China Eastern

I bought the ticket on 14/03/2020 for my mum travelling back to China on 01/04/2020 on China Eastern Airlines MU562 flight. In the evening of 24/03/2020, PM Scott Morrison announced travel restrictions on Australian Citizens and Australia Permanent Residents from 12pm on 25/03/2020. Once I knew the news, I started to contact Trip.com and China Eastern Airlines, to try to get my mum鈥檚 ticket refunded. I even made multiple international phones to call China Eastern Airlines, try to get the ticket refund in full, as it is not my fault to cancel the trip for my mum. China Eastern Airlines staffs repeatedly told me it is not their problem, and their company doesn鈥檛 have the policy to provide the full refund due to corona virus special circumstances. One of its supervisor (staff #711018) even told me on the phone that my mum can leave Australia, as long as she is willing to give up her Australian Permanent Residency visa, therefore it is not their problem, and won鈥檛 offer the refund in full. My mum is almost 70 years old, I am her only carer. We definitely need to keep my mum鈥檚 permanent residency Visa, therefore it is mission impossible for mum to travel on that flight. It is Australian Government Travel Restriction order! China Eastern Airlines has put its policy above Australian Government order! What a shameless response I got from the Airline!

I absolutely love China Eastern
I have been China Eastern all my life and they鈥檝e never failed to Impress.impres!

Really the worst experience i had with a airline. a flight was changed by time and the further cancelled.
So i had to wait 34 hours for another flight, costs for the hotel i didn't receive from the airline.
in general a very low service and unflexible if there comes problems.
it is not a restaurant, i know, but the food is a disaster, also the board service.

Better choose air china, there i had never problems.

please don't book this incompetence !!!

Flight arrived on time and very pleasant air staff. Food choices were terrible

Like others I had been seduced by the low price but had second thoughts after reading reviews of the airline.
This is how it actually went.
The flight was Gatwick to Bangkok via Shanghai in economy class with a 4 hr layover each way..
My plane took off on time & was quite new, the food served was quite adequate if bland (I鈥檓 traveling to get somewhere, not for a gastronomic experience). The same could be said for the in-flight entertainment – enough English movies to keep you occupied.

At Shanghai, transfer was a little more bureaucratic than elsewhere but went quickly & smoothly.The final leg to Bangkok was on time, it had no entertainment but as it was only a 4hr flight didn鈥檛 really matter. My checked-in luggage was waiting for me after I cleared immigration.
The return trip was pretty much a repeat of above – although on check-in I was told I would need to go through immigration at Shanghai & check-in again for the final leg to London.
When I tried to do this I was told it was not necessary & directed to the transfer counter. My plane left & arrived on time.

Looking at other reviews it seems that the bad experiences come when there is a 鈥渉iccup鈥?in the schedule (transferring between terminals, late or cancelled flights etc). At Shanghai very little English is spoken so it is easy to see how communication difficulties lead to frustration & hostility.
Would I fly with them again ?.
Yes, the main negative (which has nothing to do with the airline) is that the first leg to Shanghai 鈥渙vershoots鈥?most far-eastern destinations, not only giving a long journey time but the first leg to Shanghai is a brutal 12 hrs.
If there was only a few pounds in it I would choose a middle eastern airline but for the 拢250 I saved it was a no-brainer.

Just flew a return from London to Singapore via Shanghai, 2x adults and a kid for 拢850! 拢500 cheaper than anyprice we have had before. Wasn't expecting the best for this price and reading some of these reviews but was absolutely fine for us. New, clean aircraft with attentive, friendly crew. Very happy and would recommend

Paid a Business Class Ticket but have been downgraded because of over booking.

I was said I would get reimbursed for the difference between Business Class and Eco and it has now been 2 months I am chasing them to receive the payment.

The funny thing is that when exiting the airplane I noticed (and got confirmation from the staff) that there was a remaining seat in Business.

This is unfortunately only one of many issues I have been facing with China Eastern Airlines over the last few years. Like I usually say: avoid at all cost

Airline's app is useless. The website isn't much better. Toll-free customer service doesn't answer. This airline is an absolute horror show.

My message to them

Today, we missed our connecting flight from Pudong to JFK due to gross incompetence and negligence from multiple parties throughout the day from your airline staff.

My Father and I arrived at Hong Kong airport incredibly early on Sunday morning (roughly 10:00AM) in order to check into our flights to JFK at 3:55pm as early as possible. Since we have a 2 hour 15 minute layover Shanghai, we asked to be seated in the front of the plane so we could ensure we get to the next gate in time. This was communicated to the China Eastern check-in representative in Cantonese, Mandarin and English so we are not sure how this was lost on her. Instead, we were seated towards the end of the plane.

On top of the plane staying on the tarmac for an extra hour, being late to arrive at the gate for another half an hour, missing the first shuttle bus (because once again, we were seated in the back of the plane), and the bus stalling for an extra ten minutes, I had to rush from checkpoint to checkpoint with my elderly 72 year old father. Why wasn鈥檛 it obvious that this sort of transfer is incredibly taxing for him and that he needed accommodations?

As we arrived at the gate, we had a total of two minutes but my father could not catch up in time due to a difficulty hearing and his slow speed. This entire scramble made it worse as my attempt to rush to the gate made me lose him for a solid 10 minutes and obviously missing our flight!

And of course, this negligence doesn鈥檛 end here. Each person I spoke to directed me to an arbitrary direction in the airport in what to do next. Asking for a refund, booking the next flight, getting our baggage, determining where to stay overnight were all met with same 鈥済o that general direction鈥? On top of being flustered by the staff鈥檚 lack of care in all this, they simply showed no sympathy or care.

In the two hours of trying to gather our belongings and book our next flight and overnight stay, we wandered the airport without proper instruction what to do and who to speak with. Towards the end, I am told by a supervising staff member (in a quite belittling way) that other people on our flight made the connection but they were clearly in the front of the plane. This could have been avoided if we were seated where we requested but the supervisor was insistent on placing the blame on us. Halfway through speaking with her, she pulls out her personal phone!

I am currently writing this message, not back in New York where I should be on route to, but in a bare minimal effort hotel room that is riddled with mosquitoes. The 鈥渇ree鈥?part of this hotel and the rebooked flight does little to resolve the fact that this could have been avoided and not worsened by the negligence I experienced from the staff as a whole. I demand compensation as this service is by far the worst airline experience me and my 72 year old father has ever had

Average is too kind. They deserve 2.5 stars. The planes were quite new Brisbane, Shanghai, Frankfurt. Ground staff in Shanghai were unfriendly and incompetent. Flight crew were young and inexperienced but offered fair service. Food was ok, plentiful water offered. Great value for money. Safe, comfortable planes. Customer service is poor. Room for improvement ?
Low cost full service airline. As with many emerging Chinese companies, there is always the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I would like to complain about what happened to me march the 8th /flight number MU548 / Bangkok Shanghai/ China eastern airlines counter in BKK.

The girl working in the counter asked for a ticket back from seoul, i showed her one from seoul to Bali ( I'am traveling asia with my BF and he is korean thats why i go to seoul often). She said my ticket from seoul to Bali was canceled and i need a new one. She called her boss ( A very skinny lady with short hair). She asked me to buy a new ticket out of seoul immediately i said it's not possible now and she asked me to show her 500 dollars to let me check-in and take the flight. I showed her my bank account on the app she said no she wants cash. I don't understand how its possible to ask things like that as i know its the immigration business not hers.

I use to work for amadeus as a trainer and i did train people like her. All i know is she has no right to stop people board-in. The worst is her violent behavior and she even yelled on my face in font of everyone.

So because of her I wasn鈥檛 able to take the flight. It was a forced no-show. And I bought a new one with air asia for almost 350 dollars and I even changed the airport to go to DMK.

I contacted them but they said no complaint by email or the phone and they asked me to send a regular mail. !!!!!!!!

Food is really disgusting and staff has no respect for passengers. I asked wether the meal served had ingredients I am allergic to, and the reply was 鈥渨e don鈥檛 know, just try it鈥? I am goddamn allergic, how can I try something and have a reaction on a 14 hours flight! Tried to ask for something different and the answer was just: no, we don鈥檛 have anything else.
Once in China, my luggage arrived 4 days later and I was left without assistance and clothes in the northern Chinese winter. I was told no information about the whereabouts of my bag, despite calling them many times every day. In the end, they sent my bag to an airport near where I was staying in China, and had to go to the airport at my own expense to pick up my bag.
Asking for compensation for this is nearly impossible, as they do not provide means of communicating to them and never pick up at any hotline.

Last minute trip booked for a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children, 6 yrs and 2 yrs) from SH (PVG airport) to MEL (1 way) for 5/1/19, due to sudden death of my grandmother in SH. Was originally scheduled to fly back to MEL from HK but had to double back to SH and Cathay did not have any available flights to MEL til 12/1/19. Had to settle with China Eastern Airlines as they flew direct to MEL.

MU739 was due to depart SH at 12:20am on 5th Jan. By the time we reached the gate, we had already been awake for 22 hours (funeral was on the morning of 4th Jan). Was advised by ground staff at gate to bring stroller onto bus and give to ground staff on tarmac to ensure it is taken on board. There was not a single soul on tarmac when the bus arrived next to the plane, either to control foot traffic or to receive my stroller.

Most passengers (being Chinese) scrambled to get off the plane and crowd onto the staircase leading to the entrance of the plane, the bitter cold and wet weather did not help matters. CE Airlines has a policy of re-scanning boarding passes right before boarding the plane (to avoid abscondees?) which they decided to carry out half way up the covered staircase. This created a bottleneck situation with more than half of the bus passengers left on the tarmac exposed to the cold and rain. I had no choice but to carry the folded stroller, along with carry-on luggage and trying to hold on to my 6 yr old daughter, up the slippery and over-crowded staircase. She slipped and fell 3 times along the way. My husband was carrying our 2 year old son and was ahead of me.

When I eventually got to the entrance of the plane, my arms gave way (under excess strain) and both the stroller and suitcase fell onto the floor. A flight attendant asked why I brought the stroller up and I explained angrily that there was no ground staff to receive it and that I brought it up in fear that it would have been left behind otherwise. I also criticized that the re-scanning of boarding passes half way on a staircase was a bad practice and ill-conceived. I further said that the lack of crowd control and the wet weather posed safety risks. At this point the Cabin Manager (Yong WANG) intervened and said I was being disrespectful to cabin crew who are trying to help. I said I have not received any assistance since departure gate and that CE Airlines has poorly implemented and unsafe practices. This quickly turned into an heated argument where he accused me of being rude and unappreciative while I insisted it's the company's policies that I'm criticizing. In an attempt to de-escalate the situation, I told him I wanted to get to my seat. He responded by physically blocking me and shoving me when I tried to go around him. He further demanded my passport details and boarding pass and threatened that I could not stay on the flight.

I managed to move away from him eventually when two other boarding passengers directed me an alternative passage way. I found my seat and rejoined my family and explained to my husband what had happened at the entrance of the plane (being ahead of me, he did not witness the whole incident). I also obtained WANG's name and title from a helpful flight attendant at the back of the plane. I thought this was the end of the unpleasantness. I was very wrong.

After about 15 minutes, a security officer approached me to say that the WANG has recommended that I be escorted off the flight, that I posed a threat to the safety of other passengers. I asked to speak with a higher ranking office who turned out to be the Captain (Jiang LI). I asked the basis for denying me carriage and he cited that I was emotionally unstable and that it was not safe for the rest of the passengers. I tried my best to explain what had happened (in rudimentary Chinese, as I left China as a small child and only possess very basic Chinese language skills). LI claimed that had I apologised to WANG before the security officer arrived, he could have overlooked the incident. And that i need to face the consequences of my behaviour (which was giving negative feedback about unsafe practices?). What's particularly memorable was a small exchange between LI and WANG, a knowing look and smile, as well as a remark by WANG that I almost attacked him (I'm a 1.6m petite asian woman, compared to WANG who is at least 1.8m and twice my build).

Throughout this whole exchange, I repeated asked an interpreter which was denied by crew staff and the security office. My husband came to find me at this point and the two of us were given about 30 seconds to decide whether I would deplane by myself or my entire family of four would leave. Cabin staff also promised that there would be ground staff to assist with alternative flight and accommodation options. Worried about my well-being being left behind by myself; the fact that the two children were already unwell and whether there would be more more unpleasantness for the rest of my family if they elected to stay and most importantly, relying on their promise that there would be assistant on ground, we decided to leave the flight as a family.

It was only after we arrived at the departure hall that we discovered there was no one to assist us, apart from two lowly ranked employees who brought our checked-in luggage. There was counter staff at check-in or customer service, all airline personnel had left as it was their last flight of the day. We were then told to wait by the customer service counter until 6am. I asked about accommodation and was told there was no one to arrange it. As this was a last minute trip to attend a loved one's funeral service, we did not even carry much Chinese currency on us (Currency exchange was also closed), we did not have local sim card to make phone calls or even internet access as the airport wifi is limited to local phone numbers. We were not informed there was a nearby airport hotel we could have used, but as we found the next day, there was zero vacancy anyway.
We ended up being stranded at the airport from 12.30am to 6.30am, when a on-duty CE manager showed up. During those 6 hours, I carried our 2 year old the entire time while he slept and our 6 year old huddled up in the stroller to rest. We were completely helpless and near the point of collapse as we had been awake for 24 hours by then.

I pleaded to be transferred to a different airline on account of the horrific experience, which was denied. I was in tears when I asked for temporary hotel accommodation as the next available flight was more than 12 hours away (7.45pm on 5th Jan), or even an empty office to rest in, which was also rejected. I used the customer service counter's desk phone to call customer service but all they could offer was to establish a case but had no power to arrange for anything.

We ended up taking a taxi back to a relative's residence to get some privacy and rest before making our way back to PVG for the 7.45pm flight, which thankfully got us back to Melbourne. My children suffered high fevers for two day after our return due to the exposure they suffered on the tarmac and at the airport. My husband and I missed two days of work due to the physical toll of this ordeal and having to care for the two sick children.

Since this incident, I have followed up on average twice a day with the Shanghai based customer service, I also contacted the Sydney office (as the Melbourne office never picks up calls). I sent two lengthy emails with photos attached as proof for the traumatizing experience. To date, all I have received are broken promises (to call within 24/48 hours), hand-balling of my complaint (to ground staff team) and poor English speakers who struggle to communicate and understand (surely, it's unreasonable to expect all of their passengers to be native Chinese speakers?!). I am now pursuing legal action against CE Airlines.

China Eastern Airlines are single-handedly responsible for the most traumatizing and humiliating experience of my life. If you value your consumer's rights, safety and most of your dignity as a human being, do not travel with them and warn everyone you know not to travel with them.

The worst airline I have ever experienced. The crew is extremely unfriendly, rude and barely speak English. They clearly discriminate anyone who is not Chinese. The food is also terrible. If you don't eat meat, you'll end up hungry for the entire flight (in my case 12 hours!!). Very unprofessional and I'd rather fly with other airlines and pay more in the future than fly with them again.

Was caught up in Lombok earthquake. Wouldn鈥檛 give me a new earlier flight in order to get home safely. Wouldn鈥檛 even allow me on the second part of the flights I鈥檇 paid for. Told me to go to Bali even though it was unsafe to do so.

Our family of 5 traveled to S. Korea through Shanghai for the Paralympics. The flights were on time, the crews were professional, and we got everywhere we needed to be with all of our luggage. The website is tricky to manage, as it is clearly designed for Chinese users (auto translate can be unclear at times) and I was not aware that even after booking, you need to choose your seats, window and isle are an upcharge ( but frankly for a 14 hour flight paying $16usd is barely an upcharge) The food is clearly for Asian travelers, but I found it to be good. We saved nearly $500 per R/T vs direct with KoreanAir.

Such awful customer service. A 3rd party made me add a letter to my middle name Which now appeared different from my passport. I tried to get China Eastern to change it before my flight and they did absolutely nothing to help me and instead tried to scam me into buying another ticket which I didn't do and I went on the trip and it was not a problem at all as I had the documentation. This is a scam many airlines use including this one to get you to buy a last minute ticket at 3 times the price. I tried to get a supervisor on the phone at the airport and nobody was able to help me at all and they are the most unhelpful customer service when I got them on the phone and they made my trip h*** because I kept thinking I was going to be stopped by customs and I would have to pay 3 of 4 times the price. Such a scam a 3rd grader could have gone online very 5 my information in changed one letter but they did not help me at all and their organization is a joke and a scam.

My baggage was stuck for several days and the airline failed to offer any support, you call their number and its a queue for hour an hours

the worst airline I flew with
each flight was delayed on the flight back to bkk I spent almost 2 hours on the plane with only 1 announcement from the flight deck sorry for the delay no reason no explanation ,
the food- you want eat it my dog wouldn't touch to selection of drink doesn't exist, crew were unfriendly, rude, dont speak English. seats uncomfortable even less room than on a Ryanair, I will walk next time than fly with them again

PROS:
1) Reasonable price.

2) You get what you pay for. Meaning, they will transport you from one place to a another.

3) They provided me with a free return ticket to Shanghai city center with a high speed train. Which comes of use, if you stay in Shanghai at least for 5 hours.

4) National assistance.
They have a world wide assistance services, also in Czech Republic.

CONS:
1) Cancelled flight to Bali.
My flight to Bali was cancelled due to volcano activity. This is of course a good reason to cancel flights, but what I did not understand was, that all other airlines did not cancel their flights to Bali during the days of my flights.

2) Food is very oriented towards chinese travellers.
The food they provided was the worst I've ever experienced on a flight. I can generally eat anything, but I really needed to check, if I do want to eat the food or not.

3) All flights were delayed.
I had 5 flights with CEA and all of them were delayed, generally between 20 minutes and one and a half hour.

4) Checked baggage.
They did not check my baggage from Jakarta all the way to Prague, but only to Shanghai. Therefore I had to claim my baggage and check it in Shangai again. However I do not know, if this problem was not caused by staff at the Jakarta airport.

5) Stop in Xi'an.
We stopped in Xi'an to pick up more passengers and possibly to do maintenance on the aircraft. All passengers were asked to leave the airport, go through chinese immigration office and then come back into the aircraft.

Have used them to fly from Frankfurt to Shanghai. Nothing special but price is very good and flights were on time. Food is not so good but this is something i can overlook for only 500 euro for the ticket in total.

We had bought a ticket on flight hub for china eastern. We had done all our homework regarding visas (called the Chinese embassy) and even talked to china eastern employees multiple times prior to our departure date and no issues were told at this time. When we were checking in, a china Eastern employee (without telling us) ran off with our passports for 30 mins. We stood worried waiting unknowing of what's going on. He returned saying he could not give us a boarding pass because we're in China for over 24 hours (in fact we were in China for 24 hours and 5 mins and less if you consider boarding is usually 40 mins prior). He did not call any immigration officer or check online the visa requirements instead spent 30 mins talking to ticketing employees. I believe he should have called the embassy. He took on the duties of an immigration officer when that was not his job. The ladies at the ticketing office were so rude and would not even listen to to us.they would not even change our flights. they would not help us in any way. Would not even engage saying we had booked our flight through a third party so could not even buy us a new flight. At this point we were even willing to buy another flight.

We ended up being helped by the nice employees at another airline at the airport who were kind enough to put us on a flight immediately the same day. China eastern could have done that but employees choose not help for some reason. The other airline employees listened and were helpful unlike the treatment we were getting from China eastern. I have never been so rudely spoken to like how these employees treated me at the airport. I have tried calling china eastern, but we have not been able to get them on the phone for 2 weeks. I spend 2 dollars a minute for an hour at one time and the phone when to voice mail after an hour. I have emailed them and they have not responded in 2 weeks. I would urge people to spend some extra money and just go with another airline. Definitely don't book through a third party website for China eastern. Suffice to say, I will never book china eastern and will tell all my friends and family to not fly with them. In addition they do not tell you this but they do not provide a hotel when they have a layover for greater than 12 hours. I am still trying to reach them on the phone. They ruined a portion of my vacation, it was not worth the few hundred dollars in savings.

The fact that we got helped by another airline instead of China eastern speaks to how badly we were treated and how unhelpful and rude china eastern employees were. There lack of transparency, rudeness. I would advise to be very cautious buying any China eastern flights especially online. I would not have had an issue if an employee was nice and helped us like Cathay pacific.