Air China Reviews 382

Reference Number: NYRDCE

I booked a flight through Gotogate early May this year of £987.00 but later cancelled due to medical reasons.
Despite paying a cancelation fee of £75.00 and providing a medical note, I have still not received my refund. Its been three months and every phone call is received with chains of excuses and I feel like I am being deceived.

I was meant to fly with Air China and Lufthansa on this trip. Gotogate informed me that my refund will be paid by Air China, however I was told in a few days that Lufthansa have refused to pay the refund. I will like to hear from Air China on this issue and reasons for refusing to refund.

Terrible service. Our transfer flight was delayed for over 8 hours and then cancelled since we missed our connecting flight (plane took two hours longer to land). We had to find a hotel ourselves because there were too many cancelled flights and customers needing a place to stay (several hotels which did not even accept foreign passports). We decided to cancel the transfer flight and take the train instead but then we were told (not by a staff but by another client in the queue) that our return ticket will be automatically cancelled too so we had to rebook the whole return flight and pay. Our luggage was also misplaced on the way home which carried many souvenirs and gifts. Many (not all) staff will not really listen to your questions and just point to the nearest desk, which after queuing for a long time will point you to another desk. Wasted countless hours in pointless queues.

I had recent flight with AIR CHINA (LAX-Beijing-Changchun) and back (October 2017) Everything was good. The plane was new and clean, seats had pillows and blankets. There is plenty of space between seats in Economy class ( I'm 5'6) The aircraft team was professional and nice. Btw they all spoke English well. Food was decent. Good airlines with great prices!

I will only buy footwear or t-shirts made in China.
Never trust a long distance flight and that too with connection flights.
You may have better chances landing a probe in a zooming asteroid.
Fligght 889 and 992 August 13

Do not ever book anything from this airline!

Four times I've had the displeasure of flying with them, and four times I've been treated without respect, without compensation for their delays and without information.

Their sheer incompetence is only matched by their utter lack of service-mindedness.
Did I mention they're always delayed, do not compensate and then treat people like garbage when they ask politely for basics such as accomodation, information and meals when they are delayed? Be warned.

I would like to express my high disappointment with Air China. I was flying from Shanghai to Paris last Saturday 01/07/2017. Not only my flight was delayed - we spent almost 3 hours in the airplane waiting for a signal to start (I barely caught my transferring flight to Warsaw) but also the temperature in the plane was low. That resulted in a cold.

Above all, my luggage had been lost. The person at the airport didn't give me another ticket for the second flight and didn't include the information in my suitcases about my final destination. Although I discussed my flight with him and confirmed my final stop. Therefore my luggage hadn't been transferred in time as the information about the destination was unknown. I've been through a lot of stress. All in all, I managed to receive my luggage yesterday however it was an extra, unpleasant stress after the long, equally unpleasant journey.

I request at least a partial refund for the inconvenience caused, together with the improvement of the service. I'm reluctant to take this airline in the future.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Feel free to use their service if you enjoy being treated like a slave.

The rude ground crew members and employees probable were never treated as dignified individuals in their own country and learned to treat others the way they were treated.

I was recently on some Air China flights from London to Tokyo via Beijing (and back).

I have a few problems that I would like to bring to attention because there are really a few areas within the company's policy / website that could use some serious updating.

1) The Air China app makes it impossible for anyone without a +86 phone number to register/check in. I also never got a Phoenix Mile confirmation e-mail when I initially registered for it so I can't even log in even if I wanted to. I had to phone Air China to get the number and it still wouldn't help me log in to either App or website.

2) The website is extremely buggy and if you try to check your booking details, no matter what combination of information is put in, the web site displays an error message.

3) I know you can't check in up until about a day before your departing flight, but if you do try to do so, there is no message stating that you cannot. It just throws up another error message. It doesn't set the customer at ease if it feels like the flight doesn't exist.

4) When I finally was able to check in, the website was extremely slow and unresponsive, no matter what browser/device I tried it on. I'm not sure how fast the uplink speed is from the Air China servers, but this is appallingly slow. When I hit the NEXT button during the process, I'd have to wait upwards of 2 minutes for a response. This happened on both check-ins, a month apart.

5) I had two flights to get to Tokyo. London to Beijing and Beijing to Tokyo. When I tried to check in (even when I was withing the correct timeframe for both flights), I could only check in and select seats for the first leg of the flight. The other flight didn't even show up on the booking. So I had to go to Heathrow earlier than anticipated because I was scared that my second flight wasn't there. Even calling customer service didn't help and it cost me GPB £11.00 for a short phone call which is highly unfair especially when I was panicking that I may not have a second flight. When I got to Heathrow I was able to secure a seat on the second flight. I asked for a window seat, and in stead I got the seat that is directly in front of the emergency exit with my arm right by the flight attendant jumpseat. This is not a window seat. If there wasn't any available, the helpdesk staff should have told me, but according to them, I got a window seat. Bare in mind this seat doesn't recline either because of the emergency pathway behind it. So I had an uncomfortable 4 hour flight to Tokyo.

6) The same thing happened when I tried to check in for my flights back to London (Tokyo - Beijing - London); I couldn't select a seat for the second leg of the journey. I had to go to Haneda airport early and make sure that they can secure me a seat of my choice. Don't see what the point of checking in online is with Air China if I always have to go to the airport to check in all over again just so you can make sure they take you into account for the second leg of a journey.

7) The in-flight entertainment systems are not formatting videos and films correctly for the screen size. The screen sizes are most certainly a recent upgrade to a 16:9 high resolution aspect ratio and I can understand that older programming is still formatted to be in the 4:3 square ratio, but even the newest films like 'Finding Dory' as an example, was still pillarboxed and letterboxed on the screen and was in SD resolution. What's the point of having higher definition 16:9 screens if most of the content isn't even optimised for it? It's as if Air China ordered a film from the supplier and they just gave a standard SD 4:3 film without thinking about the plane's specs. It's unwatchable. I didn't use the entertainment system at all when I realised this because it just spoils the experience for me. And it might sound nitpicky, but some people choose their Airlines based on the in-flight entertainment quality. So it needs to be taken seriously. In-flight entertainment is usually bad enough, so this just made it even worse.

8) My BIGGEST problem is the policy on electronics when the flight has reached cruising altitude. I understand that all electronics must be switched off during taxi, take-off and landing and this is standard across the entire aviation realm. However I think the policies on certain electronics being used at cruising altitude is HIGHLY and embarrassingly outdated. When I was watching a film on my iPhone (with flight mode turned on) during my 11 hour flight from Beijing back to London (flight CA937), I was told by the attendant that I had to turn my phone off immediately. I tried to reason with her and that I didn't understand why but she insisted that I turn it off. What is mind boggling is that most leading airlines have allowed its customers to use their phones at cruising altitude for YEARS. Some airlines also supply Wi-Fi and some even supply a GSM mobile phone signal! So for me to not even be allowed to have a phone on in flight mode is absurd. I know that some companies do still enforce this policy though and I won't argue with policy. BUT, this is where it gets interesting. After I was told to turn my phone off, I could see, ALL AROUND ME, that people were watching content on their laptops, iPads, reading their Kindles, listening to music through wireless Bluetooth headphones, playing games on their hand-held consoles and videoing on GoPro cameras. But NONE of those people were told to turn their devices off. Meanwile, those devices have almost all of the same connecting capabilities as a mobile phone, if not ALL the same capabilities. A laptop can connect with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a Kindle can connect to Wi-Fi, an iPad can connect to 3G/4G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a console can connect to Wi-Fi, some GoPro cameras have Wi-Fi/wireless capabilities - the list goes on and on.

How is it that they were allowed to keep using their devices but a mobile cellphone wasn't allowed? I looked at the security leaflet in the pocket of the seat and it was severely outdated with policy and even pictures. It showed rules stating no electronics for take off and landing (understandable) and then for cruising altitude, mobile phones (ones that look like Nokias), portable TVs and boomboxes weren't allowed. But with no rules against laptops and other unmentioned devices. It's as if the staff are following an extremely outdated policy on electronics and are doing it by-the-book as opposed to using common sense. Why is it that a mobile phone in 2016 isn't allowed to be turned on in a plane (even in flight mode) but all other wireless-capable electronics are allowed? This is highly unfair and I feel like the rule should either be ALL allowed or NOTHING AT ALL allowed (even though the latter is ridiculous in this day and age). So I had to sit there for a remaining 8 hours of the flight doing absolutely nothing because I couldn't sleep and the in-flight entertainment was unwatchable. I had a terrible flight experience and couldn't even begin to plead with the flight attendant because her English was not fluent. I don't have a problem with limited English on an Air China flight but it just meant that I wasn't able to voice my concern.

I would really appreciate if the company would be able to address these issues and take them seriously. I frequently fly with numerous airlines and I have to say, Air China's website, app and in-flight policies are tremendously faulty/buggy and outdated. I cannot believe a Star Alliance group member can perform this poorly in the most obvious of places.

December 2014 I flew with my family from Copenhagen --> Beijing --> Hong Kong --> Manila. We were in for a horrible surprise when we arrived in Hong Kong. I have never been so disappointed, shaken and furious before. Air China technically robbed my family for 16.000 kr. (2666 US dollars). I will elaborate on this matter.

We arrived in Beijing with no problems. In Beijing we boarded as planned and everyone was seated inside the aircraft in time. Although everything went as planned, we were seated there for 1 hour without being informed by staff about why we the flight was delayed. When we finally took off, the crew did nothing to catch up with lost time from the delay. Instead the flight took even longer than what was expected. This, though, was nothing compared to what we were met with in Hong Kong.
Arriving in HK airport (just 15 minutes before our flight to Manila would take off), we were slowly escorted by a Chinese woman to the Air China counter - not to our flight! Here we were told that the delay had caused us to miss our flight with Cathay Pacific. Air China did nothing to help us with getting on a new flight. We were simply told to keep coming back every 3rd hour to check if the incoming flights had any available seats, going to manila. This went on for two days. We were told that "everything was overbooked". For two days we went back and forth in HK airport between Air China and Cathay Pacific.
CP tried to help us, saying that Air China had sold our (paid for) tickets to someone else. Staff from Air China continuously ignored our entitled request for a new flight! They were responsible for the delay and our missed flight we paid for! Therefore they should have been able to provide us with a new flight. Instead, we were spoken very rudely to and treated like trash. We demanded them to find us a new flight, whether it was Cathay Pacific or not, to make up for their mistake and get us to Manila. Instead, no help was offered AT ALL! The communication, too, was HORRIBLE! I have never met anyone who danced around a request so much as Air China's staff.

Lastly... being told by Air China that every flight going to Manila was overbooked, we decided (after 2 days of talking to the wall, Air China) to finally check every airline online and in person. Philippine Airlines had seats!!!! YES. We were lied to by AC. There were seats available! Air China simply did not bother to pay for their wrong doings. Instead, we were left with long noses and empty wallets. New tickets for a 1,5 hour flight costed 16.000 kr. (2666 US dollars!!!!), which Air China did not want to pay.... EVEN THOUGH THEY WERE THE ONES WHO CAUSED THE PROBLEM. We, as customers, were left to fix the airline's problem in a foreign country. Tickets, we had already paid for, we had to pay for ONCE MORE.

I am so disappointed with this airline. Words cannot express how much trouble this has caused us. I am surprised how they did not offer their customers any help, guidance or information. I would never have thought it was possible to ignore people this way - but an AIRLINE did. Air China did this! I would not even give this Airline ONE star. I will NOT recommend Air China to anyone.

My family and i flew Copenhagen - Stockholm - Beijing - Manila.
Compared with our last experience with Emirates, Air China was very disappointing.

1. Cabin staff speak bad english. Is even replying back in chinese
2. Cabin staff seems irritated and stressed. Is not smiling to the passengers
3. Bad serving of meals. Food and drinks are not served at the same time. Coordination is missing
4. From Copenhagen - Stockholm SAS is managing the flight for Air China. Old planes, dirty interior and unfriendly staff
5. It is not possible to make complete boarding card from Copenhagen - Manila. Bad service - the customers has to make even more check in - although all is booked through Air China

Next time we will surely ask Emirates for an offer first.

I flew to Guilin Airport with my wife, sister and mother in law and the service was very efficient. Friendly staff, great on flight entertainment (Cartoon Mr Bean) and lots of free water and snacks. Quick flight but I enjoyed every minute of it.