnight. Next meal was awful, plane food is not usually that exciting, but this I could literally not keep in my mouth. Sides are really light too so can’t rely on that to fill up. Luckily they serve butter and bread so I just asked for extra. They ran out of many drinks option. On a 14 hrs flight, not being able to get any other juice than orange, or no wine available from mid flight is pretty lame. This is my first time ever writing a review for an airline, and I fly quite frequently. I have use low cost airline which offer better customer service than this. I live on undeveloped islands in Cambodia, I am not a princess nor fussy. But this was a truly frustrating experience. So much stress for weeks not knowing if I would have to buy a different flight myself and loose money. I had confirmation from agency that my flight was changed, but on airline website, no departure info was available after the modification. It only showed my return details. So until I checked in and got my boarding pass, I still wasn’t sure I was truly booked in.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Dongying. It's a short domestic flight in the evening. Shouldn't expect a lot for 1 hour flight in single aisle aircraft. It's good that they still offer desserts and drink in business class. But the cabin was outdated, entertainment screen are smaller than most economy screen in intercontinental flights. Limited choices for movies and everything, hard to operate and hard to switch off.

✅ Trip Verified | Shanghai to Rome. For economy this is was a very pleasant journey. Had a seat by the exit which allowed for plenty of leg room. Hostesses were all friendly. The IF system could do with a refinement as the volume wasnt good and the choice limited. Also the food was not great but ok overall.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Hong Kong via Shanghai. I had modest expectations for these flights with China Eastern, but I was pleasantly surprised. There are still vestiges of the airline's struggle with the smoking culture of China. - they seem to have managed to quash the habit of the flight crew to surreptitiously smoke, but in some other places, the smell has lingered. The van used to transport business class passengers to the parked aircraft smelled like we were traveling inside an over-used ashtray. Other aspects of the experience were more positive. The aircraft was clean and neat. The flight attendants were cheerful and attentive and did their best to communicate in English - I was impressed considering that the first segment was a domestic flight from Beijing to Shanghai. The meal options were well presented. Beer and wine generously offered, but no harder options were available. We departed and arrived on-time, and my suitcase was on the belt when I cleared immigration. The lounge experience was acceptable, but I will address that in another review.

✅ Trip Verified | Kuala Lumpur to Toronto via Shanghai. The worst airline ever. KUL to PVG May2 and PVG to YYZ May 3. They lost my check bag on the first flight, and on the second flight they have cancelled my pre-booked seat. When I talked to them, the attitude is, I will simply give you a seat, take it or leave it.