Review of China Eastern flight from Beijing to Shanghai in Business

Hi everyone, welcome back to another entry in short Chinese domestic hopping adventures. Today we're trying an airline I'm flying for the first time (extra exciting), another one of China's major carriers, China Eastern. China Eastern's home base is located in Shanghai, with various international long haul operations leaving Pudong Airport. Today we're heading out from PEK T2 and flying over to Shanghai Hongqiao airport, the smaller of the two v.s. Pudong. MU tends to have mixed reviews, especially for international flights leaving much to be desired. Recently I watched a Chinese vlogger pay nearly 10k USD for a F flight aboard MU from Singapore to Pudong, receiving Business class meals, economy class headphones, and wine with a bug inside… But I digress! 

Flights between China's busiest cities is a quick 2 hours, so I took my pick amidst the 30 or so daily flights, and went with a 777-300 ER! T2 at PEK mainly features Hainan airlines and some MU widebodies, with lots its narrowbodies moving to Daxing airport, and Air China mainly basing at T3. There are no long haul transatlantic MU flights leaving from PEK, those saved for PVG!

Checkin was very quick since I had access to priority, note my Delta Status would qualify me for Sky Priority also. Interestingly, T2 domestic offers Business/First priority security, something not even offered at T3 or T2 international. I waited over an hour at T2 in February just for a one hour flight over to Seoul, it's far less hectic at the domestic section.

This route also provides a 'fast-lane' for all passengers, which allows for a streamlined process since the airport probably assumes, correctly, that most travelling between the cities are businessmen and women in real rushes and time crunches.

Similar to the setup at Hongqiao airport, the lounges here are also labelled as 'V + a number'. V2 for us today. I took the escalator up the second floor where a MU agent was kindly waiting for arrivals.

The lounge was very spacious and took up the entire second floor area. It was far larger than the Air China lounge in Shanghai, so well done here MU! 

There was a small buffet, although options were very limited, and a noodle bar that was quite solid. MU offers their signature "that bowl of China Eastern noodles" on most of their flights and lounges, which is also present here.

Since I was still in Beijing, I went with a local classic, the black bean paste noodles with garnishes. For anyone visiting Beijing, don't be scared by the color, believe me it's delicious. We would have a tub of the sauce ready in our fridge 24/7 back home, ready for a quick and delicious meal whenever.

The noodles were very tasty, albeit a small portion. I easily could have went for one or two more, but I wanted to save my appetite for the flight. For those who remember from my last flight between the routes, I was unsure whether full meals were only provided on certain airlines or only certain times of day. Now I know for sure! I specifically chose a flight flying through lunchtime to guarantee a full meal would be served, stay tuned!

The lounge also had nice views of the tarmac, which were predominantly Hainan's narrowbodies. If you look closely, you can spot the Sichuan Airlines Panda livery A350 in the distance, one of my all time favorite planes which I have also done a review on!

Planespotting at T2's domestic terminal can be rather bland, especially considering most gates were empty. But all was well when we aproached our bird for the day, our 777-300 ER!

Boarding soon commenced, and I was surprised to see a crewmember escorted me from the front door all the way back to my seat. This service isn't even offered in certain F products! This seemed to be an extremely busy flight, I counted around 6-7 crew members working just in the business cabin.

Here was my seat for the flight, a pillow, blanket, headpones, water bottle, slippers, and menu card were waiting. 

There was some storage space, enough to place my passport and earbuds. I loved the personal air vent right up against the headrest, great touch for long-haul flights. The headphone plug and charger port are also placed in very convenient spots!

And at last, a full menu card! Let's take a look together.

Lunch was on the cards today, and we had a choice of three entrees. As you can see on the third photo, MU has something called the 'MU delight' which is a daily special entree offered based on which day of the week it was. I promise you 'stewed pork ball' is cooler than it sounds, just a strange translation!

The IFE screen was on the smaller side, especially for longer flights. Interestingly, MU have just announce the 'world's longest flight', although some may argue that a stopover for 2 hours no longer qualifies it as 'direct'. It will take passengers from Shanghai to Buenos Aires, then after a refueling stopover then to Auckland New Zealand, a total of nearly 29 hours… That's a long time with such a small IFE! But who knows, the stopover probablyyyyyyy doesn't really constitute as a direct flight. What are your thoughts?

The footspace was decent.  I didn't try the fully reclining feature, but I can imagine space could become slightly tight for taller chaps.

As with all flights, I immediately unboxed the blanket and covered myself with it! Always a plus when airlines offer them upon boarding, especially on these shorter routes. I love the color which matches the MU cabin scheme, and was very comfortable!

There was another MU bird parked across us, and yet another bright red/yellow Hainan tail in the distance.

A welcome drink was offered, choices of water and orange juice, I went with the former. Cold towels were also provided.

Pushbacks from T2 are usually on time or even early. I say pushbacks and not departures since T2 and T3 merge and share runways, you can always spot the other terminal in the distance. Luckily for us today, we took off 7 minutes ahead of schedule, at 11:53!

This was one of the roughtest climbs I've experienced in a long time. It was honestly frightening at times. I had originally booked another 747 flight on this route with Air China, but was cancelled a day prior due to weather conditions. Considering this flight took off only 30 minutes after my intial cancelled one, the bad weather kicked in right as we began to depart. The plane shook quite vigorously when rising beyond the clouds, and I would be lying if I wasn't sweating a little bit. Luckily that didn't last… and it was smooth sailing once we say sunshine beyond the dark clouds.

I headed over to the restroom, which had some basic amenities and was quite large. A very nice size. It was also kept clean throughout the flight, a staple of all major Chinese airlines as I saw a crew member head in every ten minutes or so to clean up.

Upon returning to my seat, lunch service began. A table cloth was placed along with another cold towel.

There was also wifi available, as mentioned by the flight crew. I didn't seem to be able to connect, which wasn't a problem for such a short flight. On longer trips this will be far more valued.

Then came the main meal. I was first offered a bag of mixed nuts, which were also featured in these plastic prepackaged bags just like on CA. The meal was very tasty, from appetizer to dessert, everything was very tasty. The dessert was a traditional Chinese chilled black sesame dessert, looks quite dauting but I recommend everyone give it a go. I would have loved a few more pieces of beef or mushroom on the main, but the flavor all round was very nice. 

The crew then came by with a bread basket, and I went with some garlic bread. Not as toasty as one would hope, but not bad.

The flight flew past, and we were touching back in Shanghai before i knew it. When walking off, I caught a very brief snap of First class, and you can see some of its mini enclosed booths. I do have a trip planned for F on the same route flying between Shanghai and Beijing, stay tuned. I managed to book that as an awards ticket but I do have doubts on the soft product considering the reviews online. But we'll see!

The F area does seem very spacious, in depth review coming soon!