China Eastern Airlines Trip Report
Here is another series of trip reports on four Asian-based airlines. They are all pretty well known but are currently at a different stage of establishing itself as a leader in the ever-expanding Asian-Pacific region. This first report will cover a pretty well-known People’s Republic of China (PRC) based airline, that is based in Shanghai with various branches across the PRC, as it buys and/or purchases other regional carriers in China. I honestly have been avoiding China Eastern Airlines for decades, as most of my colleagues, family and friends, who travel to the PRC, do not think highly about it. However if you need to travel in the PRC, especially Shanghai, China Eastern is simply unavoidable. When I am searching for an one way flight returning from Dubai to Asia, I find out that China Eastern Airlines (MU) is offering a rather attractive one-way business class fare from Dubai to most Asian cities, which is even cheaper than Cathay Pacific’s Premium Economy class. However China Eastern does not fly nonstop from Dubai to Shanghai Pudong, but has a stop in Kunming, which is one of its newest regional hubs in the Yunnan region. MU has purchased China Yunnan Airlines, and some of the planes, including the one I flew, have the logo showing its Yunnan branch. This additions top makes this flight even more interesting, despite transit in the PRC is complicated and extremely difficult. So this trip report will hopefully shed a light on the transit procedures in Shanghai Pudong and Kunming. I took this flight with no expectation and was actually pleasantly surprised by the service. Of course none of my flights were full so I got two seats to myself. Many of the amenities will be considered “economy class” like, but with the price tag, you can’t complaint too much. It is interesting to see a mix of male and female F/As. However the ground operation was a mess and nobody wants to take responsibility for anything. Given how my flight was delayed four hours and even when the Dubai manager even admitted that I would miss my flight, nobody was authorized or willing to take any action, till I got to Shanghai Pudong. Despite the okay in-flight experience, I am fine with not flying China Eastern Airlines for a while. I won’t avoid it but it is definitely not on the top of my list of airline to fly again.
July 15, 2014
MU 756 Dubai International to Kunming Changshui International Lv2030 Arr0700+1 Airbus A330-300X B-6120
I arrived at DXB’s Terminal One around two hours prior to departure, and prior to my arrival, I have already noted that my inbound flight was delayed significantly. The flight arrived Kunming slightly late, but was held up for a significant amount of time at Kunming due to Air Traffic restriction, which is common occurrence in the PRC especially the military can close any air space that they like at any given times. ATC delay is just a term to explain this unexplained situation. Anyway, this letter was posted in the check-in counters.
Check-in was a complete disaster, even with a Sky Priority line, wait was rather long. Honestly this was one of the longest wait for check-in as a business class passenger. The agents were not particularly efficient and required Chinese translations with many Chinese passengers. The manager was overlooking the two business class counters, and at least made sure that only J and elite passengers were using the priority line.
The regular economy class lane was long and this picture pretty much summarized it. If you fly MU Y, you need to arrive at least three hours prior to departure.
After almost twenty to thirty minutes, it was finally my turn, and I immediately asked the manager about the connection to Taipei. He basically told me that you would miss your flight, and the staffs at Shanghai would rebook you on the next flight, and if you need to overnight at Pudong, they would provide accommodation. Of course I did my homework and there was a China Airlines flight to Taipei later this evening. For a normal airline, the agent would have looked into options and put me on other flights. There was actually a Sichuan Airline flight that flew directly from Kunming to Taipei that afternoon, and both Air China and China Southern both have flights are going out on time. I could have flown to Guangzhou on China Southern, which was a Skyteam Alliance member. Anyway, rule number one: Don’t even bother to ask about re-routing even on severe delays. Nothing can be done until you get to its main hub in the PRC. They will only rebook you on their partner airlines. Anyway, if you don’t speak some mandarin, you might not want to fly China Eastern too. Almost all communications concerning the delays were done in mandarin, even in Dubai, as most passengers were Chinese. I overhead that some meal vouchers would be provided at the gate around 8pm. Anyway, with that long line, it would be hours before they could process all of them.
About seat assignment, I used expedia to book this ticket, and was able to select a seat in the website, but in reality, you would be randomly assign another seat. Remember to check your seat assignment, when you check-in.
Lounge
China Eastern Airlines uses the Maraha Lounge, which was fairly busy at this evening hour.
The lounge itself was not that impressive, and there were some warmed food available, along with free wifi and limited beverages. I wish that there was better option, and in hindsight, I should have gone to the Air France lounge. The bathrooms were sort of dirty too.
Gate:
Gate C17 was used this evening, and there was no order at all. This was pretty much the norm with China Eastern Airlines. Thankfully, the manager was pulling out business class passengers to enter the gate area first. There were more sandwiches and bottled waters available for delayed guests.
Here is another series of trip reports on four Asian-based airlines. They are all pretty well known but are currently at a different stage of establishing itself as a leader in the ever-expanding Asian-Pacific region. This first report will cover a pretty well-known People’s Republic of China (PRC) based airline, that is based in Shanghai with various branches across the PRC, as it buys and/or purchases other regional carriers in China. I honestly have been avoiding China Eastern Airlines for decades, as most of my colleagues, family and friends, who travel to the PRC, do not think highly about it. However if you need to travel in the PRC, especially Shanghai, China Eastern is simply unavoidable. When I am searching for an one way flight returning from Dubai to Asia, I find out that China Eastern Airlines (MU) is offering a rather attractive one-way business class fare from Dubai to most Asian cities, which is even cheaper than Cathay Pacific’s Premium Economy class. However China Eastern does not fly nonstop from Dubai to Shanghai Pudong, but has a stop in Kunming, which is one of its newest regional hubs in the Yunnan region. MU has purchased China Yunnan Airlines, and some of the planes, including the one I flew, have the logo showing its Yunnan branch. This additions top makes this flight even more interesting, despite transit in the PRC is complicated and extremely difficult. So this trip report will hopefully shed a light on the transit procedures in Shanghai Pudong and Kunming. I took this flight with no expectation and was actually pleasantly surprised by the service. Of course none of my flights were full so I got two seats to myself. Many of the amenities will be considered “economy class” like, but with the price tag, you can’t complaint too much. It is interesting to see a mix of male and female F/As. However the ground operation was a mess and nobody wants to take responsibility for anything. Given how my flight was delayed four hours and even when the Dubai manager even admitted that I would miss my flight, nobody was authorized or willing to take any action, till I got to Shanghai Pudong. Despite the okay in-flight experience, I am fine with not flying China Eastern Airlines for a while. I won’t avoid it but it is definitely not on the top of my list of airline to fly again.
July 15, 2014
MU 756 Dubai International to Kunming Changshui International Lv2030 Arr0700+1 Airbus A330-300X B-6120
I arrived at DXB’s Terminal One around two hours prior to departure, and prior to my arrival, I have already noted that my inbound flight was delayed significantly. The flight arrived Kunming slightly late, but was held up for a significant amount of time at Kunming due to Air Traffic restriction, which is common occurrence in the PRC especially the military can close any air space that they like at any given times. ATC delay is just a term to explain this unexplained situation. Anyway, this letter was posted in the check-in counters.
Check-in was a complete disaster, even with a Sky Priority line, wait was rather long. Honestly this was one of the longest wait for check-in as a business class passenger. The agents were not particularly efficient and required Chinese translations with many Chinese passengers. The manager was overlooking the two business class counters, and at least made sure that only J and elite passengers were using the priority line.
The regular economy class lane was long and this picture pretty much summarized it. If you fly MU Y, you need to arrive at least three hours prior to departure.
After almost twenty to thirty minutes, it was finally my turn, and I immediately asked the manager about the connection to Taipei. He basically told me that you would miss your flight, and the staffs at Shanghai would rebook you on the next flight, and if you need to overnight at Pudong, they would provide accommodation. Of course I did my homework and there was a China Airlines flight to Taipei later this evening. For a normal airline, the agent would have looked into options and put me on other flights. There was actually a Sichuan Airline flight that flew directly from Kunming to Taipei that afternoon, and both Air China and China Southern both have flights are going out on time. I could have flown to Guangzhou on China Southern, which was a Skyteam Alliance member. Anyway, rule number one: Don’t even bother to ask about re-routing even on severe delays. Nothing can be done until you get to its main hub in the PRC. They will only rebook you on their partner airlines. Anyway, if you don’t speak some mandarin, you might not want to fly China Eastern too. Almost all communications concerning the delays were done in mandarin, even in Dubai, as most passengers were Chinese. I overhead that some meal vouchers would be provided at the gate around 8pm. Anyway, with that long line, it would be hours before they could process all of them.
About seat assignment, I used expedia to book this ticket, and was able to select a seat in the website, but in reality, you would be randomly assign another seat. Remember to check your seat assignment, when you check-in.
Lounge
China Eastern Airlines uses the Maraha Lounge, which was fairly busy at this evening hour.
The lounge itself was not that impressive, and there were some warmed food available, along with free wifi and limited beverages. I wish that there was better option, and in hindsight, I should have gone to the Air France lounge. The bathrooms were sort of dirty too.
Gate:
Gate C17 was used this evening, and there was no order at all. This was pretty much the norm with China Eastern Airlines. Thankfully, the manager was pulling out business class passengers to enter the gate area first. There were more sandwiches and bottled waters available for delayed guests.
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