China Eastern Arvostelua 311

Used them to fly from London to Tokyo via Shanghai Pudong.
On Sun 12th April 2026, MU214.
During both dinner time and "breakfast" (though food is always the same mash of crap) time a horrible smell started to linger around the whole cabin. This happened also on the second 2hr flight to Tokyo. The smell was as if sesame oil had been left burning on purpose, because the food did not need to be cooked only microwaved.
Maybe it was a religious chinese celebration, because the same smell was not on the return flights.
The other big low point was due to a steward who showed signs of lack of awareness of the situations happening on that flight (mu201 - from Shanghai back to Gatwick), therefore unfit to be a steward. Stewards should serve customers, not be a policeman.
I was letting a lady, before setting off for take off, on an inner seat of a 4 seats row, i was sitting on the aisle seat.
This steward came rushing towards me asking me "Sir, sir, sir, where is your seat? Where is your seat? You must seat!!"
Now, every normal human being would read the situation of that woman getting in her seat and me standing in the corridor let her in, ready to go back to my seat when she had finished settling down. That was sorted, but not very easy to explain to the guy. Maybe he was part of a protected category of workers, I don't know, but the same guy came rushing towards me because, apparently, I could not stand next door to the plane door, which happened to be also where China Eastern had put the toilet, which was occupied hence i was waiting for the person in the toilet to come out.
I mean, i have been flying all my life, for business (as this time) and for leisure.
I have never experienced this, never, not even with very cheap european airlines.
Maybe it is normal for Chinese customers to be harassed by their stewards with rude and shouty comments and impositions, as if they are the police enforcement of the world.

To China Airline management.
If you want to continue be part of the civilized society, given you get paid for flights (£1900 return it is a significant amount of money for a cheap airline), and if you want to continue attract western customers you should follow common rules of kindness and politeness towards your customers.
Language barrier is not the issue, cultural barrier is the biggest concern I have.
And regarding time schedule.
5 stars for that, at least for the 4 flights of this round trip.
Only 30 min delay on the short route, which did not make any issue because i had 3 hours slack.
And change to the gate in Tokyo between the two furthest away gates in the transfer section in Haneda, with the change only communicated (badly) on screens not with vocal announcements or messages to passengers (they have our email addresses, why not sending notifications?)

difficult to contact. The phone # listed is 855-435-0961 led me to "brayan" or flight consolidate, whatever that means. This is a scam center in Jamaica, NYC. They repeatedly lied to me as I called back to different agents. Not a very good airline. Please stay away from CEair.com

Had to book with them as My original flight with Qatar was cancelled due to middle east conflict, was the only flight I could get to Vietnam at the time although it would be a longer journey. Was a bit worried when I read other reviews, I did not use thier website and got the ticket through trip.com.
Very quick book in at Gatwick, flight to Shanghai was on modern plane, legroom was same as other economy and was ok for me, food was the usual airline food, got 2 meals on 1st flight, beef noodles best to get.
Entertainment is a bit limited, only 1 up to date film, but I still managed 3 Marvel films back to back.
Staff were polite and helpful, no issues there.
Transfer through Shanghai was very straight gorward with no problems, bit of a trek though.
2nd flight to Hanoi was 3 hours, no entertainment on plane so take something to read, we were given 1 meal as was ok, beef noodles again. Staff good as well, always willing to help, no issue getting extra drinks.
Overall considering they are a budget airline I was happy with the flights and service. If I was going to China I would consider booking with them.

I had a flight from Macao to Beijing with this airlines. 3 days before the flight, they cancelled my flight for "operational reasons". They proposed to me to be refunded or to catch the flight 3 days later. Still, I cannot manage my booking with their website since when I put my PNR and my personal details, the website cannot retrieve the booking. Customer service is non existent and you have to call a Chinese number to get some information.
I cannot wait 3 additional days in Macao and I had to pay for another flight x4 times more the original price I paid for the flight. Of course, China does not have any consumer rights so I am not able to claim anything against this airline.
Avoid this airline if you do not want to have bad surprises.

J'étais très sceptique de voyager avec eux suite aux avis négatifs que je n'ai lu qu'après réservation via le site Trip et surtout car je prenais un aller-retour vers le Japon (ce qui multipliait le risque d'annulation de vol surtout en ce moment).
Mais finalement tout s'est super bien déroulé, les vols ont été maintenus (Paris-Shanghai-Fukuoka puis Tokyo-Shanghai-Paris), les avions sont partis et sont arrivés à l'heure (voire en avance), les sièges en classe économique sont confortables (j'ai étonnamment très bien dormi), le personnel a été avenant pour ma part et la livraison des bagages a été très rapide.

Seul bémol, les repas n'étaient pas forcément très copieux et j'ai entendu dire qu'il fallait faire une réservation en avance pour les repas particuliers (végétariens, halal etc.) sur leur site donc prenez vos dispositions car le choix sera limité autrement (et il n'y a pas non plus de collations à disposition comme certaines autres compagnies en économie donc si vous avez régulièrement faim, il vaut mieux prévoir). À part ça, j'ai trouvé que les repas étaient plutôt corrects.

Concernant les films, il y a peu de choix disponibles et ils ne sont pas en français (anglais sous-titrés en chinois). Le son via les écouteurs n'étaient pas top non plus mais je regarde peu de films habituellement lors des vols donc je ne suis pas forcément impactée par ce service.

Le plus gros point positif est que la compagnie autorise jusqu'à l'enregistrement de 2 valises de 23kg gratuitement par personne ce qui est un gros avantage d'où mon choix de réserver avec eux au vu de leurs tarifs de vols vers le Japon.

Au final, j'ai eu une expérience globalement positive, malgré la peur initiale de voyager avec cette compagnie.

China Eastern schafft es nicht, die Ausgleichszahlung für einen im 07.2025 verspäteten Flug, trotz Eingeständnis der Rechtmäßigkeit des Anspruchs, zu leisten. Der Vorgang dauert mittlerweile 9 Monate an. Wir werden jetzt einen Rechtsanwalt bemühen müssen… Der Service und die Bearbeitungsgeschwindigkeit sind absolut inakzeptabel. Diese Fluggesellschaft werden wir daher nie wieder buchen…

China Eastern promised to give me compensation for cancelled flight. 4 months now but they still ignored my emails/calls. Calling UK numbers , 3 hours holding and got cut off.

Great service, no delay. Great personal & food. Smooth flight. My compliments!!

Aucune communication sauf si vous parlez chinois. Zéro savoir faire et savoir être. La pire expérience de ma vie pour l’instant avec cette compagnie.
Je ne suis pas du style à laisser des avis mais là je me sentais obligé pour dénoncer ce manque de professionnalisme.

MU 5186/551

5 stars does not do it justice!

Just got home after the beat business class experience ever after flights from Beijing/Shanghai/London with China Eastern Airlines! From the VIP check in to lounges, showers, private transfers,to the wonderful seats and food but the true highlight was the wonderful staff!! I will 100 percent fly again with China Eastern!

I didn’t like flying with them. Why?

First of all, a flight attended told me several times I couldn’t use my earphones while on the plane. I showed her the instructions pamphlet provided to all passengers where it CLEARLY SAID earphones were only prohibited during taxiing, taking off or landing but she didn’t care… I asked if I could use my earphones without music or if they could provide me with earplugs but she said no.
I had to endure a whole flight without any distractions and with noisy people around me.

Also, an extra flight was added to my initial itinerary without my consent. So I landed somewhere I didn’t know I was going to and, the next flight was delayed by 2 hours so I missed my last flight.

After taking the delayed flight, I had to figure out by myself how to get to the transfer counter and ask for another flight…I slept at the airport and got a flight by Turkish Airlines.

Worst journey in my life!

I went and asked a question about a booking of mine. When I went to double check if all the information was correct the staff member just threw me out and reset the whole system.
I waited for 2 hours to get through the queue and then when I went to double check if everything was alright they threw me out of their system so I had to go through everything again for my question.

We purchased our tickets via Trip.com for flight MU9647 from Kunming to Singapore, scheduled at 21:30 (revised timing) on 31 March 2026. Our seats were selected and confirmed at the time of booking.

However, due to a flight retiming, our pre-selected seats were cancelled without reinstatement. When attempting to reselect seats online, the system did not allow any changes and instead required us to complete seat allocation during check-in.

To our surprise and disappointment, we were assigned separate middle seats at check-in. This was highly inconvenient and unacceptable, particularly as we had already secured our seats in advance and the change was not initiated by us.

Although the ground staff and duty managers attempted to assist, we were informed that all seats had been allocated and no further action could be taken. We also observed passengers seated separately across rows (all assigned to R seats at least 2-3rows) communicating with each other, indicating that better seat management could have been exercised to avoid leaving only middle seats available.

Furthermore, the handling at the check-in counter was unsatisfactory. The duty managers appeared unable to take proactive steps to resolve the issue, and their responses suggested limitations in coordinating seat adjustments, despite indicating otherwise. This gave the impression that the issue was not addressed with sufficient effort.

Disappointing experience on China Eastern flight MU745 from Auckland to Buenos Aires on March 30, 2026. My seat (42K) would not recline, and although I asked the cabin crew for help, neither a repair nor a seat change was possible.

On a flight of more than 11 hours, this is simply unacceptable. Comfort is a basic expectation on a long-haul flight. The onboard service and crew were good, but this issue overshadowed the positive aspects of the trip.

Because of this experience, I would not choose to fly with China Eastern again and would not recommend the airline to others.

Værste hjemmeside jeg nogensinde har set.
Efter 30 minutter er det ikke lykkedes at tjekke ind på iphone eller laptop, fordi siden har så mange fejl.

Ich bin mit China Eastern Airlines von Frankfurt über Shanghai nach Hanoi (und wieder zurück) geflogen und bin mit dem Service der Airline mehr als zufrieden. Das Boden- und Bordpersonal war sehr freundlich und entgegekommend. Nicht wundern, der Online-Check-In ist nicht bzw. nur erschwert möglich, das ist aber nicht weiter schlimm - erfolgt dann durch das Personal am Flughafen. Auf dem Hinflug gabe es sogar auch leckere vegetarische Alternativen.

Abgesehen davon, dass auch mit App kein online Check in möglich war und man vorab auch keine Plätze buchen konnte, war das Boardpersonal ruppig und unfreundlich. Zudem kam mein Koffer aus Shanghai in London an 2 Ecken demoliert an. Nicht nur verbeult, sondern die Hartschale komplett gebrochen. Am Flughafen wollte man mir damit nicht weiterhelfen und ließ mich sogar auf den Kosten für das wrapping sitzen, denn ich hatte noch 2 weitere Anschlussflüge und konnte mit den Schäden am Koffer ohne Schutz nicht weiter reisen. Auf meine Mail mit Schadensmeldung und Ersatzanspruch wurde gar nicht reagiert. Ein Paradebeispiel an Unprofessionalität Diese Airline ist komplett kundenunfreundlich.

Vol Hong Kong Geneve via Shanhai le 17.03.2026. Le vol vers Shanghai tres bien avec un repas chaud. Vol Shanghai Geneve tres bien avec 2 repas chauds mais sans alcool. Vaut largement les autres compagnies d'Europe.

Their customer service is by far the worst ever!
No email replies ever, their chat system is appalling, nobody answers the phone (not even their international line), and good luck if you don't speak Chinese! Even their international websites are in broken English, have broken links, or show messages in Chinese, even though you're on an English website.
No luck trying to check in from their website either, and the app is just useless in any other country other than China. All in all, THE WORST!!!!

Don't fly with China Eastern
Terrible airline: they canceled my flight without even bothering to offer me rebooking. I can't manage the booking on their website, and they don't answer the phone numbers provided.