Well that’s our flag carriers for you, they get great food and drinks as well as great service but cut back on ground dispatch and old aircraft seats, but for 750 bucks that’s totally worth it especially for the transit. I wouldn’t consider flying if the price is kept this high currently at 4K in the back, but I wish there could be a new airline akin to Singapore or UAE carriers operating on the C919
Dan, it's time you started to re-review the economy class on ALL the airlines, especially the top airlines. Recently flew Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and Swiss, and Singapore Airlines was BY FAR the most disappointing, even though they just won the Skytrak airline of the year award! It seems that the economy passengers have been 'forgotten' in place of offering business and first passengers even more! Given that the majority of your subcribers travel economy, they would benefit enormously from your re-review! TIA
That’s too bad about Singapore Airlines. I’m hoping yours was a one off experience, but I’m fearing not. I believe worldwide, air travel has become “Americanised”. Passengers who’ve paid relatively little for their fares, board our aircraft not giving a $hit. SQ airline employees and management pick up on this don’t-give-a-$hit attitude, and so they start not giving a $hit either. They’re a business after all, so if SQ can get away with charging the same and offering less, like any good “American-style”- business, they will.
Besides being in a shitty seat that was so close to bathrooms and triplets screaming my experience on Singapore airlines was good in economy. We did Toronto to Frankfurt frank furt to Singapore and it was fine. Particularly the longer of the two legs, from Germany to Singapore, the A380 is the quietest plane I’ve ever been on
That empty space you saw in First class is actually used as a self-service bar. Flight attendants usually put snacks and drinks on there during flights, even on short domestic flights.
I'm glad you called out the lack of personal air vents. The lack of these on certain carriers infuriates me. I wish both Boeing and Airbus would not offer this option to the airlines.
As a repeated business class flier, my mom absolutely hates China Eastern but she spoke very highly of China Southern, so maybe give them a try. She's flown practically all the Asian airlines that go between Shanghai and NY.
The China Southern 787 economy is much better than many other 787 economy seats out there, leg room is a bit tight but as a slim dude, it's fine with me. The food, IFE cabin crew, comfort and overall experience is not bad at all, although your experience will vary between flights
Unfortunately, In Chinese airlines like everything else in Chinese internet and app, are designed for chinese people and chinese speaking/reading people with local numbers and local ID. If you have those two your life gets significantly easier such as booking seats on an airline.
somebody finally speaks the truth. tho i do think CE air website even though as a chinese, the internaltional flight booking experience is quite terrible. pretty much like what Dan has experienced.
It just shows how little China cares about actually working with the rest of the world, as so many otherwise mundane commercial services only work with a National ID and not a passport, and how paying for things often require a Chinese bank account which itself requires a Chinese cell number to open. Nowadays foreigners can't even reload their Beijing Yikatong transit card at the kiosk, and have to find a manned cashier to top up.
@@doujinflip no. It shows how the government prioritizes the people than some other non sense. Personally I’d rather my government works for me than spending on some useless services. If I run China, I’d prioritize 1.4 billion people than trying to make tourists life more convenient especially China doesn’t rely on tourism for income like let’s say thailand… to be honest with passport number, i can check in and select seats with air china, juneyao and china southern. Not sure why it doesn’t work with china eastern… it’s the same elsewhere to be honest. Unless you use the big giant for services… i was in Sweden and tried to use some delivery app and wouldn’t connect to my US cell and end up needing to use uber eats and their extraordinary service fee.
@@doujinflip i see nothing wrong about wanting to change the system. China is a giant and perhaps people should start adapting, learning the language rather than vilifying the different system.
I booked a round-trip economy ticket from Manila to California with China Southern back in 2019 for just $587. My experience was overall good. The crew was very atentive and spoke decent english for all the flights. Food tasted ordinary and also had limited IFE selections compared to other Asian carriers but I did sort of expected that based from reviews. I also chose China Southern than China Eastern cuz it had better reviews in skytrax. My only complaint was that they gave me a middle seat on the long haul flight even if I selected aisle. But overall the experience was good for the price I paid.
China Southern nearly killed my friend back in like 2013ish. He asked multiple times to make sure his food didn’t have crustaceans in it and about 4 bites in he found a prawn. Lucky he didn’t eat any of it because we were halfway between Germany and China. I got the same meal and mine was still partly frozen in the middle so I passed. Then there was no food in Guanzhou(?) plus we had food poisoning 2 nights before we left Germany so we were starving. I ate a literal horse when we finally got to Australia
The inconvenient bits with Chinese Airlines are that their domestic flights are usually better than international flights (in terms of expectation), and economy class is better than premium classes. Mainly because there is intense competition against high-speed rail. Hainan Airlines, despite its 5-star rating might be questionable, is quite another league to other Chinese carriers (Eastern and Air China for example)
Thats an excellent review Dan! I guess it comes down to personal choice and demand. In the end of the video shows China Eastern cost $717 and a far better Korean Air cost $1604 on the same route. The question is whether you are willing to pay extra 900 dollars for better food, better service and pre-seat selection? For me it's a no, my top priority is a lie-flat bed so that air travel is not a torture, and China Eastern provides that. I still believe that no matter how good the business class food is, it's still airline food. For 900 dollar you can buy twenty lobsters on the ground, or a new iPhone. So for me, I'm willing to choose China Eastern and save the 900 bucks. But if you happens to be super rich and wants top service, Korean Air is no brainer! 😃
One of the quirkiest things about China Eastern is that they have a sister airline called Shanghai Airlines. Despite having different liveries and branding, they have the same cabins for their respective fleets (A330, 787, 737), so one is not an upscale or budget version than the other. It remains a mystery on why China Eastern doesn't dissove the Shanghai Airlines brand like what Air India is doing with Vistara, or at least transfer all of Shanghai Airlines's A330 and 787s to China Eastern
Keeping the Shanghai Airlines branding is mostly for time slots and flight rights in major domestic and international airports. Shanghai airlines is treated as an independent airline aside from China Eastern and this will give China Eastern some advantages in certain markets, for example, flights to PEK, CAN, SZX, HND, SIN etc. Shanghai Airlines used to have their dedicated crews in the past but not sure about now.
I vaguely remember back when the merger happened, municipal government of Shanghai pushed really hard to keep the Shanghai airlines brand running because it used to be an airline backed by the local government not the central government.
When I flew China Southern in 2017 PVG-CDG I was not allowed to look at my phone for the whole flight. I showed them it's in flight mode, but they just kept saying "Please close your phone." (this was post flip phone era of course) We had a significant delay and one passenger asked whether they would make their connection and the flight attendant just put on the broadest smile and said "Okay, thank you" 😅 It was indeed wild.
Good old fashion authoritarian communist states !! 😂 myth buster has PROVEN cell phones have ZERO effect on planes . But don’t worry the CCP knows better !
It used to be a rule with the chinese air authorities.. it’s changed now though,, china has a lot of rules regarding airline safety due to a previously poor aviation record they are trying to rejuvenate.. at least they’re putting safety first.
Here in Singapore we've called out our countrymen & women for switching on their phones after the plane lands but before it reaches its airport gate (because our aviation laws were that strict until at least 2015), but meanwhile when I flew Cathay & landed in Singapore, they announed we could use our phones immediately upon landing
Mate, as a Chinese mainland local where most of the Chinese airlines originated from, I can tell you that nearly all of the Chinese flight attendants are poorly educated and not able to communicate with people who speaks English fluently. To become a cabin crew member in China, all that takes is being beautiful and sluty.
I had an overall pretty good experience flying Economy with AirChina from Auckland to Copenhagen a few weeks ago. Food was decent and the staff was friendly and helpful. I paid nearly twice as much flying to New Zealand with Qatar Airways and I honestly preferred my flights with AirChina, although this was due to reasons mostly out of the airlines's control. They extended my layover in Beijing by 24 hours, which I ultimately appreciated considering how long it took to leave PEK.
How was the legroom on your Air China flight? I flew to Japan via Beijing with them in 2014 and I felt the legroom left a lot to be desired compared to airlines like ANA, Cathay Pacific, etc. Has it improved or is it still pretty poor?
@@rotrohan just because people don't want to spends over a thousand dollars on a plane trip doesn't mean they're cheap. there's a difference between being a cheapskate and being financially responsible
I flew Economy on China Eastern from Shanghai to Heathrow and the experience was overall good. But the food is probably the biggest downside. I've flown China Eastern a lot of times for domestic flights and they aren't bad. Thanks for reviewing the business class!
I live in China. Not sure how the situation is now, but Chinese domestic airlines ha've been flying on 'covid protocol mode' until a while ago - picture very basic service when not no-hot meals. The pandemic has blown us with the hardest hit, I think. I left for Europe last week and PVG airport (Shanghai) is still pretty deserted..
I arrived at Shanghai Pudong airport at the end of May and back at it one week later and it was both completely packed with very long queue. Bizarre you had a deserted airport.
@@expaolafernandez no I didn't need to show anyone the test result but I have done my testing before departure and declared it on the website which was required. I also saw a long queue of people declaring it at Pudong airport before getting through the customs. I also believe the declaration policy is cancelled now. Hope that helps 😊
Living in China since 2008... if possible I always avoid to fly Chinese airlines to go back home in Italy. Before COVID it wasn't uncommon to get a 330-200 without any IFE or power plug in a 12 hours direct flight 😅
You are lucky to have other great European airlines to chose from. Being American, I try to avoid the US-flagged carriers like the plague. I was mostly flying Cathay Pacific back and forth but Air China and the one China Southern round trips were great. I've been here since '08, too!
Please fly JAL economy next! I also found out ANA has significantly lowest number of seats compared to other major airlines to increase service and hospitality.
Dan, I really recommend you try China Eastern's A350 or 787 business class, it's a lot nicer than the triple 7 you took today or the a330. Their best route is Shanghai to Melbourne or Melbourne to Shanghai as it's always operated by their flagship 787 and the service and food is generally really good on the particular route for unknown reasons. (Presumably because it's their highest profit route )
As a Chinese who used to live in the US, is about to move to Europe and say farewell to China for good, I’ll have to say that Chinese carriers are NOT putting their main focus on following up with international standard. They prefer to cater to the Chinese market in terms of foods, drinks, crew’s interpersonal skill, language skill and so on and so forth. No matter how much they try to internationalize their product, they can never really look into the needs of any non-local premium travelers and their products often end up leaving a lot to desire. China Eastern is actually my least favorite Chinese carriers and I would prefer China Southern any day.
Many times when I’ve flown China Eastern and Air China, there’s often the smell of cigarette smoke eminating from the cockpit 🚬 (the pilots smoke onboard without anyone bothering them)
Not a year long menu! 😂 They really went for the bulk print run at the printer! It always boggles my mind when a single airline can offer such drastically different experiences. That 777 looked so lovely! And a reminder to everyone: it’s not just Americans and Brits who expect English to be spoken. It’s the international common language everywhere in the world. Even if you’re Chinese but don’t speak Mandarin, you’d probably be attempting to communicate in English with this crew.
Hey Dan, you should try flying Hainan Airlines! I'm curious to see your opinion of it. I flew business class pre covid on one of their very long haul flights (boston - shanghai) and I found it pretty good.
I remember on China Air, passengers in economy had to specifically find a flight attendant and ask them for water. On a 15 hour flight. I have never been so dehydrated in my life lol
I've flown from NYC / Boston regularly to Beijing and Guangzhou in Business Class on China Southern, Hainan, and Air China. They're all... a bit of a mess. Hainan was the most luxurious, while Air China was the easiest to deal with. China Southern is a different kind of challenge and I don't recommend it.
As a local Shanghainese, I absolutely despise China Eastern. It is jaw dropping that in so many aspects an airline can find a way to screw its customers, from seat selection, to loyalty programme, to boarding bridge unavailability, and so on. Such shame that it is the only airline that has real connectivity from SHA/PVG.
The reason they close the blinds after lunch is that most Chinese people have a nap after lunch - employers even allow for it (or at least they did when I worked in China.) About not speaking English, there will always be at least one crew member who is fluent. Remember that a lot of Chinese people cannot speak English, or if they do, they get nervous when approached by a native speaker. Also entertainment on Chinese airlines is often "safe" and family-friendly. I found Hainan Airlines to be the best Chinese airline, but China Southern was also OK.
I live in China. When flying, there are many areas where your window blinds need to be closed. This is because you are flying over sensitive / military / security areas. You are also not allowed to record such areas or take photos.
wow , it must be really rough flying business class everywhere, i quite like your channel , but remember , some people actually work for a living and business class is beyond there expectations , they dont speak english ! then fly one that does , box on amigo and come live in the real world
Hi as a Chinese, really appreciate your review staying very objective. Telling the good parts and bad parts and not let your 'feeling' overwhelm the general review. My experience with Chinese airlines is, people are friendly, price is reasonable but the software side of things is just 10 years behind. Hope they will catch up one day!
2:16 you think that’s crazy. i was taking a flight from goa to bangalore and the plane landed like 5 minutes after our departure time. they had like a 15 minute turnaround. it was an all economy flight tho with around 180 seats but it still seemed so crazy to me.
As a Canadian any Chinese airline I’ve taken is 1000% better than any of my Canadian ones and I’ve spent many 15 hour world wide flights over the last 10 years
Dude please don’t call this China Airlines which is the flag carrying airlines of Republic of China in Taiwan 🇹🇼. You were on China Eastern Airlines which belongs to People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳
I love flying China airlines and carriers. Generally luggages for international travel, great in-flight entertainment services and good food. China southern airlines is solid, great services!
yes as much as i would like to see that since im also a diecast plane collector, the model he took actually is considered not in the "major league" of diecast aircraft band like geminijets phoenix model or jc wings etc. it's more like display model with less accuracy and details. but of course those are really affordable and appealing to the general public.
I grew up always traveling between Sapporo, Japan and Shanghai, China so I know China Eastern very well. You should try their new A350 if you ever fly them again!
Just had a recent flight on MU out of PVG. At that price, I have no complaints. The crew was friendly but the service was not polished. Skipped food because it was a red-eye and I slept surprisingly well on the seats. Many things were broken - seat selection on the website, headphones, literature pocket (so things were falling out). The lounge at PVG is very basic but has a decent noodle bar. Bottom line, you'd be sorely disappointed if you expect SQ/CX/NH/JL levels of J-class. But if you peg it to a level above premium economy but below biz, you'll be satisfied.
Chinese airlines are hit and miss, depending on the flight. Cathay Pacific is the gold standard for service to and from China. Most of the smaller flights are very interesting to say the least when it comes to customer service. Pudong is a nice airport - I flew in it when it was relatively new.
Cathay Pacific is from Hong Kong. Yes, it's technically China (and increasingly more so non-technically as well), but it's still very different from flying an airline from mainland China such as Air China, China Southern & Eastern, Hainan, Xiamen, Shenzhen, etc. Their historic roots, form of management, corporate culture, priorities, goals, everything is totally different.
For mainland airlines, I always would choose Hainan airlines. Of course, I am in Hainan right now but there is a reason why they serve direct flights abroad from almost all major Chinese airports, and barely any from Hainan itself.
You are brave taking China Eastern! All of my Asian friends agree with me that they are terrible and we won't fly them again. Our biggest problem with CE is that the flight attendants are clearly hired for looks only. Every time we land, the moment the landing gear hits the pavement, so many people in the plane jump up to start collecting their belongings. This is a person problem, yes, but the flight attendants get on the speaker system and gently, softly ask people to sit down. They never show any kind of ability to control a situation. We honestly believe that if there is an emergency situation, the flight attendants have no hope of dealing with it or controlling the people onboard. A second pet peeve I have is that when flying from my Tier 2 city to Shanghai as my layover, they will not check your bags through. I am flying on the same day, same airline, same ticket bought at the same time... With the airspace controlled by the military, flights from my city are almost always late which means a race through either Shanghai airport to pick up, re-check bags and make it through security to get to the flight which already had a short layover time anyway. Beyond the annoyances, I truly fear for what happens in an emergency. I go out of my way to not fly CE.
In your comment the cabin crew part is very stereotypic, you commented merely based on your raw guesses. Asian cabin crews are usually very gentle during normal flights, but in some records of emergency evacuation in those airlines, you can see their responsibility and professional ethics during the evacuation through how they helped passengers to get off the plane. The Adaption to different circumstances is one of the features and advantages of Asian airlines, and it is what that raises their reputations
@@williamw1125 Being fluent in English is one of the basic necessities in aviation industry. It's the bare minimum. If you cannot communicate with the passengers effectively in an emergency situation, all your skills will be useless. Also, iced coke to them is coke with 1 ice lol.
@@starship1128 yea that’s true! I had the exactly same problem as dan in Turkish airlines, their poor English skills actually turned everything down, and they didnt rly wanna listen to me after all. But that’s only for some flights. Btw coke with 1 ice is much better than ice with few drops of coke lmao
@@williamw1125Yes asian cabin crews are really good but NOT CHINESE! The only asian cabin crew that have immaculate service are singapore, japan, korea and indonesia. China is the worst. They barely speak English, they dont know how to control situation, they ignore non-chinese customers and focus on chinese customers more and honestly, China airline are just the same as US airline. This is not a complement at all
China Southern (one of the largest airlines in the world) and China Eastern are the best of China airlines brands in my experience. Things are still recovering though…. Thks for the video
I had a decent experience in late 2019 on China Southern, my only flights with them. Sadly, flying in and out of Chengdu had so much turbulence, I was frightened for my life and made me so late returning to Beijing that I was worried I wouldn't make my train back to my city. I have to guess that the reason they couldn't try to go around the turbulence (which was clearly known about as it was messing with people daily) is because of the military control of the airspace. I have to disagree about China Eastern completely! I think that Air China is (pre-pandemic, as I've not flown them since) fantastic! I used to fly their non-stop PEK-JFK 1-2x a year in business or economy and loved it. I never had a problem.
I grew up between shanghai and honolulu and I used to fly China Eastern’s A330-200 all the time. I almost always had a good time bc the crew was amazing and the seats seemed great at the time (so like 8 years ago) it’s weird how they use their brand new A350s to serve shorter international or domestic routes instead of using them to promote their decent business class product better. Btw I wish I’d run into you and Oskar at people’s square bc I literally work there
This feels kind of racist. You have one bad experience and say all Chinese airlines are bad, I wonder if you had one bad experience in Europe if you’d say the same for European airlines.
The obvious, but unstated, advantage of those seats is the huge amount of space for your feet. It can make for a much better sleep than some airlines "modern" seats with tiny caves for feet, that you bang your legs and knees against if you try to move.
I flew them in 2001 from LAX to PEK. At that time, they were in the One World alliance, and I booked it with an AA flight number. It was the worst flight I ever flew. The flight attendants barely spoke any English. All entertainment and reading material were in Chinese. The food was disgusting, and the seat was not comfortable with sting leg room. I flew business or first. I don't know how it was sold. It looks a lot better than when I flew with them, but I would never fly them again, anywhere.
My absolute biggest frustration is when crew members close all the window shadows on a daytime flight. So I feel your pain!! I was flying from Dallas to Seoul Korea and we were flying over Alaska, and the Captain came on the intercom to say that he flies this route often and the visibility and scenery out our windows is the best he’s seen in a very long time. So I immediately opened my window shade half way to look out and was mesmerized by the beauty and was going to take some pics when a flight attendant told me to please lower my window shade. I was beyond upset. But I worked for the airline and was traveling on a pass so I complied. But it spoiled my whole flight.
That's a massive pet peeve of mine. Qantas (and others) do that on daytime flights out of Australia - they serve lunch at 10:30am then close the window shades before noon. I could understand if it was to help people adjust their body clock to different time zones, but the flights to various parts of Asia are only 1 or 2 hours different. Even worse on the newer planes with electronic window shades they lock them in dark mode so you can't change it. My guess is they do it so people will nap which means less work for them.
I haven't flown international in a long time, but fly domestic a few times a year and have NEVER had an attendant force me to close my window! I'd be upset also. Sometimes they ask us to close the shades on the ground, due to heat. If it's because they want people to sleep, the joke's on them. I'd be much more likely to get fussy and ask for water or whatever.
This is really so frustrating. I recently was on a flight with AirPremia, a South Korean "hybrid" carrier. One flight attendant told me I could not open the blinds, another said it's ok, so I did open them, which prompted the purser to scold me and threaten to call the police(!) on me if I attempted to do such a foolish thing again. Very unfortunate pessenger treatment given that AirPremia is otherwise a very solid experience.
There are plenty of airlines in North East Asia. Chinese Airlines definitely are not my first choice. They acquired hundreds of modern airframes these years but just can't keep up with even very basic maintenance. In contrast, CX's 20yr+ A333 with retrofitted cabin delivers way better onboard experience
"The food spread on the other hand...didn't relax" LOL your commentary throughout this whole video was GIVING. *chef's kiss* Bravo...or should I say, 很好! So glad the algo worked its magic, I'm SUBSCRIBING to NonstopDan. Came for the nerdy airplane/aviation/travel knowledge I like, stayed for Dan's wit & sass. #YasHoney
Idk, the emphasis of the lack of English just rubbed me the wrong way. You’re going from Asia to the Middle East- regions where English is not the main language(s). Yes I understand it’s the lingua Franca but the whole frustration with it just reeks of entitlement. Just my opinion
So what's the language then? What if I'm an Indian? Pinoy? Indonesian? Can you speak these language? Cause they definitely don't speak korean/mandarin But I'm pretty sure 90% of international travelers from those country all understand basic english. If you can't handle international business then don't enter it
I do understand what you’re saying. However, I will say that English is the standard for aviation (pilots are required to be fully fluent around the world) and it’s become a norm for airlines to have at least one English speaking flight attendant.
The special menus situation is concerning. I, like many, don’t have a choice - the wrong menu can trigger an episode. If I were in a long haul flight and I didn’t get the meal I requested I’d go nuts. Thank your for highlighting this issue.
I hope China Eastern has stopped doing this. I booked a very low fare Beijing-Frankfurt flight with connection in Shanghai of two hours. Just one problem. I had to transfer between Pudong Airport and Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai at my own expense, picking up my bags and rechecking my bags. Impossible to do in two hours and impractical for foreigners who don’t speak Chinese and don’t know Shanghai. Even for China Eastern… this was beyond bad. It was ridiculous.
i work for an airport in china. and yes. we turn 300 passengers in a 777/787/350 in under 60 mins and that includes arrival, disembarkation, catering, cleaning, boarding, until pushback lol
so riveting...I was on the edge of my seat watching this unmatched piece of art...I'm sure you will be hearing from all Hollywood studiios, throwing themselves at your feet, begging to produce major motion pictures.....The folded toilet paper was a standing ovation.....Bravo..
I few China Eastern San Francisco to Shanghai in economy and it was really rough. Uncomfortable seat and food made me sick, bathrooms were full and I had nowhere to puke but on the floor of the back of the plane. It was super embarrassing. The staff didnt even ask if I was ok. I cleaned up my own mess, as I should.
