Air China Reviews 382

Impossible to get a refund from them. I submitted a form through their website and now after 5 months I still haven't heard anything from them. I just called their customer support, they told me it would be up to another 6 months before I could receive a refund. Completely unreasonable.

WORSE EXPERIENCE EVER

Boarded a flight to Beijing and it was an absolute nightmare. The flight had a 5-hour delay for a start. The plane was dirty and very uncomfortable, the staff was rude when they didn't just ignore you. No phones allowed, no tablets, no electronic devices. The only entertainment on a 12 h flight was Chinese propaganda in CHINESE....brilliant.
They had 2 security staff (police officers) patrolling the plane to check for phones and were aggressively shouting at passengers. We were not allowed snacks on the plane. The food served was appealing..I wouldn't have given it to my dog.No refreshments offered either and we only managed to get a glass of water after asking several times.
We got to Beijing 7 hours later than planned which meant we missed our connecting flights ( as did most passengers on our flight). No help was offered and we had to run back and forth across the gigantic airport to try and find an Air China agent willing to help us.
We had to queue for hours and only got some help after we teamed up with other passengers to literally block the access to their desk and demand a solution. No accommodation, no food or refreshments were offered. We were finally put on another flight hours later which meant we missed out on a very important family event and got to our destination absolutely exhausted.

I had to board a return flight with them a couple of days later and the thought of having to go through the same experience again completely spoiled my holiday and filled me with terrible anxiety.

Worst airline I have ever used

Absolutely Horrendous if it was possible to rate minus stars they would be getting it!!
Flight home to the U.K. from Manila Philippines cancelled by Air China 5 hours before I was due to fly, the whole thing was booked through lastminute.com who have been absolutely useless from the minute I was in trouble not only have they never responded to any email or phone call just like air China the lying company here advised me I would be refunded half of my trip £360 in February ......June 30th now and not a single penny received! I have been left over £1000 out of pocket as I was left stranded over 7000 miles from home and lastminute.com advised me that they nor air China were willing to put us on another flight to the U.K. I advised them it’s their obligation to make sure we got home safely whether the new flight costs them more or not and the advisor I spoke to was unbelievably rude and said it wasn’t his problem ...... I would never recommend this company to anyone and to be honest with how long it has been with no reply or refund I’m currently in the process of acquiring legal advice as I will make sure that not only lastminute.com but also Air China pay for the absolute S*** storm they left me in back in February!!

I did not manage to fly with the company given the pandemic but they refunded my flight in its entirety -no hassle and quite quickly.

Having to cancel my flight to Beijing last month I now have a full refund from Air China. Their website was easy to book, the customer service contact easy to reach and they have delivered on their refund well within the stated framework.

In these turbulent times especially for an Airline their service has been exemplary.

Would definitely book with them again in future

** update** use this email address to contact air China, they are now being very helpful

mailto: ca ‘underscore’ Europe at air China dot com ( won’t allow me to type email address )

Flew to Thailand last year with air China and had no issues at all. This year however, I booked through a 3rd party and my flight was cancelled. It’s now been 4 weeks and still no refund! I’m now paying interest in the amount so will be taking this up with air China as the 3rd party star they are STILL waiting for the refund to forward to myself.

Here is a UK number for Air China 020 3275 0200 for anyone who might need it

Won’t use them again simply because they don’t care!

They emailed us to notify the cancelation of our flights and to inform us that we could contact them for help on alternatives.
It is almost impossible to get a hold of them from New Zealand, their phone numbers are from overseas and when it gets picked up, the call drops.
Finally got a hold of someone here in Auckland that told us to apply for the refund online and that there was no alternatives or anything.

We applied for the refund which confirmed saying that it would take up to 6 days to be completed. It has been over 2 weeks and still n refund, no replies, no answered phone calls, nothing.

We had to buy new flight tickets from a different air company that due to the short notice, came out a lot more expensive and still have not received that refund "which put us in financial complications".

Impossible to contact customer service. Useless website
Like many other complaints about Air China, it is impossible to contact anyone at customer service for flight info, seat assignments, etc. Their web site is totally useless. I was supposed to fly back on the 8th February on a 10.05 PM back to Guangzhou via Chengdu but I was informed by the English speaking supervisor that I was not on the flight back nor on the next day. She gave me several numbers to ring (expensive) but all I got was a Chinese speaking person. I tried the booking agent and they booked me on a flight that didn't exist. I need to get back. Air China staff are brilliant on the plane but where are the staff on the ground. Air China if you do have someone reading this in the UK (is there really an Air China UK), please contact me and get me a return flight back please

4 flights made and never had any problem.
No delay, nice food, large choice of movies, the prices were really low.

After taking many long haul flights I have NEVER received such poor service as I did with my flight with Air China. After booking a flight and receiving full email confirmation I was left stranded in Tokyo being refused boarding due to a failure from Air China to generate a ticket reference. The Air China staff refused to help resolve this matter or inform me about the status of my booking and merely handed me a slip of paper with a phone number for customer services which I could not contact due to it being an international number. After an hour of trying to receive support from the air China staff no one informed me of whether the flight was overbooked or this was due to a technical failure, finally after 1.5hrs they offered me the chance to rebook the flight at £2000. Ridiculous. The staff waited until the gates closed to tell me I was unable to board the plane. This left me no option but to book a new flight with an alternative airline at an extortionate rate with no apology or information of why I was left in this situation. Appalling. Booking code:NTRP6P

Customer service numbers are extortionate
You have to listen to music for an hour or so and paying a pound a minute premium to do so.
You cannot understand the chinese option they give you, they talk so fast in english you cant understand.
On top of all this they have raised fares and introduced non refundable for the lower fares that were refundable with a 120 pound charge.
They give you a great comfortable plane to look at when you book but you then board a tacky uncomfortable substitute.The attendants are power crazy. Wouldn't even let me show pictures on my phone to another passenger, even in flight mode.
It's cheap for a reason

We flew with Air China for the fourth time in a row and were very satisfied. The staff was nice and helpful and the Stopover in Beijing worked perfectly. All flights were on time. We will definitely fly with Air China again.

Like many other complaints about Air China, it is impossible to contact anyone at customer service for flight info, seat assignments, etc. Their web site is totally useless.

The inflight entertainment wasn't working for a third of the passangers (unfortunately us too) on a flight from Beijing to Frankfurt. So no movies, music, and we weren't prepared fot that option so it was our "longest" flight ever. We got a paper on the airport Statement on Service Compensation, you can see the text below. As you can see, completely useless if you are not a Chinese citizen, and you need to download the app and that was completely useless too. So bring your own movies/devices just in case!

Dear Passengers,
First of all, we apologize for the inconvenience caused to your journey. We hope to show our sincerity by way of compensation. Thank you for your support and understanding. We provide economic compensations in three ways: e-voucher (hereinafter EV),
mileage and currency. The ratio is RMB 2EV: 5km non-elite qualifying miles of Air China: RMB 1. You can choose one of them based on your needs. Please scan the following QR code to download Air China APP, register for membership and click to
claim it from "My Wallet". Tips:
The EV is valid for receipt within one year since the date of issuance. Please use it within one year upon receipt. You can use it to pay for air tickets for yourself or others from your membership account on Air China APP (not payable for fuel charge, airport
construction fee and other fees) and it can only be used to offset RMB payment. The EV can be used partially or in conjunction with other EVs, but it cannot be used with ther vouchers. The maximum offset amount for a single ticket is 50% of the fare.
When you apply for a non-voluntary refund or ticket change, the EV will be returned in full or continue to be used for a new ticket, and the expiry date of the returned EV will restart from the date of return. The EV is not refundable for voluntary refunds.
The non-elite qualifying miles are valid for 36 months and can be used in exchange for passenger tickets, upgrade classes and products of Phoenix Miles E-Shop. They can also be used in conjunction with the elite-qualifying miles. You have to first
accumulate four flight segments or a mileage of 3,000 km before using such miles. You'll have to provide your bank card information to claim the currency compensation. Bank cards are limited to debit cards issued in mainland China and marked with Union Pay.
We hope you'll choose Air China again. Please contact Air China hotline 95583 for inquiries.

Despite concerns from other reviews, our experience was pretty good.

Check in on line didn’t work, but as everyone is preallocated seats, and have to do bag drop anyway, that’s not an issue.

Air China is part of the star alliance. Our flight had Virgin Atlantic passengers on it.

Some flight attendants were (or could appear to be surly), but so are BA attendants on occasion. Most were very helpful.

Flights our were delayed, but wat back were on time. As in the uk, flights can be delayed for many reasons out of the airline’s control.

Overall, and as we travelled to Japan when the rugby World Cup was on, it was a good value service overall - some £400 pp cheaper than BA.

First the self check in at the airport and their app doesn't work. The flight experience was decent for the price you pay but unfortunately we were delayed and left waiting without knowing what was happening to our flight or the new timings. Nobody was around for assistance. Awful customer service with very little English speaking. We missed a connection and were left waiting at the airport without being offered any food and drink for more than 4 hours. We ended up with a total delay of 9 hours and being outside EU there is no compensation protection. Should take into account when booking with this company.

Great airline, fantastic value.

London Heathrow to Tokyo (Haneda) 20th Sep/5th Oct 2019.

Great value for the distance we travelled, some lovely modern planes with plenty of legroom, some older more cramped ones but certainly not the worst airline out there. If you're a frequent traveller who doesn't expect the red carpet to be rolled out for you when you pay a budget airline price then you'll be fine (just manage your expectations and take some extra on plane comforts).

The planes were boarded early on all occasions and the gate staff & airline crew were all very accomodating even when there was a mix up with our paid seats which was quickly resolved. Yes, they all speak English despite it not being their native language and if you are patient enough to understand that you can communicate perfectly fine.

The food was ok as far as aeroplane meals go, limited options but the Chinese options were much better than the western. Drinks were plentiful and if you ever wanted more it was just a call request away.

I can't fault air China for their service, and after reading some of the 'reviews' on numerous platforms we were quite nervous. The only reason this is 4 instead of 5 stars was due to the mix of older/newer model planes which caused me some discomfort even as a shorter person long haul but I'm glad we booked seats in advance which helped my taller co-travellers.

Would definately fly again. Thank you Air China, we look forward to our next Asia trip!

Withiut a doubt the nastiest, laziest, most ignorant , obnoxious customer service experience ever.

2 months later , still can’t log in to change tickets because all their responses, including SMS, web site errors, web site redirects, Apps etc are all in Chinese. The captcha system does not work and the email staff simply cannot comprehend English, telling me to log in to change my password every time I tell them I can’t log in because my passcode does not work. The error I’m given is “-False” , or in Chinese etc. The UK/Europe customer service number is far too long to be dialable from the the UK, yet all the web site staff tell me to do is make sure I add the country code. After 3 months I cannot log in, cannot get them to understand the issue , cannot reset my password, and cannot phone them. This kind of stupidly and nonsense is deliberate, they take your money and hide.

I beg you, do not use this Airline, for your own sanity.

Unfortunately my bag didn’t make the flight and It returned to me a week later. It was a big inconvenience and I am still waiting for a refund for clothes I had to buy and haven’t been offered any compensation due to this. The phone to the uk office doesn't work and many people in the eu offices have not been of any help on the phone!