This was the main reason for my trip all the way to China. I booked flight CA1507 which would be operated by a 747-8.
I was hoping which booking this that the flight would be operated by a 747-400, as the website did show vaguely '747', and not 747-400 or 747-8. However, this would change when I found out that they did show '744' for -400s on the PEK-CAN route.
I paid 570CNY (500CNY fare + 70CNY taxes) which was a great deal for a one-way flight. I don't know how Air China's ticketing system works, but I was seeing RT prices be double the one-way tickets plus some extra. You'd think one-way flights are more expensive, but I guess not. I'd love to have gotten on the 747 twice round trip, but I just couldn't financially make sense paying about 1500CNY for a round trip ticket just to get on the same aircraft twice.
Air China offers free seat selection, so I reserved my seat at the very back of the first Economy class cabin, to hopefully get a nice angle of the wings while also catching a glimpse of the n4 engine.
However, I would come to regret the decision to only book a one-way ticket. The seat number which should be showing 47L was showing 'Pending', which meant something went wrong. Indeed, something had. My flight had changed from a 747 to a 77W. I went to the seat map to see what was wrong and was greeted by a 3-3-3 layout instead of a 3-4-3 layout.
This change was definitely out of nowhere because the number of aircraft was more than enough to pull through the schedule. A 747 ended up flying on the PEK-CAN route departing at around 11am, but I just couldn't skew my schedule to fit. I guess the saving grace is that these 747-8s will be flying for much longer.
As I had no intention to fly on the 77W, I decided to bite the bullet and pay the price to switch to the flight an hour later, to fly on the A350. After all, the A350 was my favorite type and I had planned a whole trip around it before. One bad thing about this schedule was that I had to stay another hour at PEK after spending the night on the benches trying to catch some sleep.
So, this is the final itinerary I ended up with. I selected 46L to get my favorite wing view on the A350, and Air China's 360 cabin view is very well made for you to decide where to sit.
Air China's homepage also has this interesting feature of showing where your plane is flying from. I had seen this feature before only on Lufthansa and their app. It showed the complications in aircraft dispatch by the way it was switching every few days.
It switched for one last time about 7 hours before departure. The aircraft that operated CA1308 was B-1085 which is the second A350 delivered to Air China. If the scheduling wasn't changed from the pictures above, I'd have flown on B-32AS or B-322H respectively.
I'd love to know the system behind these Chinese registrations, because it seems like there is a pattern but I just can't seem to figure it out. The 777s no matter the airline seems to start with B-20xx, while most of the A350s start with B-32xx.
For the first time, the official airline app notified me of the registration of my plane.
Air China's app overall is very easy to use, but you have to verify yourself to use the full features. If you want to be verified, you have to awkwardly take a picture of yourself holding your own passport with all the necessary things visible. I heard that this can be a bit of a pain, but I personally had no issue and got myself verified within 2 days.
At Beijing, I had this grand masterplan of spending the day here and just going through the basic things before heading back to the airport. However, I found myself in the middle of a huge Chinese tourist crowd who were all enjoying their New Year celebrations. I knew the crowd would be bad, but I never expected to find myself feeling claustrophobic in the middle of so many people that the sidewalk was not visible. So, I just held my hands up and went back about 6 hours earlier than planned.
PEK's T3 is very big, as it is the main terminal for Air China. This was taken at 3 in the morning, and as you can see, it was lit up pretty well.
My flight, CA1501 shown on the FIDS. There were a lot of domestic flights to all over China departing pretty early.
I got myself some stuff from Lawson to keep me awake and energized. There is also a noodle restaurant on the first floor which is open 24 hours, if you want to check that out.
Starbucks had a lot of people trying to catch some sleep. I don't think even half of them had an order, even though it is open 24 hours. Some other cafe which wasn't open had their chairs up on the tables and strictly blocked off as to keep morning flight passengers away.
At 4:30am, I went upstairs to the third floor to check in. Air China has a big check in area for Economy class passengers, but only a quarter of that space is dedicated to a check-in desk with actual employees. I of course went and stood in line to get the fancy boarding pass.
The lines weren't that long as there were quite a lot of passengers using the kiosk and self bag drops. One interesting thing was that people lined up for each separate desk, so there was a bit of luck involved in how fast you'd be getting checked in.
About 15 minutes after lining up at the check in desks, I went to the security checkpoint. No issues whatsoever, but do keep in mind if you are flying a Chinese domestic flight, your power bank must have the CCC certification. In my experience, the security agent checked mine and looked thoroughly to find the certification. I heard that they might just let you through, but it's better to keep it safe, especially in China.
In total, it took me 30 minutes to get from the check in desks to airside. I actually ended up sleeping for another hour or so after getting past security. Honestly, I don't know if I can muster up such a hectic schedule again in my life.
PEK airside was very sleep-friendly, with power ports at most seating areas and a nice bench without armrests. PEK in the arrivals area though, there weren't enough seats, and the power ports were all located far away from the seats so everyone had to bring a luggage trolley to sit on while they waited for their electronics to be charged.
T3's C gates section is pretty bad when it comes to views of the tarmac. This was the best I could do to capture the 777 I would've been on had I not changed my flight.
This Comac C919, which was definitely one of the things I wanted to see most from my departure at PEK.
As it is the holidays in China, it was very crowded even though it was early morning.
As my flight was assigned a D gate, I had to get on a train to a satellite terminal. On the way, you can see some C gates traffic pretty close up because you have to go downstairs.
Looked like the train operated in tandem with another one going to the E gates which is for international passengers.
My ride for today was already parked at gate D10 for today's flight. This is an eight year old A350 registered B-1085. It's pretty weird to say that an A350 is 8 years old, but time keeps flowing and some early models are now 10 years old. As it is the earlier model, it has those three extra censors right above the radome.
The tracks for the train runs through the center of the terminals. The one far away in the picture is the C gates section, the main terminal.
Turns out, thankfully, the D gates terminal was more photo friendly. It feels like lots of the widebodies get assigned the D gates, but I might be wrong.
The second Air China A350 is the latest version, with the new winglet design and the cleaner radome area.
Over at the E gates, an Air China 748 B-2485, which arrived from JFK just a few hours ago. On another universe, I would've been on that type. Though not that exact registration, as the turnaround time is not enough and there already was another 747 which spent the night at PEK.
This Air China 77W registered B-2086 was being tugged to the gate for its flight to Sanya. Flights like this really puts into perspective just how massive China really is. Cities like 'Sanya' or 'Kunming' which are not well known outside of China are being served by 777s and A350s. Also, personally think the Air China livery weirdly fits well with the 777. Just has this aura with the livery and aircraft combining well.
Boarding started on time, and PEK had these machines you scan your boarding pass to go through, like a subway station. Thanks to this, the line shuffled along pretty fast.
Boarding went swiftly and I was one of the last ones to board.
I went through the mini Premium Economy section before going to the Economy class cabin.
This was the view from seat 46L. As you can see, B-1085 was equipped with the older winglets.
There was a bottle of water on each seat. Another feature which I haven't seen in a long time, footrests! Unfortunately didn't fully make use of that feature due to my bag blocking all the space.
The cabin crew also went around offering headphones and blankets.
The safety video played, which was very much Beijing themed.
Also, notice something off? Yeah. The whole cabin was in a pretty dire condition. The seat back was also very stained along with the tray table.
As we taxied to runway 01 for takeoff, we went past another 747, this time registration B-2487.
Another A350 parked at a remote stand. Seems like PEK also has these remote gate jet bridge facility, like ICN. Don't know about PEK but ICN doesn't use them very much.
We took off from runway 01, climbing over a very smoggy Beijing.
There's this satisfaction when it comes to soaring over the clouds and being greeted by the blue skies and not the grey.
View of the cabin after takeoff. As is was a very early morning flight, lots of people went to sleep. Unfortunately, sounded like two people in front and behind were a bit exhausted, as they started snoring pretty loud.
Comparing B-1085 (2018-built A350) and HL8598 (2024-built A350), you can see the difference in the shape of the winglet. The new one is a bit taller and gets narrow as it goes to the top. I recall there is actually a noticeable difference in fuel burn. Honestly, I prefer the old winglet more. Just looks more elegant.
The seat back pocket contents. There was wifi available for purchase.
Like the Korean or the Japanese aircraft, Chinese aircraft also have the registration written on the wing.
Did you know, the Air China logo also has 'VIP' hidden in the shape of a phoenix.
About 50 minutes into the flight, a snack box was served with a sandwich. The sandwich was just a basic one, with some ham and cheese inside.
Don't know if this picture is suitable for a report, but I hope I didn't ruin too many people's appetites.
As we were nearing our top of descent, I noticed that the IFE system had this neat feature which notified you if you weren't able to finish the movie by the end of the flight. Never seen that anywhere else, could be put into good use.
Air China's IFE system was also equipped with the FlightPath3D system.
Not long after, we started our descent into SHA.
For our arrival into SHA, I had this goal of spotting the Shanghai International Circuit from the skies. I vaguely remembered that there was a favorable wind direction to be able to spot it, but couldn't quite remember what it was, and couldn't search the current direction.
Thankfully, I was able to spot it from the corner of my eye. We were flying in a pretty awkward position adjacent to the track, so I couldn't manage a nice shot. In the picture above, the hairpin on the far left side was unfortunately cut off.
We made our final turn before landing in SHA.
We landed on runway 18L on time.
Held short of 18R for departing traffic.
Made our way to the parking bay, which was spot 246.
My seat before I deboarded. I was very surprised when I first boarded to have been given a pillow as well. Pretty nice stuff going for a 90 minute domestic hop.
The Economy class cabin really was nothing spectacular. However, compared to the Korean Air A321neo Collins Aerospace Meridian seats, these Recaro CL3710 seats felt much more taller. I think maybe the tallest seats I've ever been on. The width was just standard.
Another look at the very small three row Premium Economy section. aerolopa.com says these seats are 18.5" in width, which is smaller than the Economy class on JAL's 767s with 18.9" of width. I hope I'm not sounding too much like a JAL fanboy, but it's just truly amazing at the differences.
Also, unfortunately I couldn't look at the Business class cabin. There's two different types of Business class for Air China's A350s, but they're both the same in configuration or numbers, so you can't be sure which type you'll be on. One is the staggered 1-2-1 while the other is the Super Diamond reverse herringbone. If you have a preference for one or the other, I think you'll need to do quite a lot of research.
The weather in Shanghai was much better than Beijing.
Didn't notice it at SHA, but what's up with the tail? They got to clean it up once or twice.
I made my way to the baggage claim. I found it interesting that there was a separate passage for passengers without checked bags, but then I realized that I just flew on a domestic flight, and not an international one.
My bag came out pretty quickly, but to be fair I was sequence number 200 for my flight. I thought I checked in my bag pretty early.
Cadillac was also advertising their involvement in F1 for the new season.
I took line 2 to People's Square, where my hotel would be located. One thing I absolutely loved about Shanghai was that there is a single line which connects both SHA and PVG in one go. And it's just a regular line. So from People's Square to PVG, it was only like 8 yuan total. An amazing price.
