Review of Air China flight from Shanghai to Beijing in First

Hi again everyone, welcome back to another trip review. Today is another really special short hop, on Air China’s Boeing 747 from Shanghai to Beijing. This is by far the most popular domestic route here in China, comparable to a Toronto-Vancouver or a NY-LA. Apparently, I took this plane once when I was very, very young, to JFK. All I remember was being quite a noisy kid trying to climb the staircase, causing some havoc for the crew! Oops! Nowadays, it’s really a special experience to fly this bird, especially on my home carrier. The CA 747 was the first ever plane model I owned, and I treasured that baby. Despite not having the best reputation, Air China has a special place in my heart. I was ecstatic for this opportunity, I knew it was one to remember. Slowly, the 747 fleet is being faded out, with CA selling one over to Shunfeng Courrier Express for Cargo.

Booking a trip on the 747 isn’t as straightforward as one would expect. First, it’s only offered on a few routes. Beijing-Shanghai Hongqiao, Beijing-Shenzhen and Beijing-Guangzhou (all roundtrip). Although there are numerous daily flights between these busy destinations, there is usually only one 747 flight every 2 days or so. Furthermore, CA has a notorious reputation for ‘downgrading’ the plane model a few days in advance. They do allow you a change your booking date for free, but I believe don’t see it as a reason for refunds. The only previous international destination was JFK, but not flies over to Dulles too. You can also grab an occasional trip aboard it to Heathrow, but very rarely.
Crazily, fares for First over to JFK on the 747 reaches far over 10,000 USD, which is simply not worth the value when you have options such as JAL first, Emirates first etc.

We begin this trip at Shanghai Hongqiao airport, the smaller of the two in the city with Pudong (PVG) being the larger. Hongqiao does operate some international flights, mainly to and from Japan, but the international concourse here is miniscule compared to PVG’s carriers. T2 takes charge of all domestic affairs, while T1 does the international.
 
There is a massive red carpet checkin for Air China priority, talk about grandeur! 

There is also fast track security for all business/first class passengers. It didn’t matter too much today as traffic was on the lower side.

Once inside, I headed over to the CA lounge which is right down the road from security. Hongqiao labels its lounges as 'V1', 'V2' etc. I think it goes up to V20+, not sure if there's really that many lounges or they skipped some numbers. We were headed to V3.

Unfortunately, there is no separate first class lounge here. But check out the panda theme! Love that on all CA products. 

However, I was happy to find the food selection far exceeded what was on offer last time I was at Hongqiao flying Hainan airlines and the lounge access provided back then.

There was a solid buffet selection and a made to order noodle station, quite standard for the big Chinese carries lounges in major cities. I was slightly torn at this moment as I was still not certain regarding the food situation on board.

Last time, I was unsure whether a full meal was only offered on certain airlines, or if it depended on time. Unfortunately, as you will soon see, it was the latter and I didn’t end up receiving a full meal even for a first class flight. In hindsight, I should’ve waited to try this product during lunch or dinner hours. But the experience was still pretty awesome!

I found the English translation for 'straw' was pretty funny, thought I'd take a sec to share :)

I ended up going for a beef soup noodle and some dishes from the buffet. The noodle soup was rather average, but this tomato beef dish was one of the best things I’ve ever had at an airport lounge. The sentiment seemed to be shared, and it kept being swept clean upon refill. It was incredible!

Around an hour and a half before boarding, I decided to leave the lounge and do some plane spotting. Unfortunately, the large windows create huge reflections at night from the interior lighting. There weren’t many widebodies or really anything to check out, however.

Around 50 minutes before boarding, our bird finally pulled up at gate 48. What a beauty. Quite a few avid plane spotters joined me in snatching some photos before boarding. 

Here's our first look at the cabin. My word, how breathtaking this giant plane is. You instantly feel the glitz and glamour of the 747, the excess space is unlike any other. Unlike on Korean and Lufthansa, where the F cabin is on the first floor’s nose, CA uses the middle section for F, while utilizing where F would be on KE and LH as part of their business cabin. The entire second floor, as we will soon see, is also business.

There is an area which I assume would be used as a small bar with wine glass hangers near the painting, a cool touch. 

Personally I feel this was the right decision, as the nose often can feel slightly cramped especially up front. The F cabin here was enormous, far larger than that on the 777. The seats, however, feature slightly less privacy than the 777 bug overall the space feels much larger. Part of that must be due to the lack of overhead bins in center seats, what a smart move back in the day considering this jet is over 30 years old. There is also ample storage space along the armrest, and plenty in your overhead cabin, which are equipped for window seats.

At my seat were newspapers, a blanket, slippers, bottle of water, and the menu.

There is also a mural painted up in the nose business class section, I guess it would be strange sitting in the front row and facing that for 14 hours to JFK.

Sadly, this is where my doubts came true that no full meal was offered since this was a 9pm takeoff, only a light meal. Unfortunately this applies regardless of your cabin class. As you would expect on the signature aircraft in F on a country’s national carrier, the crew was amazing. My purser came by and apologized for not offering a full meal, introduced the seat, and offered the signature Red Lantern. It didn’t seem as tasty as I remember. I was also offered the infamous nuts bag, which remains in a cheap plastic wrap even in F. 

All window seats in F were occupied today, with the middle section remaining empty. I noticed an English-speaking gentleman sitting across me who seemed extremely excited to be aboard this jet and eager to take some pictures upstairs (who wouldn’t be?).

 The purser, who spoke perfect English, explained the best time would be after take-off when everyone wasn’t up and walking around. When I also asked about some pictures, I kindly asked if it was possible she could help me take some of the upstairs cabin. I had scuffed my knee a little during my trip and was struggling to climb stairs. She was extremely happy to do so, and so the upstairs pictures provided here are all courtesy of her brilliant photography!

I have attached the entire menu, which also features what I would have received had this been during lunch/dinner time. Seems very solid. However, CA has also received criticism for offering the same meal options on First and Business, I’ll need to check that out myself next time. Since I’ll be spending the remainder of this year between these two cities, I’ll have plenty of time to test the various airlines that fly this route and their different offerings. Stay tuned!

There were two meal options, the dim sum selection and the spicy chili/chicken noodles. Although I love dim sum, I feel the mainland Chinese carriers often don’t do them as much justice as Cathay, and 3/4 on offer didn’t seem very appealing, I went with the latter. 

We took off from Shanghai at 21:35, 5 minutes behind schedule. I took tons of pictures of the cabin once dimmed. Everything just felt so grandeur I couldn’t help but be amazed. Yes the A380 is a bigger jet, and CA’s F product is far from the best out there, but something just felt different being here, in this cabin. The Chinese Prime Minister also flies on a refurbished CA 747, and there is just so much history on these planes. Combined with the pride of being my home carrier, it just felt extra personal for me. The plane, registered B-2447, took its first flight on January 25, 1995 and is 30 years old. All the history it’s been through, this was unforgettable.

Shortly after takeoff, my purser came over to begin the quick meal service. The tray table was massive, which took contrast with the tiny, but very adorable, TV screen. I’m sure, however, its ‘cuteness’ would fade if stared at for 14 hours. There are also small TV screens on the wall, which showed the moving map and occasional tv programmes. I can just about recall myself, six or seven years old, watching the small TV’s up front back in the day, everything felt so nostalgic.

The left armrest can be lowered and raised, allowing you to dip in and out with the tray table out. I headed over to the restroom and checked out the stairs, oh young me causing a scene playing on those stairs! The restroom actually had some skin care amenities which was surprising for such a short flight. The sizes are very small, but this one did offer a direct view of the staircase! Not quite as fancy as those A380 staircases, but nothing beats nostalgia.

Once I returned, the crew brought out my meal. A fruit plate, cake, and sparkling water accompanied. I tried out the ‘huang jiu’, which directly translates to english as yellow liquor? The menu lists it as the 'ten year old Shaoxing Huadiao wine', I’m not too sure what it was but I liked the CA branded bottle and had to give it a try. 

Massive tray table too!

Not bad at all! The noodles, although looking rather boring, were actually very tasty. Yes I would’ve preferred a full meal, but at least it kept me full. The cake, if you know you know… CA loves to recycle cakes from their lounges for flights, and I’m sure they are able to because no one wants them… I think I was too engaged and mesmerized with my surroundings, but as you can probably tell, very underwhelming for F. I have seen images of people posting their F class lunch/dinners on these short flights, with recent improvements. I doubt I’ll be paying this price to try this again in the near future, so I’ll just take their word for it.

 It only took until now for me to notice where the charging ports were. Of course no new type C features:)

Time really flies when you’re having fun (and drinking), and the cabin announcement of descent was imminent. Something I must point out, never for even a moment did I feel any sense of real turbulence. Most of my family members are terrified of flying, and insist on only flying CA when they must. This was some of the smoothest flying I’ve experienced, and massive credit to the captain because winds were strong today. I guess only the very best of the best get to fly the queen of the skies!

Here's some more shots of the dimmed cabin

A very quick sidenote for any pokemon enthusiasts out there. I caught my first and only ever shiny pokemon whilst on this flight, playing on my emulator. If you know… you know… how rare this is. 747 is really my lucky bird!

Before landing, I inquired whether there were any souvenirs I could take home. I’ve seen some F passengers receive small gifts such as CA fridge magnets and/or panda themed luggage tags. Unfortunately, none of those for me today, but I was given some plastic coasters. My favorite was when my purser came around a second time with a special version equipped only on the 747’s, a ‘puzzle coaster’. It was also of better quality than the others, awesome!

Before long, we landed back at the D gates here at PEK T3. I ran into some Emirates crew hopping off their flight and heading to the shuttle buses. Thanks for coming along!