Hi again everyone, welcome back to another flight review. Today I'll do another quick domestic trek in China from Shanghai to Beijing aboard Air China's A350. Just like the Sichuan review, flying an A350 on such a short journey is incredible.
I've just arrived from Frankfurt aboard Lufthansa's 747, a review coming in the near future. But we focusing on mainland carriers for the time being! International arrival requires customs inspection, luggage pickup, and exit before checking in for my domestic flight.
Pudong airport, as you'll soon see, is massive. Leaving from here presents itself as a double edged sword, and soon I'll go through the positives and negatives. Check-in and security was quite quick, and before I knew it I was right back up against the plane I had just disembarked from less than an hour earlier.
Here's the positive, especially for aviation enthusiasts like all of us. Although international and domestic departures are not connected, they operate from the same terminal with domestic being on the lower floor and international from above. This means all domestic travellers are treated to the plethora of international carriers PVG offers, and can do so without barriers via PVG's massive (and extremely clean) glass windows. PVG beats out any of Beijing's airports as mainland China's largest selection of international visitors, some highlights that don't go to Beijing include Swiss, British Airways, AA, Delta (to 3 destinations), Air Serbia, Finnair, with the first two offering first class. Another highlight is the occassional Singaporean A380 (Beijing offers Singaporean, but never A380 since COVID).
Here are some of the highlights from today
I then headed off to the lounge, which was one of the better domestic lounges in China. It had a buffet area and a noodle bar. I grabbed some xiaolongbao (soup dumpling), mala spicy tofu, spicy mixed seafood, and beef along with fried rice from the buffet.
Also a made to order beef noodle from the noodle bar, quite a lot of spice this lunchtime.
The lounge was located along this walkway, which was essentially empty, a drastic comparison to the rest of the terminal which was packed.
Here comes the negative of PVG. This was my first time flying out from here, and I didn't think twice about the 'H' listed in front of my gate number. Only to realize, the H gates required a small train ride out from where I was with the lounge and international jets. A note is that not all domestic gates are 'H', quite a few are located where I initially was, so no need to take the long journey I did.
After a train ride, we arrived at the satellite terminal which was quite empty. The gigantic size only emphasized the hollow and empty feel. The food options here were rather limited, but you'll never run out of a seating option. (un)luckily for me, my gate was literally at the very end of the satellite terminal. Without exaggeration, my journey from the lounge to my gate took nearly fourty minutes.
I finally arrived at my jet on the very end of the terminal. Unfortunately, there wasn't a clear view from the gate but a small escalator took me to a lower spot where I snatched this picture. Oh how I wish the ladder wasn't there.
I found it quite interesting Air China primarily uses their older 777's on international routes (A350s are also offered on some) where passengers complain about a lack of privacy in business class with the 2-2-2 configuration and lack of wifi. Yet newer A350s with 1-2-1 business seats and the only airline in Air China's fleet with fully functioning wifi is flying my 2 hour domestic journey.
Boarding was fast, and here's the first look at my seat. Waiting at my seat was a bottle of water, pillow, slippers, blanket, and a headphones.
The screen was a great size which would keep me happy for international journeys. The cubbie where my water is located opens and acts as ample storage space. The spall extension near your head on the right also provides solid privacy from the alleyway.
The crew came over to take dinner orders, a full meal was offered onboard today. Something I'm not complete sure about is when a full meal is provided and when a light one. On a Hainan airlines flight on the same route departing around 7:30pm only gave a small sandwich, I'm unsure whether time of take off matters (if so, when is the full meal cutoff?), or if it also varies by Airline. Stay tuned. But I was ecstatic to hear a full meal was on offer today.
I took just some water for the welcome drink. The crew, as always on mainland Chinese carriers, was incredible.
We took off from PVG at 16:30, on time! We were soon greeted by a beautiful sunset, and meal service began.
Apologies for not having a photo, but Air China loves to offer a sealed bag of nuts+dried fruits, in First or Business. I believe a photo of it is present in my Beijing to Shenzhen review. It would be a nice touch if they offered them in an actual bowl.
Dinner was all served on one tray, featuring spicy fish (I think it was halibut or cod, but there was no physical menu so I can't recall) and steamed rice as the main, with an appetizer of smoked salmon wrapped in cream cheese for the appetizer. There was also a fruit bowl, a wrapped bread roll, and a cake. Air China loves yoinking their cakes from the lounges onto their actual in-flight meals. Considering the cakes are always untouched in the lounges, I guess they need a way of recycling them.
Other than the cake and wrapped bread roll, the main meal and appetizer were both great. I also asked for a diet coke which took quite a while to get refilled. I do wish I could've received the entire can:)
Before long we landed in Beijing at 18:54, amazingly 21 minutes ahead of schedule, in Terminal 3.
Air China's A350 is the only one of their fleet which offers actual wifi, as opposed to their 'fake' wifi which doesnt actually grant internet access but rather duplicates as another IFE. The speed was great and basic texting and surfing proved no problem.
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