Hi again everyone, welcome back to another flight review. Today we're doing something quite unique, a very quick jump from Beijing over to Chengdu on Sichuan Airlines. Following my last review on Xiamen, I hope to share my experiences with some of China's lesser known domestic carriers. I have a two quick hops between Beijing and Shanghai roundtrip on Air China and China Eastern coming up, stay tuned for those. Not to make our US focused domestic travellers too jealous, but also a chance to see what's offered on short haul flights here (winky face).
Today we're heading out of Terminal 2 and PEK. Both Terminal 2 and 3 handles international and domestic flights. Some of Terminal 2's big names include Air France, Korean Air, KLM, Vietnam Airlines, and all of Hainan Airlines' international trips (featuring NA and EU flights). Almost all other big names leave from the much larger T3, with a select few such as Qatar and Etihad from PKX Daxing.
T2 is not too far away from T3, so a ride from the city without congestion usually takes 20 minutes or so.
Check-in a security was quick with a business ticket. Air China offers a lounge here but I didn't have the time to check it out today. I raced over to my gate, which happened to be the furthest one down the line. I took some snaps of the shops along the way.
There aren't that many options when it comes to food, with almost no big brands other than the big yellow M. There are some cafes and sourvenir stores, the terminal as a whole is very small (but very clean)
Here's the look at our bird. Please do correct me if I'm mistaken, but where else can you find a 2 hour domestic trek being operated by an A350-900? How beautiful is this! Sichuan is world-famous for its pandas, and the carrier makes that known. Interestingly, ALL Sichuan A350's feature the panda design, along with panda elements on the interior.
If you look closely, you can see Terminal 3 in the distance, highlighting the close proximity of the two.
Boarding soon commenced, and we were on our way onto our beautifulllll bird. The business class features a 1-2-1 configuration. I don't believe there is a partition that goes up for middle seats, so the shared space would be ideal for duo travellers, but slightly awkward for strangers both facing inside. My seat today is (forgot the number) located on the right side of the middle aisle, namely the only visible with the slippers on the footrest. If you look closely on the headrest, you can see elements of the panda livery on the sheet.
Waiting for me were slippers and a duvet, incredible for such a short flight. Business class in all major Chinese carriers provide these amenities, regardless of narrow or widebody planes. I wonder if such services would ever be offered on Delta, or United, or such. The IFE screen is a decent size, more than enough for such a short flight.
A welcome drink was offered but I just went with a water today. We were around 1.3 capacity in Business today.
We soon took off on time at 11:30, and given the short journey, our crew worked quick to kickstart the lunch service. Regardless of cabin, all passengers receive a full meal. Something that's really cool on Sichuan airlines during the economy meal service is that the crew comes around with a small tub of "lao gan ma" chili sauce and offers scoops of it to passengers. In China, Sichuan Airlines is known as "the airline that feeds pigs", with the 'pig' in this case being a cute reference to all of us who love eating!
I was shocked, beyond amazed, when lunch was brought over. The impecable attention to detail, variety, and presentation of a two hour flight meal service was incredible. On the top we had a fruit plate, to the right a sichuan peppercorn braised fish, and a egg/tomato (a very classic chinese combination) noodle. Between the fish and noodle was a tomato flaored vegetable mix, and the signature "lao gan ma" chili sauce to the left. On the bottom, the left side was a red-sugar dessert, chili chicken to its right and a love heart shaped rice.
Once again, you can see elements of the panda livery everywhere, this time on the cutlery.
Everythig here tasted as good as it looked. If I had any slight piece of criticism, it would be that I may have liked a larger portion of the non carb dishes. The rice and noodle were filling, but each othe three hot dishes were rather small. But again, for a two hour domestic flight this was beyond my wildest dreams.
However, I must note that on my return flight aboard a narrowbody jet, also in Business and on Sichuan airlines, this was the meal service. The dish was honestly quite tasty but it felt like someone else's leftovers. Keep that in mind when booking, unsure why the meal discrepancy is so large based on plane model.
I wanted to add some comments about Sichuan's international offerings. My buddy flew from Vancouver to Chengdu aboard the same plane in Business. Despite having a similar main meal service, he was left extremely hungry for the majority of the journey, with limited snack options. Most importantly, there was no wifi service the entire trip, and that seems to be the norm for all Sichuan airlines flights. So keep that in mind when booking them internationally. Like all mainland Chinese carriers, the IFE is tailored towards mainland viewers with international options being rather limited. So on a 10 hour journey without wifi and a limited IFE, that could be an issue for some travellers. But for me, I was too in shock with the meal to be concerned with that.
There was a gentleman seated on my right who snored extremely loudly the entire journey, which wasn't a huge deal but quite a few travellers up front seemed quite bothered by it. The flight attendants, like most Chinese carriers, were extremely helpful and took great care in assisting passengers even through their frustration.
Soon, we touched down at Chengu Shuangliu at 14:07, 23 minuted earler than scheduled.
Here's a quick look from my buddy's apartment and one more for the pandas!
A final heads up for anyone leaving from Chengdu, there are two airports, Shuangliu and Tianfu. Travel time between the two is up to an hour. On my return to Beijing, I woke up thinking I was leaving from the same airport I arrived at, only to realize a 1.5 hour journey there. I had to do some last minute panicking and call to change my flight to leave from the correct airport.
