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At £520 return in mid Feb they are coming up £100 cheaper than China Southern and nearly £200 cheaper than emirates. Just after feedback from anyone who may have flown with them. If it's just the food or service then I'll happily take my own grub on board.
From what I can gather I think they have quite a modern fleet of aircraft.
*Disclaimer - I haven't flown with them. The following explains why*
1 - Was on a trip to Shanghai, rang the company travel agency to arrange flights. On seeing that CE was cheapest, the agent said, "Yes. There's a reason for that. We won't book you on that airline." I decided not to push it any further, as they booked me in to a nice seat on BA.
2 - Subsequently, this - http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/07/27/flight-crew-smoking/ and from the main review, "China Eastern has a lot of potential. Their new 777s have a great first & business class product, with reverse herringbone seats and wifi, making it the best hard product offered by an airline based in mainland China.
Unfortunately that’s where the positives end. The service was sloppy and borderline rude, the constant smoke in the cabin (and lying about it) was unpleasant, and the main courses were disgusting." Yes, I know that OMAAT can be dreadful, but they're often good for seat reviews etc when I'm off on my travels.
OK, my travel for work is at the comfier end, but if the service is bad up there, and a corporate travel agent won't book them, something must be wrong. Add in the smoking, and I'd be flying Emirates, or any other major carrier instead.
Long haul travel is a ballache of the highest order. 12+ hours in a plane can exacerbate the most trivial of irritations, even for those turning left.
Now, maybe it's Hong Kong rubbing off on me, but I also don't fancy spending hours on end in a tin tube full of mainland Chinese. Sorry!
Emirates, Air NZ, Cathay/Dragon, pretty much anyone but a Chinese carrier! Oh, and don't transfer via the US. It makes China look good.
I was on a China southern flight from Dubai recently which somebody was clearly smoking on. When I questioned it, they denied anybody was smoking. People have different standards in China. I think that £200 extra for Emirates is money well spent!
Thanks. The article you posted makes for interesting reading. I do tend to agree that long haul flights are a ballache and you do want everything to be as smooth as possible. The article points out it's a cultural thing, not a safety one, but not sure I fancy dealing with it though. Back to flight searching.
Transferred internally and that was bad enough.don't transfer via the US
Yep, the mainland culture is very different. Personal space, personal hygiene, manners when eating, etc, all very, very different from our genteel western temperaments.
It's when a mainlander taxi driver in Kowloon* stops the cab and takes a dump by the road that you realise it's a very different world.
*Many of the cabbies Kowloon side are mainlanders. HKers are very anti mainlanders, especially the younger generation who grew up since the handover. Wasn't in the cab myself, an Aussie colleague who is based in HK was.
If I could afford the 200 quid then emirates. No brainer really, good service and planes probably A380 all the way if you get the right one. Also look at Etihad and Singapore (I think they do UK>Singapore>NZ)
As above, that 200 GBP extra will be a godsend, take Emerites.
Though I cannot speak for the long haul flights I have done many internal flights in the mainland with the local airlines to not want to spend more than 4 hours on one.
Though married to a HongKonger, mainland Chinese culture is always a shock to me, especially the complete lack of understanding of personal space so whatever you do don't take a sleeper on the mainland, it makes all flight stories pale in comparison!
Another HK-based Sinophobe here, but does it involve a change of planes in China?
You hear horror stories about planes delayed for 5 hours on the tarmac because air traffic control gives priority to big swinging commie dicks and military traffic on no notice at all.