Is there an Air China Business Lounge in Beijing (PEK) and is it any good???

[casanovawa]

Thinking of flying through Beijing on the return on a US Air *A award in J...

Am assuming i would have to use the Air China business lounge in Beijing (if one exists) rather than choose any *A business lounge in the airport (which might only be open to *A passengers with requisite status?) Has anyone use such a business lounge in Beijing and is it the kind of place you would want to spend much time in???

 

[kamchatsky]

Very average Air China lounge at PEK. I would transit at ICN or NRT instead. Unless you want to visit PEK.

In fact, stay away from using CA as carrier if you can.

Sent from my X10i using AustFreqFly

 

[casanovawa]

Yeah, CA would certainly not be my favourite carrier, just one for the record books i suppose...I am wanting to try a LH A380 on the return and I have options of FRA to PEK/SIN or think its HND in Japan... The FRA-SIN-PER would be the most direct route but I think it would mean sitting around in SIN for maybe half a day (I suppose i could try and do one of the free city tours or duck into town??) and the flight down from Tokyo doesn't connect very well so was thinking FRA-PEK on LH but CA has about the only decent connecting flights to get down to BKK or SIN...So just weighing it up... It probably requires a visa with more cost if you want to leave PEK just for the day to look aroudn the place, so was probably just going to sit in the lounge at the airport, but if its that average...

 

[Dalescott]

Cannot speak for the AC lounge. But I can speak for Chinese lounges in general, and they are poor when compared to European and Australian, very poor compared to Middle Eastern. Very limited, the Chinese do not understand the requirements of the Business traveler, it may be a hang over from the strict communist days. But this applies to everything they do including the planes, the hotels.

 

[kamchatsky]

Cannot speak for the AC lounge. But I can speak for Chinese lounges in general, and they are poor when compared to European and Australian, very poor compared to Middle Eastern. Very limited, the Chinese do not understand the requirements of the Business traveler, it may be a hang over from the strict communist days. But this applies to everything they do including the planes, the hotels.

Not exactly, most Chinese airlines are aiming at moving the large mass of Chinese around China and the world at the cheapest price. Afterall, China is still developing and most people are not as well off as us.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Everything previous posters have contributed +more.

Chinese lounges should be viewed as a very very temporary stopping / resting point prior to boarding - nothing more.

Next to no food - zero drinkable wine - very limited spirits selection - wifi that may or may not work - if it does work it will be slow.

Shower attendant who is more interested in soliciting you for a tip than cleaning toilets / showers etc.

And worse still unlike SIN or HKG there is nothing outside the lounge to occupy your time.

Whilst I do not consider CA to be in same league as SQ or CX I find them more than acceptable as a carrier. Metal can vary from perfect to questionable - just like everything Chinese nothing is consistent - but you can be guaranteed all on board staff will try their darnedest to satisfy your needs

 

[pagingjoan]

Cannot speak for the AC lounge. But I can speak for Chinese lounges in general, and they are poor when compared to European and Australian, very poor compared to Middle Eastern. Very limited, the Chinese do not understand the requirements of the Business traveler, it may be a hang over from the strict communist days. But this applies to everything they do including the planes, the hotels.

Have just spent a couple of weeks in China - Shanghai, Xi'an and Beijing - and disagree strongly with that assessment of hotels. We used four hotels and, while the styles and standards varied, they were all excellent. Service was streets ahead of many parts of the world, even taking into account the occasional language difficulty.

Our domestic travel was with China Eastern. We had no particular expectations but were pleasantly surprised by the operational performance, service and comfort.

Lounges? Okay. A different matter. The best we found was probably the Cathay Lounge in Beijing but that was only in relative terms.

 

[skywalkerLAX]

Not sure why everyone dislikes the Lounges in PEK so much. The international Terminal is brand new, I departed there a few months ago to SIN.

It's not the SilverKris Lounge but let's be reasonable: What sort of lounge standard do they have in the US? UA, NW, CO, US.... Bah!

I found the Air China Lounge acceptable (Access with C Ticket & Star Gold), what I didn't like was the open connection to the terminal (a little noisy but it's the same in HKG). They had enough to eat (incl hot food items) as well as beverages.

Also I can not echo the assessment of hotels in China being subpar. My favourite Hotels are the Park Hyatt Beijing & Grand Hyatt Shanghai. The service is impeccable, much better than what I ever experienced at an australian Hyatt property.

Cheers
S

 

[burrco]

I thought the CX lounge in Beijing was fine - certainly on a par or better than some of the lounges CX uses in other ports. The only thing wrong with it was that it was filled with rather loud AA passengers who acted like they had never seen free hot food in a lounge before.

Only have one trip to China so can't comment on remarks about hotels - but I found the standards of the St Regis Beijing to be inline with the brand standard.

Of course non of the above helps the op

 

[MEL_Traveller]

if you are flying air china next year then you may well benefit from their fleet re-fit which is introducing flat beds in business class (complete horizontal).

this would place air china as my preferred carrier over the likes of Thai or lufthansa for business class travel. sleep is the most important thing when flying long haul.

service on board long haul air china flights is perfectly fine as long as you understand the service culture. it is not western, nor does it pretend to be.