China Eastern Business Trip Report

[anchew]

Well done - hopefully you'll be home soon. Knowing how your tickets were likely booked, I'm guessing when you get to MEL tomorrow morning you'll need a new ticket from MEL to home.. At least you get to review the MEL leg now too!

We're home! We rang CWT to change our flights to MEL-CBR while we were waiting for our flight in PVG. Was no hassle at all.

 

[bjaust]

Thank you for the very interesting trip report. I've been avoiding China Eastern for flights to Europe and was feeling like I should give them a shot up until the latter half of your trip report - what a nightmare!

 

[jetlagger]

anchew.. Hope you have recovered from your less than desirable experience flight last week. Did you report / hear any feedback regarding your issues?

 

[anchew]

anchew.. Hope you have recovered from your less than desirable experience flight last week. Did you report / hear any feedback regarding your issues?

Yep, fully recovered from the experience. Thanks for the concern. Work gave me two extra days off which helped
There's talk of us no longer flying Chinese airlines ever again due to the experience but my guess is that the lowest price always win at the end of the day.
The flight itself was smooth and I'm planning to do a short trip report on the return flight this weekend.

 

[jetlagger]

Yep, fully recovered from the experience. Thanks for the concern. Work gave me two extra days off which helped
There's talk of us no longer flying Chinese airlines ever again due to the experience but my guess is that the lowest price always win at the end of the day.
The flight itself was smooth and I'm planning to do a short trip report on the return flight this weekend.

Look forward to it.
Cheers,
jl

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Yes thank you anchew for posting this report. I must admit I did had a smile on my face the whole time - what can I say - 'Welcome to China - Welcome to the world of travelling with Chinese carriers - Welcome to the experience / frustration of weather induced delays / cancellations on Chinese domestic routes - Welcome to China'.

I was not smiling because of the bad luck you ran into - I was smiling because of the fact that I have experienced similar / identical situations over and over repeatedly during last 15 years. As wonderful, fascinating and enjoyable China is - one thing for sure is that 'China is challenging'.

'Welcome to China - the land of COMPLICATION and CONTRADICTION'

 

[anchew]

After the not so smooth experience with MU airport staff trying to get 3 J seats back to Australia, the flight itself was pretty good. Not sure if it was the contrast between the service we received on the ground compared with the service in the air that gave me the positive flight experience, but we were all certainly relieved that we were finally heading home.

So after we confirmed that we were happy to fly PVG-MEL, we headed straight to check-in. In PVG, MU has a whole aisle dedicated to J checkin and once we were there, word had already got around about our flights and they knew we were on the MEL flight before we even said anything.

Because we were at the airport early, we had a good 3-4 hours in the lounge before our flight, which was delayed by around an hour - what's another hour delay after being delayed by 2 days. We were given passes to Lounge Gate 22, which was relatively small. There were only a handful of people in the lounge when we arrived but got crowed quickly. There were some food like rice, noodles and stirfry, but nothing to write home about. They also had beer, wine and spirits but not a wide variety.

As our flight was delayed, we were updated on the ETA of the inbound flight, which I found wired. Won't it be better to provide an estimated boarding time? Anyway, boarding was called at around 20:40 (the original departure time was 20:15).

At the gate, there were no priority boarding. What was even stranger was that there was only one person scanning BPs, but she was pretty efficient at it. There was no space between scanning BPs for any chit chat at all.

 

[anchew]

Thankfully, the plane wasn't a wet leased plane, but an A330 - the same was the one we flew up in. Like the SYD-PVG flight, they handed out hot towels and water/OJ while on the ground. But unlike that flight, the amenity kits were already in the seat pockets together with the slippers. What was also different was that they started taking dinner orders prior to taking off. I guess being an overnight flight, they wanted to get the dinner service done as quickly as possible. Also, rather than taking drinks orders, a drinks cart was pushed down the aisle.

Being a new month, there were a few newer movies than the previous flight. But they didn't turn the AVOD on until a good hour into the flight. Luckily I had my pad to keep me entertained during that time.

In relation to the service, i found that this flight, the crew were much better than the ones on the flight up. They seem to be more refined in their service, such as the way they placed the service items and meals on the tray, and little things like waiting for one to finish a course before bring out the next one.

Menu:







There were only two meal services so I think that the 'Light Meal' option is available for those who choose choose to have a light dinner.

 

[anchew]

Canapé: Cherry Tomato and Fresh Mozzarella Cheese Skew with Pesto Garlic Sauce Prawn Sandwich


Appetizer: Pan-Fried Scallops with Asparagus & Herb Vinegarette [sic]


Soup: Cream Mushroom Soup


Garlic Bread

 

[anchew]

Veal loin roll with Goose Liver with Pot Wine Sauce Served with Anna Potato


Fruit


Ice cream


Breakfast: Pancake Savoury served with Caramelized Pear Slice & Vanilla Sauce

 

[anchew]

I was able to get a good 5 hours or so of sleep on the flight. They had a pillow and doona (or duvets as some call it, rather than blanks) behind the seat in the area that says "No Stowage Area" :shock: The doonas were actually thicker than those on CX. But what was wired was that being an overnight flight, they didn't hand out PJs, while the flight over they did, which was a day flight.

When it was time for bed, I used the doona as a base which made the seat quite comfy. Also, as it was angle flat, I found it better if it was not fully reclined so that the middle section of the seat was horizontal. That, with the doona on top made a pretty good bed.

Just prior to lights out, around 2 hours into the flight, they announced over the PA that breakfast will be served at 8:30 Melbourne time, which was good to know, and at 8:30 on the dot, the cabin lights came on.

Around 30 minutes prior to arrival into Melbourne, headsets were collected, but AVOD continued for a good 30 minutes after that so I was able to watch the ending of the movie I was watching as I had my own headphones.

Overall, the the flight itself was good. The J product is decent for the price. That's ok if everything runs smoothly. But as this experience shows, they seem to have difficulty sorting things out when things go wrong. The ground service and communication was really lacking. It had a feel of LCC and not being looked after when flights are delayed or connections missed, especially being J pax, were most disappointing of all.

 

[eastwest101]

Overall, the the flight itself was good. The J product is decent for the price. That's ok if everything runs smoothly. But as this experience shows, they seem to have difficulty sorting things out when things go wrong. The ground service and communication was really lacking. It had a feel of LCC and not being looked after when flights are delayed or connections missed, especially being J pax, were most disappointing of all.

First of all thanks for the TR - it was really great. And I guess the final verdict is a bit of a Jeckle/Hyde story - that they are overall pretty good especially in the air (until things go wrong - on the ground).

Here's a question - would you attempt the same thing again with the same small but important risks of weather again? If you hadn't been stuffed around on the ground do you think you would have been happy to try them again?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Anchew as I said earlier thank you so much for posting.

My question is where did you buy your ticket? How far in advance? Price? .................... hope the last part not overstepping the line.

 

[anchew]

Anchew as I said earlier thank you so much for posting.

My question is where did you buy your ticket? How far in advance? Price? .................... hope the last part not overstepping the line.

Being a work trip, it was purchased through our travel provider CWT and booked around 2 weeks in advance. Not sure how much it was for us, but a quick look on the MU website has SYD-PVG flights in J in early March for under AUD 4,000!

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Thanks very much for the info. I have done MEL-PVG/PEK 3 times - all outbound flts on the wet leased Shanghai Airlines 773s - 2 return legs were on 330 as you experienced.

I paid 2.2K each trip - purchased 2 through Best Flights and 1 via Flight Centre - all 30 days out.

Since they ditched SA and starting using their own metal the 2.2K specials have disappeared - 3K is best I have seen.

Hopefully we will see further deep discounting post CNY peak - if MH keep up their discounts other carriers should need to follow.

Was great reading your TR - hope the Qantas devotees took particular notice - this is what they will all prolly be experiencing once MU do finally take them over.

 

[Justinf]

Great TR. One of the best I have read.

 

[anchew]

Here's a question - would you attempt the same thing again with the same small but important risks of weather again? If you hadn't been stuffed around on the ground do you think you would have been happy to try them again?

If it wasn't for the service, or lack of, from the ground staff, I would certainly have been happy with MU. If I have to go back to China again for work, I don't think I would have a choice which airline I fly with. Our BFOD rule is very clear and quite inflexible. But if it was for pleasure and I had a choice which airline I fly with, I would probably give them a miss.

 

[jetlagger]

Additionally: thanks once again for the updates & photos anchew.
Interesting summary. I was just reading a comparison on China domestic carriers earlier on AUSBT & MU was not so favourable.
It is the inconsistencies of the China carriers that if often frustrating. The logic often becomes illogical , however they are always trying to 'raise the bar" & improve the service & performance which works at certain times.

 

[eastwest101]

It is the inconsistencies of the China carriers that if often frustrating. The logic often becomes illogical , however they are always trying to 'raise the bar" & improve the service & performance which works at certain times.

I can agree wth your summation but sometimes I think that China Eastern won't have to try too hard to be more consistent than any other airline (QF/VA - priority boarding, fleet discrepencies, price discrepencies, website bugs etc)

Once they get their systems in place "on the ground" so to speak, then their actual onboard product and price will win them customers.

 

[robd]

An interesting read. The food looked really good.

Thanks for posting.