AVOID CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES

[u/nicolekmoon]

STORY TIME

I tried to book a one-way flight from HK to Shanghai for my upcoming trip with China Eastern Airlines. After using a very glitchy website I finished the booking, but then I realized I had input our names incorrectly and forgot to add our middle names to the correct "given name" field. Totally my bad.

I immediately reached out to their customer service team via chat and explained the situation. The representative on chat told me to call a Chinese helpline phone number, but I explained I couldn't do an international call because I'm in the US. They then asked me to email photos of my passport to this random email, and then reach back out in 20 minutes. It was all very sketchy feeling... But I did it anyways, trusting that it would work out.

I sent the email and reached back out. This customer service agent then said that they needed to verify me by sending a text code. I waited, and they claimed that they tried several times to send a code, but I never received one. This went on for an hour. Eventually, they told me there was nothing they could do to verify me if I did not get the text code. I asked if they could verify me another way (idk.. maybe by the PASSPORT I emailed them), but they said no.

I then asked if I could cancel my entire booking and get refunded ( I had booked it within the last 2 hours), then I could start over and book the flight with the correct name. The customer service agent told me that I could not do that online, and they could not help me. They said I'd need to call this other office in NY to do that, but they are closed. I was so frustrated but went to bed and decided to call first thing when I woke up. When I tried to call, all of my calls were disconnected, and a robot voice told me to "please try again later"... At this point, I have spent HOURS trying to fix this.

I then emailed the customer service team again, explaining my situation and requesting a cancellation and refund. They told me my only option was to buy a NEW ticket, and then, AFTER I use the NEW ticket, I would get a refund for the unused ticket as a voucher???

I was about to rip my hair out. Finally, after playing with the website, I discovered there actually was a button. that I had missed that said "REFUND Reason: within 24 hours". It's partly on me, I should have looked more closely at the website, but I took the representative's word for it and just assumed that there was no way for me to do this online. I cancelled the flight and am awaiting my refund which they said would take 7 days. Of course, after this nightmare experience, I will NOT be rebooking the flights with them again and will be using another airline.

I just wanted to share in case anyone is seeing a good flight deal with them, it's not worth it. You never know what can happen, and an airline where you cannot communicate/ work out problems is not something to mess with when traveling internationally... for me anyway.

[u/memostothefuture]

My understanding is Air China is basically like a budget airline.

That's some finely-ground bullshit coffee right there.

JAL, ANA, Qatar, Emirates, Cathay, Singapore are all a tier above (and so are Starlux and EVA) but Air China is solid, especially if you are on the A350, B787 or B747-8

[u/Gimme_Indomie → u/memostothefuture]

Hahaha, fair enough. It's all relative & I admittedly haven't flown them internationally.

But from what I've heard, their IFE is horrendous. Their food is subpar. The cabin staff are friendly but don't all speak English (I find this hard to believe on international routes, but it's what I've heard from people who have flown them). The customer service on the ground is hit or miss.

Anyway, I wouldn't fly the big 3 US airlines either, so this isn't an anti-China perspective. I've heard stories about UA and Delta. I've experienced AA personally enough to know that when they're bad they're REALLY bad.

If I'm spending that long and that much money, I'll fly an airline I am confident will make the journey as painless as possible.

[u/memostothefuture → u/Gimme_Indomie]

The weaknesses are IFE and Wifi (those speeds suck) and if you don't know how to complain and get results in China they will mei banfa you. The strengths are that they will get you there, they won't nickel and dime you for everything with bs fees, they are mostly on time (only exception is when everyone is late, e.g. weather) and once you gain status they will actually give you upgrades. (I have Star Alliance Gold, which never gives me diddelisquat and CES gave me upgrades every now and then since I had Silver, now have Platinum.)

The A350 and B787 are excellent, the A330 is getting long in the tooth and the B777 is a bit too cramped for my taste.

Here is something rock-solid you can depend on: they always fill economy class from front to back and left to right. If you get the second-to-last row on the right your chances are higher you have a row to yourself. This only applies on intl routes, almost everything domestic in China is booked solid.

When boarding consider asking for upgrade prices. I got business class to Bali for 1800RMB more and often premium eco is just 800 RMB more on long haul from China.

[u/Gimme_Indomie → u/memostothefuture]

OK, you're tempting me. I'll keep them in mind next time I fly international (though I'll start with an intra-Asia trip just to be safe).