China Eastern "F" SYD to PVG

[Mogul]

Needed a trip to Shanghai so after a bit of searching found a First-class Classic reward ticket on China Eastern and thought why not.

D day has arrived.

Arrived at the airport 3 1/2 hours before flight (surprisingly no traffic) and found check in was open. No specific F line but no one in J line.

Check in was over in a minute or so. Check in lady explained lounge access and express card.

Lounge access is via the Skyteam Lounge. Lounge was empty on my arrival.

Basic food offerings consists of a couple of both hot and cold dishes. Self serve bar with 3 or 4 different beer's and wine's. Nothing flash but OK, I would compare it to either VA's or QF's standard lounge.

 

[Mogul]

Boarding very easy passport checked and straight through first to board.

Shown seat with choice of drinks, water, juice or champas. Hot towel delivered at the same time.

No storage space in cubical for bags and no overhead lockers. There is separate cupboard under the onboard bar area for each seat.

So far so good.

 

[Mogul]

Dinner choices taken prior to take off to speed up meal service so pax can have more sleep time.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Dinner choices taken prior to take off to speed up meal service so pax can have more sleep time.

I found this on my flights earlier this year in J with China Eastern as well as my recent flights with China airlines. Can't say that I like it, especially as they take the menu away making it difficult to recall what's listed, especially with drink options.

 

[Mogul]

Posting from 35,000 feet, speed reminds me of dial up days but at least it sort of works and free for "F".

Dinner is starting to arrive.

 

[Ade]

Nice report. Keep it coming

 

[Mogul]

Dinner

 

[Mogul]

Time for some sleep.

 

[Mogul]

Overall not a bad experience.

Pro's:

Booked with points 3 week's out.

Cabin crew were very attentive without being overbearing.

Heaps of space and privacy in your own mini suite.

Free internet.

Priority boarding first on.

Con's:

Lounge was only Skyteam Lounge while it was comfortable not what you would expect flying F.

Food on board was at best edible.

While the seat had heaps of space and room it was a little too hard for me while sleeping.

Pillows too small.

IFE seemed to have a large choice of movie's to choose from the whole system was quite clunky in its operation.

Internet was as slow as a wet week.

Carry on was stored in a cupboard at the front of the cabin as there is no storage in suite or overhead bind.

After flying J in JAL a few months ago it was chalk and cheese. MU need to lift in order to offer a true F experience considering the cash fare is around 7K one way.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Re the 'cons' - am I correct in that this isn't a separate cabin? So no dedicated WCs? Or is the cabin actually separate from business class?

 

[Mogul]

Re the 'cons' - am I correct in that this isn't a separate cabin? So no dedicated WCs? Or is the cabin actually separate from business class?

Separate cabin at the front.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Separate cabin at the front.

Oh - you were on a 777? I think it's the 787/350 that have F, but no separate cabin.

 

[Mogul]

Oh - you were on a 777? I think it's the 787/350 that have F, but no separate cabin.

Yes 777, which is occasionally run from Sydney.