Full-Service for a Budget Price!? Flying with China Eastern & Shanghai Airlines – Honest Review

When searching for budget airfares, you’ll almost always come across China Eastern Airlines. In my previous article, I explained in detail the background of their amazingly low pricing, but this time I’ll focus on my actual flight experience, including a detailed report on their sister company, Shanghai Airlines.

Check out my previous article here!

About China Eastern Airlines

China Eastern Airlines is one of the three major airlines in China and a major carrier that uses Shanghai as its main hub. Established in 1988, it now flies to destinations worldwide. It has particularly extensive routes in Asia and operates codeshare flights with airlines around the world as a member of the SkyTeam alliance.

About Shanghai Airlines

Shanghai Airlines, not very well-known internationally, is a Chinese airline that became part of the China Eastern Airlines Group in 2009. It mainly operates domestic Chinese routes and short-distance Asian routes, using Shanghai Hongqiao Airport as its main hub. It features relatively new aircraft and has a good reputation for service.

Partnership with Japan Airlines

The reason I used China Eastern Airlines this time was actually because I could book award tickets using JAL miles. Although China Eastern Airlines is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, it has a partnership with JAL despite being in different alliances. Therefore, as someone who regularly collects JAL miles, this is extremely useful because I can use them for travel to China or to distant countries via China at virtually no cost.

For this trip, I used a routing via Shanghai with a connection to a domestic flight. The domestic segment was operated by Shanghai Airlines rather than China Eastern Airlines, but I was still able to book it using JAL miles.

*Important Notice
Currently, due to a system issue, award ticket reservations for China Eastern Airlines flights cannot temporarily be made from the JAL website. Please be aware of this if you’re considering using miles for award tickets.

Related article:

Flight Report

Now, I’d like to report on my actual experience using China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines. Since I’m not an aircraft enthusiast, I can’t provide a detailed review of the aircraft itself, but I’ll introduce what it was like from a general traveler’s perspective.

China Eastern Airlines

First, let’s start with China Eastern Airlines. This time I used the Tokyo Narita to Shanghai Pudong route, and the Shanghai Pudong to Hiroshima route.

The seats offered the comfort of a typical economy class, with window seats providing a relatively private feeling. The seat pitch (space between rows) was standard and spacious enough to comfortably spend the approximately 4-hour flight to Shanghai. The in-flight entertainment movies were only in English and Chinese, but personally, I usually watch movies I’ve pre-downloaded on my tablet, so it didn’t bother me.

Here’s the in-flight meal that was actually served. The contents were:

• Fried rice (with egg and vegetables)
• Longan and lotus seeds
• Chocolate cake
• Cookies
• Apple juice
• Soft drinks

Though simple, it was a well-seasoned in-flight meal. The fried rice in particular had moderate seasoning, avoiding the overly strong flavors typical of in-flight meals, making it easy to eat. It might seem a bit basic compared to the lavish meals on airlines like Qatar Airways, but this might largely be because it was a daytime flight and a relatively short distance. Incidentally, no alcoholic beverages were served on board.

Shanghai Airlines

For Shanghai Airlines, I used the domestic route between Shanghai Pudong and Urumqi (with a stopover in Hami, Xinjiang for refueling on the return). Though it’s a domestic flight, this route flies from the east to the far west of China, with a flight time of about 7 hours, longer than Tokyo to Shanghai. Sitting in a seat for such a long time might make one concerned about developing deep vein thrombosis, but as expected from a full-service carrier, there was no need to worry.

The seats were relatively new with good cushioning. Despite being a long-distance domestic flight, I was able to spend it quite comfortably.

As shown in the photo, the in-flight meals featured more authentic flavors strongly reflecting China’s regional characteristics compared to China Eastern Airlines. What was served this time included:

• Shanghai-style fried noodles (topped with chicken)
• Longan and lotus seeds (again!)
• Yogurt
• Daifuku (mochi with sweet filling)

The fried noodles (chao mian) in particular had a strong mainland Chinese flavor profile that I personally really enjoyed. Being able to enjoy traditional Chinese flavors is a distinctive feature of Shanghai Airlines.

Flexible Response: Flight Rebooking Episode

The episodes regarding Shanghai Airlines don’t end here. In fact, what was particularly noteworthy in my experience was what happened on my return flight.

It was their response when I missed my Shanghai Airlines flight due to a train delay. A long-distance train was significantly delayed, causing me to miss my return flight from Urumqi Airport, but surprisingly, even though the airline was completely blameless, they arranged a same-day replacement flight for free. This kind of flexible response overturned the general image many have of Chinese airlines.

The Only Drawback

While I’ve been mentioning only positive aspects of China Eastern Airlines so far, it’s not as if there were absolutely no drawbacks. Perhaps it was just the particular flights I used, but the only thing that concerned me was that the ground staff’s English proficiency wasn’t very high. On this occasion, I missed my Shanghai to Hiroshima flight due to a delay and needed to purchase a ticket for the next day, but because they couldn’t understand English, I was passed around to different staff members, which meant that purchasing the airline ticket took more time than expected.

Well, the principle of “When in Rome, do as the Romans do” applies. In a way, it was perhaps a good thing that this became a trigger for me to seriously study Chinese again.

Summary

I discovered that China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines offer not only low prices but also a service quality that exceeds expectations.

There are still challenges in terms of language, with some concerns remaining about communication during connections or when problems arise. However, as demonstrated by the flight rebooking response from Shanghai Airlines, their handling of actual problems was very flexible and kind.

Overall, my assessment is that “the value received for the price is sufficiently high.” For travelers who don’t require in-flight alcohol and don’t mind some minor inconveniences, these airlines are a very attractive option.