Air China Review

Overall Rating

none

cancelled flights, no individual screen monitors, chinese films with chinese/japanese subtitles, appalling lack of regard for customers, lack of information

i booked a trip to melbourne with air china, supposed to travel from london to beijing and then on to melbourne. when i arrived to check in at london i was told i would have to collect my bags in beijing. when i asked why i was told that it was because of the way my travel agent had booked the lights (ie 2 separate flights instead of single flight to melbourne). i asked again why i had to collect my bags when i had cleared security and was told that it was because of a problem with australian visas (??). on the flight itself (more on that later) i asked an air hostess if we could have some assistance with collecting our bags and transferring to the melbourne flight as i was concerned that the 2 hour turnaround in beijing would not give us enough time to collect bags, clear customa and re-check in. to my confusion i was literally ignored, the air hostess listened to my question and just walked off!! in beijing i collected my bags and proceeded to try to check in. at several air china desks i was completely ignored, with officials shaking their heads, turning away or pretending they couldn't see me! eventually i found an official who told me that the flight to melbourne was the next day and i should come back. when i showed him my ticket for that day he simply shrugged and tried to brush me off, saying i could go to sydney if i wanted! when i insisted i needed to go to melbourne i was transferred to another airlline where i was taken to hong kong then adelaide then melbounre. i am absolutely certain that the official in london knew there was no flight from beiing to melbourne that day but wanted me processed so i could take my problem elsewhere.
on my return flight i had the same debacle, the flight from melbourne was cancelled without warning and i was transferred from there to shanghai (where i was supposed to go on to beijing) with a different airline as an alternative to "come back tomorrow". bad weather in shanghai meant my connection to beijing was cancelled and i spent 19 hours there, when i should never have been there in the first place. i only managed to secure a flight back to london by refusing to leave the air china desk until they sorted it out.
in shanghai, as in london, beijing and melbourne, air china staff were evasive, unapologetic, unconcerned, disinterested and rude to the point of obnoxious.
on the point of in-flight entertainment, air china and china eastern ( who took me to shanghai) must be among the last long-haul airlines to still have a single film screen at the front of the cabin instead ot individual screens on seat-backs. films between london and beijing were chinese without english subtitles,apart from 'evan almighty', which i watched from a crouching position on my seat at the back of the cabin.
food on board was disgusting. i would describe breakfast as 'yellow served in wet'. and when i asked for a glass of wine pre-lunch i was told i would have to wait until after lunch, whereupon i was allowed approx 20ml of the elusive liquid.
air china transferred me to cathay pacific and virgin atlantic for 2 of my flights. if you have the option, pick one of these airlines.
i would never travel with air china again.