China Eastern Airlines

I really wish I would have read the reviews of this airline before I booked it. I can put up with bad food and delays but the rudeness and inability to help you as a weary traveler is very unacceptable. Took a flight from Hong Kong to LAX with a change at Shanghai, the flight was delayed in Hong Kong for 10 hrs due to weather in Shanghai, I can understand that but we missed our connection in Shanghai and China Eastern’s attitude was «oh well, not our fault it was due to weather» when we arrived at Shanghai it was a mad house, they don’t control people or the crowds at all. they would not help with anything, getting another flight we were told would be 3 days later due to overbooking! They would give us a hotel for the night but when asked for a voucher all they did was shout at you and point to the bus outside the airport «just get on the bus, will go to hotel and will be all free» who would get on a strange bus in Shanghai? and where were they going to take us? no vouchers, no courtesy and if you wanted to get on another flight sooner it was at your expense. Yes the food was bad too and yes the service on the flight was not very good a 2 at best but this can all be overlooked for the lower price I think that would have been acceptable but I will never fly this airline again and I will definetly read reviews next time and do my research before I book a low priced airline again.

All in all, I’ve flown them before but this is the first time I felt it worthwhile to voice my opinion. My last experience took them from the average 3 stars to 2.
Discount airline for sure and that comes with normal +/-‘s. Comments on plane quality are accurate with long haul flights using newer planes and regional using old. Boarding process is normal. Baggage claim is normal. Prices are competitive. Customer service is useless.
Why 2 starts? I had 2 tix round trip that needed the return to be pushed out. I’ve spent 20+ minutes on 3 separate calls on the US New York, US Los Angeles and even called the Shanghai 24hr line. Nice people but long 20+ minute wait times, less than adequate answers. Recordings that after 10+ minutes say they are too busy, please try again later, click or common to hear ‘I don’t have that information, please call this different number’. A flight booking change I have to think their published numbers would know how to do these common tasks.
If everything in your trip goes to plan, easy peazy. If ANYTHING changes (You request or they initiate) its a nightmare chasing them down. They are clearly after $ and make it difficult to remedy in all cases.

On time, good fares. The several flights I’ve flown in between the US, China mainland and Hong Kong were decent, up to par with many of our domestics in terms of equipment and service.
They seem to serve meals on even the shortest flights. I can’t endorse the food because I’m not an expert in Chinese cuisine but the gesture is appealing to customers as the fares still tend to be the lowest when booking flights from North America and mainland China around Asia.

As follow-​up. Over two months later, the complaint I filed with the credit card company worked. Received full refund from a flight that China Eastern Cancelled. China Eastern tried to keep some of the money as «change fee» for a flight they cancelled (cancelling large numbers of flights is a common occurrence among mainland China airlines — collectively, they are worst in the world).
So, if China Eastern cancels your flight and tries to claim a «change fee» when you ask for a refund, file a fraud claim with your credit card company.

I flew China Eastern from San Francisco to Shanghai, PRC, and then from Shanghai to Nagoya, Japan. The planes were new and modern. The seats had a wide birth — i.e. plenty of room. The meals were decent. The airline hosts and hostesses were extremely pleasant. And they had «No WiFi.» Yes, «No WiFi.» It is not a good idea to turn a plane into a large microwave oven by having a microwave-​emitting WiFi (or should I say Why Fry) system inside of it. Whenever I have flown on airplanes with WiFi, I have gotten extremely sick and felt I needed at least a week to recover from the stupid ordeal. And now they are putting this shit in cars! Another brilliantly stupid idea!

It’s not that bad! Surprisingly okay.
I was scared at first to book this flight (SFO-​PVG-​HKG) because I’ve heard so many terrible things about Chinese airlines. Here are some of my observations:
* CHEAP FARES. Only cost $ 799 RT from SFO to HKG.
* GHETTO DESIGN/​BRANDING. I’m a designer and it really pains me to see such horrible visuals and graphic/​brand design. However, there’s so much room for improvement that in a couple years, they’ll get it right (think Hyundai and Kia).
* SAFE. It’s part of the SKYTEAM network so I’m thinking it’s pretty legit. They don’t just let anyone into that club, right?
* NEW PLANES. The plane I took out of SFO (Airbus 330) was new, had screens and was much nicer than any United plane I’ve been on in SF.
* GHETTO PLANES. The domestic flight from PVG to HKG was delayed and ghetto. Felt like they bought the plane off a Southwest garage sale and repainted it. It was definitely from the 80s.
* MASSIVE DELAYS IN CHINA. Domestic flights were delayed by 30 – 60 minutes. Not that massive, but felt massive.
* CHINESE PEOPLE. Watch out for these guys. These seasoned flyers are like hawks when it comes to empty seats and will employ all sorts of tactics to claim a whole row if possible.
* SERVICE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT. The flight attendants could be nicer and try just a little more to be friendly. I know these flights can be long and grueling but a smile can go a long way.
Overall a decent flight for the price and good first time experience. You get what you pay for and in this case, you get a bit more. Expect the worst and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Will fly again with them.

So sad so good! The check in process more closely resembles checkin’s from the 80’s/preinternet but everything ran smoothly. Hate people were nice and if they can get us to our honeymoon without injury great!
One major caveat is that they love to change flights-​be sure to check before you leave to make sure you didn’t change your flight.
Great prices, we’ll see how the flight goes