The Good, the Bad, and the Spicy. Beijing to Chongqing on Air China in Y

[yflyer]

Less than 48 hours after Lion Air became the 2nd airline, after Emirates, to offer passengers the opportunity to take baths onboard, I found myself about to catch a flight on a 737-800, on a different airline, but on an aircraft not unlike the one splashed across the front page of the newspaper I was carrying.

If I were Cantonese, I might also have been a little worried that I was on flight number 4144, seated at 14C. But the fact that you are reading this here, and not splashed across another front page, does mean that all went well...



Earlier this week I flew from Beijing to Chongqing and back on Air China, a Star Alliance carrier. This was my first trip to Chongqing, and I was there for less than 24 hours. I am keen to return to Chongqing, though, because I only had a taste of the superb cuisine, and only a glimpse of the stunning scenery.

[yflyer]

I had already flown into Beijing on SQ the day before, and spent a frantic morning at the office before heading to Beijing Capital International Airport on a hazy afternoon.



Beijing airport is huge. Improbably huge. It appears that getting lost is quite common here.



I have not flown a lot domestically in China. I picked Air China because they seem to have the best reputation among the Chinese carriers (I would appreciate opinions on other carriers in China as well, as I am quite new to travelling within China), and of course because my Star Gold privileges would carry over.

Initial impressions were good. There were dedicated check in counters for premium pax / frequent flyers, and the domestic check-in process was very quick.



As you will read in this TR, many aspects of the Air China / Star Gold experience were excellent. For example, there were more special touches for Star Gold pax than I had ever experienced on any *A airline, not least SQ, where Krisflyer Gold / Star Gold gives you lounge access, priority boarding, check-in and waitlist, which are concrete, valuable benefits, but not much by way of recognition or that little bit of extra attention and coddling that some premium pax might crave.

I thought there were quite a few hits among Air China's overall service offering, especially for premium pax, along with a few surprising, even amusing, misses. Read on to find out what these were.

[yflyer]

My first stop was was the Air China Business class lounge in the domestic section of the airport.



This is a large lounge on one of the upper levels of the vast terminal.



This was a large lounge with separate seating, refreshment and dining areas.



The lounge was fairly busy when we were there in the late afternoon.

Food selection was average, with mainly oriental selections, with assorted asian and western snacks.

A good selection of instant noodles...



Peanuts...



Dumplings...

[yflyer]

Freshly prepared bowls of steaming hot noodles...



There were a few other dishes and snacks on offer, as well as a selection of beverages. Not the widest selection of F&B I have seen in a lounge, but adequate if you need to stave off hunger pangs before you fly. If I was hungry and had the time, though, I would eat at one of the many restaurants in the terminal, and not in the lounge.

[yflyer]

There were a few Sleeping Rooms, where pax could lie down and sleep or rest in complete privacy.



There were several workstations with computer facilities, and wifi.



The wifi available was not specific to the lounge. It was airport-wide free wifi.

However, it did require you to register for a userid and passport, by scanning your passport in the self service machine below. This was a one-off userid and password which I could use for wifi in many areas of the airport.

[yflyer]

My aircraft on this 2.5 hour flight from Beijing to Chongqing was a beautifully painted 737-800.



It had the older 737 interior, which now looks tired compared to the new Sky interiors that MAS has on some of their 738’s. Just two rows of first class and a huge expanse of economy class.



The seats were conventional, and in Y they were reasonably comfortable.

[yflyer]

Air China treats economy class frequent flyers, and Star Gold flyers, better than any other *A airline I have flown. Apart from the usual perks like separate check-in counters and priority boarding, you also appear to get priority seating in the front of the Y cabin when travelling Y, and an effort is made to keep the next seat (i.e. the middle seat) empty for these first few rows of seating for *G and their own top tier members.

And even better, upon boarding, the cabin crew have a list of top tier FF’s (including *G) and go around the cabin to greet the FF’s, handing out a newspaper, and asking for your choice of meal ahead of meal service, ostensibly to ensure your selection does not run out. As a *G, I have never felt so pampered when traveling in Y.



So far so good. The cabin crew were friendly and professional. Service started with drinks – mainly soft beverages, tea or juice (Orange or Tomato. No apple…).

This flight was an evening flight, so dinner was served. This is where things went slightly downhill.

You had a choice of beef with rice, or noodles. I chose the noodles.



I hope the folks who order beef with rice had better luck, because my noodle dish was fairly bland and tasteless. It was so bland that I could not decide whether this meant to be a Western style pasta selection, or an Asian style noodle selection.

The ham in terrine/jelly tasted of salt, jelly and little else. Even the fruits were quite bland.



A decidely below-average inflight meal, which was surprising considering how good everything else was about the experience so far.

[yflyer]

There was no seatback personal IFE, but headsets and audio were provided, as well as drop down screens which screened various short features.

One thing that I found amusing about the inflight announcements, which were done first in Mandarin and then in English: the English announcements used were very similarly worded to SQ's English inflight announcements, right down to the cabin crew announcement to fasten seatbelts whenever the seatbelt sign came on. Not sure if this was some form of cooperation between *A carriers and/or SQ in preparing the text, or if someone from Air China simply noted down what announcements SQ made, then edited them for Air China use.

My flight departed late due to air traffic restrictions (this happened on my return too), and arrived half an hour late as well.

Chongqing airport is huge and modern, with many aerobridges. However for some reason this flight landed at a bus gate, and pax took a bus to the terminal. A blast of refreshing, cool evening air hit us as we walked down the aerobridge to the waiting vehicle. The weather was much more pleasant in Chongqing than in Beijing that week!

As a final perk for premium pax, there was a smaller minibus reserved for premium/pax and frequent flyers, that took us separately to the arrival area, ahead of the other pax.

Overall, apart from the meal, this was a very good first experience on Air China, and I was not surprised to hear from my colleague that many of the regular pax on Air China are very loyal to the airline.

[yflyer]

But who needs to eat inflight anyway, when the local cuisine in Chongqing is so spectacular.

It was a whirlwind visit...no pictures of the stunning cityscape as it was very hazy, and I only saw the city out the window of a cab to and from the airport.

I did have time to enjoy a wonderful meal at one of the landside restaurants at the airport terminal.



This was a procession of small dishes, many of them spicy, doused in that delicious and addictive chilli and Sichuan ma2 la4 (numbing, hot) pepper, but which also included sweet dishes, like the green dumplings stuffed with rice.

You had dumplings in soup...



Dumplings in sauce...



Glass Noodles...



This was a superb meal which left me looking forward to a return trip to Chongqing. Also, given the experience with catering on my last flight, I also took matters into my own hands and packed a bowl of takeaway noodles and dumplings to eat during my flight.

[yflyer]

Chongqing airport is large and modern.





The terminal is a large expanse of metal and glass.





This shop in the landside departure area had a very impressive selection of aircraft models, alongside the pandas and other souvenirs on sale.

[SQflyergirl]

Less than 48 hours after Lion Air became the 2nd airline, after Emirates, to offer passengers the opportunity to take baths onboard

Actually... many airlines beat Lion to it. CI, ET, US, JL to name a few....

Great report though

[yflyer]

The Air China / Star Gold lounge in Chongqing is a new, beautifully appointed affair.







My flight back to Beijing was a mid afternoon flight, so the hot selections in the lounge were not yet ready, however there was a selection of snacks and beverages available, including coffee and espresso dispensed from a Jura espresso machine.





There was ample room to work or relax.





I left the lounge to head to my departure gate fairly early, but in retrospect I should have stayed in the lounge until it was time to board, as my return flight was also slightly delayed, also due to air traffic control restrictions. (That makes 2 delayed flights out of two!).

[yflyer]

My return flight was on another 737-800, this time in the regular Air China livery.

You can also catch a glimpse of the stunning Chongqing scenery in the background.

[yflyer]

By now I was getting used to the pampering afforded to Star Gold members on Air China...I settled into the 2nd row of the Y cabin after priority boarding, where the seat next to mine was empty.



The flight attendant came by my seat with a short printed list of FF pax, and after ascertaining my name, welcomed me onboard, and offered me a newspaper. I glanced at the list and noticed that there were about 10-15 premium FF pax on this flight.

Perhaps this is what makes it feasible for Air China to do this: the numbers of premium FF's have not overwhelmed the system, as it has in the US, Europe or even SQ out of Singapore. If SQ did this for their KF Gold pax, I flights would be delayed 30 minutes just to run through the list.

[yflyer]

Takeoff was smooth and the cabin crew began cabin service. A selection of beverages were served. I did not notice any beer or other alcoholic beverages being served. You had a choice of soft drinks, tea and hot beverages or orange or tomato juice.

As this was a mid afternoon flight, only a refreshment was served, not a full meal service.

If I appeared disappointed by my meal on the outbound flight, this "meal" took my dismay to a whole new level.



3 cherry tomatoes? Cold Chinese style lotus root, and a bun? I guess that ticks 3 boxes on their checklist (Western selection, carbs, oriental selection).

To their credit, the cherry tomatoes tasted good, and to Chinese tastebuds, I think the cold lotus root would be tasty as well. However, the overall experience was one of extreme blandness.

At that point, I could not help recalling my many 737-800 flights on Jet Airways in India many years ago between Delhi and Mumbai, a slightly shorter flight, where they served a full hot meal, bursting with spice and flavour. The contrast between those meals and the one on the tray table in front of me was stark.



No yflyer TR would be complete without a picture of nuts

I've never encountered the term flavorous before, and neither have I ever encountered nuts like these...



I found myself longing for a pack of MH or SQ peanuts.

Thankfully, forewarned by my outbound flight, I had come prepared.

My plastic container of takeaway noodles had made it through security, despite a tiny bit of gravy sloshing around the container. Thumbs up for Chongqing airport security screeners!

I reached for my plastic bowl of spicy noodles and dumplings and slurped away. Heavenly!