China Eastern Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Honolulu to Hong Kong via Shanghai. My wife and I took a chance on our last trip to Asia and flew on China Eastern Airlines. The fare for the flights we chose on them were a few hundred dollars lower than what we were finding on more traditional Asian carriers. We booked our ticket through a third party platform (Justfly) in early October for a November 1 departure from Honolulu to Hong Kong via Shanghai. One thing that you will find out quick is that when you book your ticket through a third party, you are not able to then go back to the airlines website and check on the booking until the day before departure. You also cannot choose seats until, literally, you get to the airport and check in at the kiosk. This made us wonder if the booking ever happened. I even worked with Justfly to confirm and looked at my Credit Card bill in which China Eastern was indeed paid the money for the booking we made. So as far as I was concerned, on the day we left, there would be a booking. On that day, we went to the airport just a little earlier than normal to be sure that if there were any problems whatsoever, we could deal with them in time for the flight. What pleased me was that the booking was indeed in the system, our seats chosen and we could even change our seats right there. Another concern I had from reviews on this and other sites said that the bags would not be checked through to our final destination, meaning that when we got to Shanghai we would need to exit the airport, get our bags and re-check them into our Hong Kong flight. We were pleased that this was not the case and indeed, the bags were tagged for Hong Kong and, indeed, hours later upon arrival we saw our bags on the carousel there. Service on the flight was good. Coach class food that was served was perfectly fine. They did serve red wine on the flight and we enjoyed a variety of good food throughout the service to Shanghai, and then to Hong Kong. Keep in mind that the most safe food that one can eat is the food that is served on an airplane, so unless you are allergic to some ingredient that they use, you will find the food quite applicable and satisfactory. Later on when I was walking the cabin I noted a small bar in the galley that one could get a drink and a bag of peanuts. Aircraft was clean and seemed neatly taken care of, One thing that a passenger of a healthy girth may need to know is that the seat belts don't make it all the way. You will need to ask for a extender, which the crew happily gives upon request. The attendants spoke English as well as Chinese, and were all pleasant throughout the service we experienced. With more "effervescent" passengers, they still acted professional and held to standards at all times. The entertainment system at each seat had a decent variety of movies and the flight tracking program was as good as ones I have seen on American or Delta. Transfers at Shanghai for passengers going on another China Southern or Shanghai Airlines flight (the airlines are one in the same with Shanghai being the more "basic transportation" airline) are very straightforward, Just follow the signs to the transfer desk and go through security. Be sure to take out any electronic devices including power chargers for your phone - have them go through the X-ray without pulling out and most likely the security people will take the device from you with some excuse saying that it was too large or not applicable.

✅ Trip Verified | Hong Kong To Shanghai in business class. The flight crew provide friendly and excellent services, and make me feel comfortable on this 2.5 hour flight. I will take China Eastern Airlines for my future business trip.

✅ Trip Verified | Los Angeles to Hong Kong via Shanghai. For the price, this can't be beaten. I paid lass than $1900 for round trip. Business class seat, thought the experience was great for the price. I'm sure some would find the food a little underwhelming - word of advice-go for the Asian meal. There could have been more entertainment, not sure how many movies they had, but it wasn't extensive by any means. The seats weren't the most comfortable, but they weren't the worst either. My main goal was to sleep most of the way and that was achieved easily. I'm sure some folks would think this is poor for business class, but look at the price, that really is a steal, so my expectations weren't too high and they overdelivered. Cabin crew were reasonably friendly and although English is a 2nd language on board again it wasn't a huge problem. If I can get seats at that price again, I'd certainly do it!

Not Verified | Flew on China Eastern from Hong Kong to Shanghai Pudong in October. The flight was overall fine and I didnt really have a reason to complain. The food was average, nothing to win prizes with, but given that they offer a full service on a two hours flight that was competitively priced I assume this is not a drawback. Seat pitch appeared to be above average on this airplane as well. Would fly them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Vancouver to Phuket via Nanjing. We purchased our return tickets to Phuket from Vancouver for only $679 which was the only bright side of this flight. Our flight from Vancouver to Nanjing was cramped and the seats were way too small for two adult men who are 5'10 and 6'2. The service was efficient but the food, drinks (lack of wine) and in-flight entertainment were worse than the 4 other Asian airlines I have flow trans-Pacific. When we arrived at Nanjing for our connecting flight there was no international transfer area so we had to clear immigration and re-check in for the Nanjing to Phuket flight which was a horrendous experience: after an hour long wait for immigration, we were sent to a small transfer seating area to wait for another hour until a China Eastern agent arrived to escort us, along with a group of about 20, downstairs to the baggage claim to collect our luggage and then escorted back upstairs to the departures area to check-in which took another hour. We were then escorted to the departures immigration desks at which point we were finally given back out passports and released into the terminal. So instead of simply entering an international transfer area and relaxing until our next flight we were sent on a 3 hour goose chase all around the airport, including 3 separate immigration counters, without our passports and virtually no communication about what was happening. Some of the other transferring passengers were in tears. The Nanjing to Phuket flight was better but we were not given an arrivals card and when I asked the flight crew for one they said they didn't have any. So we proceeded into Phuket immigration clearance area and searched for arrivals cards to no avail. We then entered the immigration line and waited an hour only to be told to go back and get an arrivals card from our airline. There were no China Eastern staff anywhere so we ended up asking Thai airlines for assistance and finally received an arrivals card to clear immigration. Sorry, China Eastern, but there are way too many better options to ever waste our time with this airline again. In the future I will avoid transferring through China at all costs.

✅ Trip Verified | Denpasar Bali to Washington via Beijing. Hellish barely begins to describe my one and (hopefully!) only experience with China Eastern. The problems began right from the check in desk; I knew my bags were going to be overweight, what I didn’t know was that this particular airline doesn’t allow charging an extra fee and checking the bags anyway as with practically any other airline. I was forced to open up my bags and repack them, then use two plastic bags the staff thankfully had the wherewithal to provide me to bring the rest of my baggage aboard the plane. The flight was cramped and uncomfortable, and my seat just so happened to be directly in front of the couple traveling with their bawling infant son and the passenger who tilted his seat practically into my lap. I was tired from already having to be up at 1:30 am to catch this flight and it was impossible to get any amount of sleep on board. Had this been the worst of my experiences I might have ended up rating this airline a 4 or a 5, but the real problems began when I got to Beijing. In order to clear immigration at PEK you have to place your boarding pass, photo ID, and passport into a bag and give it to the officer for inspection. When I got the bag back after leaving the immigration office, there was no passport. Worse still, I couldn’t re-enter the office despite it simply being a flight of stairs away. I tried explaining this to the airport staff, who were incredibly unhelpful and spoke next to no English. They generally kept trying to usher me to the terminal to catch my connecting flight, despite my attempts to explain to them that I need the passport to be able to clear customs in the US in the first place. Either way, it felt as though I was going to be stuck in Beijing. I wasn’t wrong. After being sent all around the airport in a goose chase that lasted almost two hours, airport security finally retrieved my passport, and with an hour and a half to spare, I was finally free to check in to my next flight. Crisis averted, right? Well, as it turns out, the check-in desk for my connecting flight was in Terminal 3, which happens to be a 20-minute shuttle ride from the airport proper. Good thing all of this was explained to me in advance by the China Eastern staff- oh wait, it wasn’t! So naturally, after waiting for 10 minutes for the shuttle and then riding it to Terminal 3, I missed my flight (originally to Chicago) because the check-in desk had just closed three minutes prior. Three minutes! I explained to the staff that my family had driven all the way from Ohio to pick me up in Chicago and that I absolutely needed to catch this flight. But for whatever reason, possibly terrible English comprehension, nothing I said seemed to get through to them. They wouldn’t even let me on the flight to Chicago that left a day later - instead, I was haphazardly tossed onto a flight to Washington DC that I then had to wait another six hours for. So in the end, the backup flight (which I wouldn’t have needed had it not been for the incompetence of the immigration staff) was an inconvenience not only to me but to my family. All in all, flying with China Eastern has quite possibly been the most infuriating experience of my life. Trying to find anything positive to say about my experience is nigh impossible, and I would never in good conscience recommend this airline to anyone.

Not Verified | I flew with China Eastern Airline Sydney to Los Angeles via Shanghai. I had a 2 hour layover in Shanghai and had 2 hours to get on my connecting flight to LAX. However, when I arrived in Shanghai, my bags that were supposed to be on my next flight were at Baggage Claim. I was then redirected to the ticket counter and told that I could not get on my flight to LAX. They then told me that the flight was cancelled, but I later found out it took off for LAX at the scheduled time of 8:57PM. The employees of this airline talked amongst themselves and were laughing, not willing to help me. They told me that the next flight to LAX would be at 1PM the next day. I was stuck in Shanghai for the night. I was very disappointed with their services. I was there on time with a connecting flight, yet they refused to let me on. I had enough time to get on that connecting flight. I do not recommend this airline at all. So unorganised and such a waste of money and time.

✅ Trip Verified | Chicago to Delhi via Shanghai. Prior to flying I read comments about China Easter and thought man this isnt good! Well, there is a reason why people are so upset with the service and quality of this Airline. Service in plane was horrible, I asked for bread they responded "no, may be next time" asked for wine "finish, no more. May be next time". I'm pretty sure there will be no next time. Pay extra fee bucks and fly with a reputed airlines especially for the fact that flights are so long. Ground crews were not helpful and everything was very unorganized.

✅ Trip Verified | Beijing to Yinchuan. Heard mixed reviews of China Eastern Airlines but was pleasantly surprised. Comfortable seats with ample legroom. Plane was new and looked brilliant in the silver SkyTeam livery. Food was decent although I noticed that they don't offer a drink selection and only give passengers a bottle of water. In terms of IFE, you can't expect much when flying within China except a movie or show being shown on the overhead monitors. I was asleep for most of the flight and was pleased with how smooth the ride was. All in all, a good experience.

✅ Trip Verified | Hong Kong to Shanghai. I was scheduled to fly 2 days after Typhoon Mangkhut. Although both their English & Chinese website has very poor announcement on the flight status whereby I have to call to their customer service center China to check it out myself but to be honest, it isn't that bad after all. I was able to switch to an earlier flight without paying for anything at the check in counter and the flight to Shanghai was smooth. Very decent amount of legroom space (coming from someone who takes budget airline quite often) however there's no in-flight entertainment which is fine since it's only a 2 hour flight. The food was OK, well you pay what you get for. Everything was alright, my luggage did not went missing nor was it damaged either. Overall, it was a decent flight and for the price that I paid for it was worth the bucks.