| I often fly on CEA between Shanghai and Beijing. As a foreigner in China, flying domestic could be surprising but often painless. Noticeable things: - In Beijing Airport, CEA has its own raw of check-in counters. Few queue, even in rush hours or golden weeks. - Taking off/landing at Beijing Airport in CEA planes takes much more time, as the planes are always at the other side of the airport. You have to go to the gates, give your tickets, board/unboard the bus, then finally board the plane after visiting the new Beijing airport. Definitely too much hassle for passengers. - At Hongqiao airport, CEA has also its own counters. Nice checking-in and nice boarding, even if they often changed the gate at the last minute (this pb should be an airport management problem). We can talk for hours about companies in China, as China Southern with its own nice terminal in Beijing, and a good mix of brand new (A321) and very poor aircrafts (B757). Hainan Airlines is very nice, with comfortable aircrafts (did you ever seat the all leather seated B767 arriving late in Beijing ? this is the plane flying to Hungary 3-4 times a week), great connexions, but from times to times some young pilots confusing between B767 and Mig-27 (actually, a very bad memory of a BJ-SH flight with air-pockets and turbulence...). Most of the time, it depends the city the hub is settle down. If you fly CEA at Shanghai, Air China at Beijing, China Southern at Canton/Beijing or Hainan at Haikou/Xian, you won't be disappointed. However, there is no one very much better than the others. That is maybe the only regret I have about flying domestic in China. |
China Eastern Airlines