Yes. It's a Typical Chinese Airline. Does the job. Don't expect too much. Chinese airports are a dog's breakfast.
yes, I flew economy to Vancouver with them a few years ago. As astro said, its a very basic airline, seats and food were alright. transiting through Shanghai airport was a real challenge though make sure you have at least 90 mins for your connecting flight. and before the flight lands they switch off the in flight entertainment and do callisthenics for half an hour to "promote health and vitality"
https://www.airlinequality.com/airline-reviews/china-eastern-airlines/ https://www.airlineratings.com/ratings/china-eastern/
Be careful with which city you’re transiting through China. Some Chinese airports which have direct China Eastern flights to Australia do not have an international transit lounge and do not have visa free transit. At least, this was the case twelve months ago. We learnt this the hard way by being denied boarding at check in. China Eastern’s customer service was atrocious. They tried to remedy the problem by offering to sell us a full price ticket, via another airport, which was more expensive than flying home earlier and quicker with Singapore Airlines. We flew home via Singapore which was a joy.
I bit the bullet and booked next Christmas’s flight on China Eastern using QF points, wife refused to try and with our daughter wanted to leave a day earlier so they are on Cathay using QF points as well. I hope I won’t regret it... I unfortunately have an eight and a half hour layover in Shanghai, do you think I could train it in to the centre and back again?
You need to get a visa (which, last I looked was a couple of hundred). The nearest you can get on the maglev is about half way in.
It is actually 144 hours now. https://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/visa/free-transit-144-hours.htm Confirmed this with the Visa centre - I'm flying China Eastern on my MEL-Pudong-Furano trip soon. I'm in Shanghai for 90 or so hours, jumped through all the hoops to get my visa, only to be told it was unnecessary. Going to get a friend to write me up a card asking for directions to the 144hr visa-free counter, so I can flash it once I debark.
One I'm a bit concerned about is whether I need to inform China Eastern about my double ski bag or not - and who do I inform? Conflicting advice online about it. I know it'll be allowed under their sporting equipment rules, but some pages say it's pending approval and you should call (but no number to call).
Azzski, I have a flight with China Eastern from Sapporo to China coming up and have a 190cm ski bag. Did they charge you any extra fees? Did you end up calling to notify? Cheers
I tried to, but after ten minutes on hold waiting for an English-speaking person I gave up. Did not seem to matter. I was not charged for any leg for my 200cm ski bag - according to their regs, as long as the bag isn't over 23kgs you should be fine. You can probably save a few minutes on check-in by having a note that says "this bag contains snow skis", because waiting for them to translate that question about your bag to English can get a little tiresome My review of China Eastern was it's not a bad airline, but they do cram you in.
