SYD to YVR in J with MU - flight report

[Dr Ralph]

Now back in Australia after nearly 3 weeks in Canada/US. Will update a few things that I missed out on earlier.

 

[Dr Ralph]

SYD to PVR the food. Menu shots follow. Interesting the menu for the entire year is given to you and you follow colour coded dots which correspond to different months to find your particular menu. Menus were collected early in the flight which made it difficult to remember available choices for all meals.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Menu continued

 

[Dr Ralph]

Drinks menu. It's a real concern when the best red wine you offer in business class is Penfold Koonunga Hill, which can be had for around $13!

 

[Dr Ralph]

Drink menu continued

 

[Dr Ralph]

The food really wasn't anything special. Service was very average. I had a decent amount of red wine spilt on my table cloth and they almost poured coke onto my laptop. This would have occurred had I not moved it in time.

 

[Dr Ralph]

The lounge at PVR was a real disappointment. Some might be kind and call it 'basic'. But by Australian standards it should be called a zoo!

The lounge is organised over two levels, with most food options being located downstairs.

I didn't eat anything at all in the lounge. I had real concerns over the hygienic presentation of the food. Everything was scattered across the small offerings, people using their hands to handle food and coughing everywhere. As it was the start of 3 weeks overseas I just couldn't risk catching something.

90% of drinks were not in a fridge. Although a small amount of ice was available.

 

[Dr Ralph]

More lounge pictures

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The cognac isn't too shabby

 

[Dr Ralph]

Even more lounge pictures

 

[Dr Ralph]

The cognac isn't too shabby

Agree. And would have been nice to have been offered some! As I noted earlier Mrs Dr Ralph and I were definitely treated differently as the only 2 westerns on the flight. I wasn't offered the cognac. I had to fight for it.

Same thing happened with pyjamas. Every person other than myself and Mrs Dr Ralph were offered pyjamas.

 

[Dr Ralph]

These chairs were still out of order when we passed back through more than 3 weeks later!

 

[Dr Ralph]

4 showers for at least 500 people just doesn't work.



Showers were poorly cleaned and the booking system was a joke.



When we first arrived and enquired about a shower we were told it would be an hour, but that if we went down stairs we could have a shower immediately. We went down stairs and were told it would be an hour! Back up stairs to check that our names were still on the waiting list and I commented that we had been provided with incorrect information. The response was that I had misunderstood. I don't believe that it was a case of misunderstanding. Either I was lied to or the system was simply shambolic. Likely shambolic was the actual situation. But English language skills for the staff were extremely poor.



In any case 10 minutes late we were told that a shower was free!



The showers were very basic. Mrs Doctor Ralph wasn't provided with even basic amenities in her cubical. None of the showers were cleaned between users. Water pressure was very weak and the room itself was a haven for mould!

 

[Dr Ralph]

More shower pictures:

 

[Dr Ralph]

After 4 hours in the 'lounge' the next leg was to YVR. I'd already been advised in SYD that the usual plane wasn't available, but I wasn't expecting to board the replacement plane via an air bridge in the rain! Very chaotic with all passengers boarding through one door. Lots of pushing and shoving. I would not have been surprised had someone fallen down the stairs.

 

[Dr Ralph]

The 2 2 2 configuration wasn't pleasant. No where to store anything. No privacy. Very small entertainment screen fixed on the wall.

Entertainment system was one again very limited. You really couldn't rely upon it to entertain you on a long haul flight. Very limited options. Bring your own device is my strong advice.

I think it also worth commenting on the English language ability of the crew. In short it was extremely basic. When asking for something like chicken or beef, even when pointing to the choice you wanted on the menu it was extremely frustrating trying to be understood. I was actually brought the fish when I'd ordered the beef and pointed clearly to it on the menu when ordering. I even had the staff member repeat the word beef. But the wrong item was delivered. Same thing happened a couple of times with drinks I ordered. Eg ordered orange juice but was delivered water. I do think that English was the cause of much of this confusion, but I couldn't rule out that the staff were incompetent or disinterested either.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Menus

 

[Dr Ralph]

More menu pictures

 

[Dr Ralph]

In summation, this wasn't the worst J flight that I've ever had, but it was far from the best. I think you'd be very disappointed if you'd paid full price for this flight.

As a first flight with China Eastern it was disappointing. I would definitely look at other carriers before looking for flights with China Eastern. But I would fly with them again if I had to.

In fact I have already booked another award flight with China Eastern for 2020 - SYD to ORD. But that was because I couldn't get a flight with any other carrier. As soon as I saw a return flight to Australia with JAL I jumped on that!

4/10 I think is a fair score for my experience.

 

[Monya Meow Meow]

In summation, this wasn't the worst J flight that I've ever had, but it was far from the best either. I think you'd be very disappointed if you'd paid full price for this flight.

As a first flight with China Eastern it was disappointing. I would definitely look at other carriers before looking for flights with China Eastern. But I would fly with them again if I had to.

In fact I have already booked another award flight with China Eastern for 2020 - SYD to ORD. But that was because I couldn't get a flight with any other carrier. As soon as I saw a return flight to Australia with JAL I jumped on that!

And that really is the problem, most of the award flights that can be found on the Qantas website has an MU flight one way or the other, especially for those departing Melbourne.
Can hardly find any CX ones these days.