Review of China Eastern flight from Bangkok to Beijing in Economy

Intro

Oh baby, let's go the Mother Land 🇷🇺. Following about 20 flights in the last 18 days, and a day full of sleeping in Bangkok, the time had come to embark to Russia. Ya know, I was a little nervous going into this. The type of nervous where you check your bags seventeen times to make sure there are no loose Tylenol pills. The type of nervous where you might go to the toilet one too many times. The type of nervous where all of a sudden, it becomes excitement.

Well, for the first of the two flights, I flew China Eastern on their A320Neo from Bangkok to Beijing (PKX). How was it? Not a bad hard product, but the soft product needs some serious work in order to compete. However, for the price I paid, I am not complaining one bit 😅.

See: I fly economy…

Routing

How I Booked

It's actually quite interesting. Getting to Russia from Europe or the US is quite expensive. Even in economy, you can expect to pay about 300$ OW from Turkey on Aeroflot or Turkish, but flights from East Asia are quite cheap. Why? Because everyone and their grandmother operates a flight to Russia from China 😂.

There were plenty of options when it came to booking, all for around the same price, but I settled on China Eastern as it got me in the earliest, and I had my online class later that evening upon landing. 

For 254 USD, I booked the following:

China Eastern A32oNeo Economy Bangkok-Beijing (PKX)
China Eastern A330-300 Economy Beijing (PXK)-Moscow (SVO) (took me 3-5 business days to learn how to pronounce Sheremetyevo ha)

Check-In

After sleeping like I had just come home from a Siberian gulag 🥴, I packed up my luggage, called a Grab, and it was off to BKK. While traffic is usually worse than Delhi half the time in Bangkok, there was almost no traffic on the drive out to Suvarnabhumi.

45 minutes later, welcome back to BKK (my fifteenth home at this point 🥴). 

I was so used to heading to the first door (Thai Airways Business Class check-in) that I realized today wasn't that sort of day. I quickly headed over to the "M" check-in area, where the China Eastern counters were located, and within a matter of minutes, had my boarding passes printed.

Obviously, I had to show my Russian visa, return flight, and yada yada.

Speeding through security, I came face to face with my worst nightmare: Thai immigration 😮 (they are really nice, just my passport problem). Thankfully, E-gates worked, and I scurried away into the abyss. 

Around BKK

Bangkok is home to more Priority Pass lounges than Vodka shots I drank in Moscow (that's an exaggeration). However, on this certain day, I wasn't feeling any sort of lounge, and considering Skyteam is the only alliance I don't have status on, I settled on a Shake Shack burger and a local brew.

I know, I tend to really take in the local cuisine 🥴.

I also decided that this was probably a good time to book my hotel for that night in Moscow. Planning? What is that? I'll touch upon Wego separately through the Russia series, but this website saved my life (I lost my credit cards and only had Apple Pay, and with sanctions, yeah…). 

Boarding

Boarding commenced relatively early for our 2:15 am scheduled departure time. By 1:30 am, business class passengers was asked to board, and a few moments later, economy passengers followed. 

I don't like C gates. D Gates is the best by far. 

Oh baby, it is time to get on board a brand new airline!

Stepping onboard, there was no welcome on board, and I made the dash to the right. 

The Seat/Cabin

Let's start with where I wish I were sitting: business class. Laid out across 2 rows, business class passengers are treated to an intimate cabin in a 2-2 configuration. Interestingly, you could purchase an upgrade on the flight with cash, or by sending money through Alipay to a flight attendant??? More on that next report, because that was madness.

But 350$ for an upgrade to recliner J on a 4.5-hour redeye with an empty seat next to me? No thanks. 

Now back to cattle class, where I belong, the seats were laid out in a traditional 3-3 setup. While certainly not state-of-the-art, I found that the seat was comfortable, had decent legroom, and was modern. AND OVERHEAD AIR VENTS (my worst nightmare: looking at you, JAL).

I had strategically selected my seat a few hours before departure, and selected an empty row, hoping to luck out. While the middle seat remained empty, someone did end up sitting in the aisle. I'm not complaining for 254 USD 😅.

I did like the cup holder that was a part of the seat. Perfect for staying hydrated when they 'run out of water'.

Departure

With boarding wrapped up in a very efficient manner, and upgrades being promoted more than the 'call you lawyers signs' down the I-5, we ended up pushing back 10 minutes early. 

As fate would have it, we were wheels up right on time at 2:25 am from 20L on a gloomy evening in Bangkok. 

IFE/WIFI/Amenities

I've seen airlines offer the bare minimum. I've seen airlines offer the bare minimum, but you have to pay (looking at you, Pegasus). But what I haven't seen much of recently, minus Kam Air, is nothing available on board. Minus the little screen above the seats, there was no IFE, no streaming content, and no amenities. 

But the screen didn't show the map during the flight (apart from the end), so we had no idea where we were. Huh, go figure… Nor did we get headphones, not that I wanted them, it's more the principle. 

Kind of a beautiful looking cabin during sunrise if you ask me. The best IFE will always be outside the plane…

Meal Service

Ahh, the meal service, where to begin on this one? Roughly an hour into the flight (I had dozed off for the first hour), the flight attendants came around with two carts, with the first offering a choice between two meals, and the other one for drinks.

I wasn't too hungry, but selected the chicken and rice, with a side of Orange Juice (since the first cart had juice). It was edible, nothing exceptional, but edible. 

Well, here is where it gets interesting. When the next cart came along, I asked for a glass of water, and they said they had "ran out". I proceeded to ask for a Coca-Cola, and they had, once again, "ran out". At this point, I just asked for a beer, and they gave me a small cup with over half of it being froth. I asked for the rest of the can, and the FA responded, "no". 

Thankfully, another male FA came back a few minutes later and gave me the rest of the can. Talk about customer service? The row behind me was served water????!

End of the world? Nope. Just very peculiar, lol. I had already put the other tray table down for the meal which was being shared by me and my seatmate btw…

Lavatories

Prior to getting some work done for the rest of the flight (offline), I bothered my seatmate to use one of the two lavatories located in the rear. While nothing stood out, it was clean, and that's pretty much all that is needed.

Service

It's honestly pretty rare that I dedicate a section to service in an economy review, but I think it is important here. And nothing towards China Eastern, as the service on the next flight was some of the best I have experienced, but this service was downright abysmal.

It wasn't just the whole water experience; it was the overall aspect to it. They closed the curtains at the back, rarely checked on passengers, never with a smile, always seeming like it was a burden to bother them, etc.

I have to say that this doesn't represent the airline as a whole, but if you know anything about me, I am honest to a fault.

Sunrise

After working extremely productively for about 2.5 hours of the flight, without wifi, remember, I opened up my shade to see one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen in my life. This is what aviation is about, in my opinion, this exactly. When everything else disappears in your life, and you are cruising at 530 mph through the skies into an enemy state 😅.

Arrival

With not the faintest clue in the world what was going on or where we were, the captain came on around 7:20 am local time to announce our descent into Beijing. Guess we must be close??

It was a gorgeous morning outside, or was it?

We touched down about 30 minutes early into Beijing, and had a long taxi ride to our gate. What a gloomy day it was…

We pulled into Gate C10 about 23 minutes ahead of schedule, and, suprisingly, we pulled in ride next to the A330-300 that would not be taking me to Moscow…

Off to deal with the Chinese immigration and how they have banned certain power banks. Unlike Singapore, you can actually bring vapes through (even though it isn't allowed). 

Stay tuned for the flight to Moscow, either today or tomorrow. Should be an interesting one. Already written it, and has more J2J drama as per usual 😅. Thank for reading!