China Eastern Reviews 

I bought a first ticket but I never received any confirmation e-mail so I thought it hadn't gone throught. I did it again. Same thing, no confirmation. I finally did it on TRIP.COM, everything fine. After all, they did charge me the 2 previous tickets!!!
I got in touch with Customer Service and they are just pushing me from a service to another, making everything for me to abandon the refund. Shameful

Poor customer service as my luggage was damaged badly and they offered me £35 this is such a joke as you wouldn’t get a large luggage for this price. This would be my first and last time to fly with this airline.

no luggage allowance mentioned booking confirmation, booked that one a while and don't remember what it said. Their website is dated, not user friendly, impossible to find any answer there neither so only option is to call. But that is Impossible too, phone just keeps rining an no one ever answers.
Will not book with them anymore as minimum service is clearly not provided.

So far not good experience! I'm travelling on 2nd January to NZ. Their website is awful. Doesn't recognise my ticket number or name. Fortunately I booked through booking.com who are excellent at ensuring my itinerary is fully confirmed.

I will update my experience post flight!

On airplanes boarding hundreds of passengers they don’t have ONE meal available without meat and when you ask the crew for a vegan meal they literally start panicking. You can get white rice if you’re lucky - if you’re unlucky you get no food at all. While flying passengers don’t have the options to buy food from somewhere else - you MUST be able to have food for everyone, especially on flights longer than 10 hours. Every time I fly with chinese airlines it’s the same situation - they don’t care and don’t plan to improve - and I know every time I ask the staff for a vegan meal i’m gonna get the same reaction of shock and panic, which is not gonna lead to any eventual improvements in their customer service and it’s just gonna repeat every time I unfortunately have to fly with them. Please start learning from experience and improve your service!!

Good for the price , food was nice ! Would definately use again

Flew from Shanghai to Melbourne and really wish I had paid a little more for a better airline.
1. The online check in just failed to load, despite repeated attempts across both laptop and phone.
2. Checked in at the airport and requested an aisle seat, which they said was fine. Once I boarded I discovered the seat was actually in the middle, right up against the toilets.
3. The plane itself was old, though clean and well presented. Seat room was amongst the most cramped I've experienced on an 8+ hour flight.
4. Food was probably the worst airline food I've had in the last decade. Dry, bland and barely palatable.
Bottom line is that this is a budget airline with ambitions of being an international player. Probably sine for short hops but would not go near them for any longer journey.

There is no customer service at all . There was a typo in my name on the ticket . I tried to fix it calling their hotline , emails , there online check-in does not work .

Do not ever fly this airline , if there is a mistake there is no way to fix it . They dont even have the decency to respond and say " sorry there is no way to fix it at this time" .

Do NOT fly with China Eastern Airlines, or with any Chinese airline for that matter!
I have never tried anything like this.

The booking was made almost 3 months in advance. Fast forward to 3 weeks before departure where the airline cancels one of the return flights because the Chinese government tells all Chinese airlines to heavily cut flights to Japan.
From there I have spent countless hours with support to figure out a reasonable solution, but at EVERY single interaction they have been unwilling to help me find a proper solution and downright trying to cheat me of my rights, even though I have the EU261 regulation saying I have several rights as a customer.
If only they had tried to amend the problem in a reasonable and helpful way I would have been fine about the whole ordeal. But they CLEARLY don't give a rat's ass about their customers.

Most, if not all airlines might try to cheat you of your rights, but very few will cancel your flight because of their power-hungry totalitarian government wants to run a political war.

Do NOT book a China Eastern Airlines flight, or really any Chinese flights. They will do as they please and not give a crap about you when they screw you over.

I had a stressful experience at check-in with China Eastern with the flight MU745 from Shanghai to Buenos Aires. Staff incorrectly advised me to use a non-official transit visa website (nzetaonlinevisa.com) and charged excessive fees for a New Zealand transit visa I did not need.

I later confirmed I only needed an official NZeTA from the New Zealand Immigration site at a much lower cost. China Eastern should improve staff training around visa requirements and direct passengers only to official government sites.

I spent the entire afternoon trying to resolve the issue. The staff didn't know how to fix it and only spoke broken Chinese and English. I had to conduct my own research using various AI apps to avoid missing my flight.

I travelled from Melbourne to London, one stop in Shanghai.
The airplane, the crew and food were fine but the wifi on flight was terrible! I paid 50 Aud and couldn't use it at all! first it didn't connect to wifi the after multiple attempts my phone got connected but the wifi was so slow that even one page didn't load! I bought the most expensive wifi package but couldn't use it at all!! not sure if I can refund my money or not.

Fantastic service, price and staff on our flight to Tokyo via Shanghai.
The transfer in Shanghai was made seamless
The food is not the same as western airlines but I’m sure Chinese guests would not enjoy western plane food.
The China Eastern website was very difficult to navigate but booked via Trip which was easy

China Eastern is THE WORST airline in the world. I will NEVER fly with them again.

Our flight was delayed over 12 hours with absolutely no explanation or communication. There was zero consideration for passengers. We were forced to wait for hours, and they even refused to let us eat properly — offering only a miserable meal tray while we were starving after such a long delay.

To make matters worse, my power bank was confiscated without any justification, with no solution or compensation. Money lost, equipment lost, zero respect for travelers. The staff was cold, inefficient, and often nowhere to be found when help was needed.

China Eastern has no sense of service, organization, or respect. Their handling of delays and passengers is catastrophic.
I will never fly with them again.
If you value your comfort, time, and peace of mind, avoid this airline at all costs.

The plane was inhumanly hot, they sprayed chemicals all over out bags and on us, impossible to get wifi on the plane as instructions are in chinese (no options to change languages). Do not cheap out on these guys. They suck.

I have a return flight London to Melbourne via Shanghai with China eastern airlines… I am reviewing the flight out - and expect a similar return flight. Pluses far outweigh minuses - based on a ticket about £500 cheaper than next option. 1.staff extraordinarily polite and attentive. 2. Onboard Toilets v clean and a dedicated staff member regularly cleaning (a first in my experience). 3. Food edible and fresh - potentially a weaker area but take some fruit and health snacks in bag and work around their meals (so they offered fresh fruit and yoghurt, good bread rolls, and maybe the rice dishes were semi edible)… 4. Seat room was better in aisle seat than window seat due to floor bar thing but if you bring a neck cushion etc. all a okay- as good as say Qatar) 5. Entertainment unit was a surprise - perfectly watchable films etc. and better than Qatar except no music so use your phone for this. 5. Bring along a hand held fan because air con is not controllable and at times can be stuffy. 6. Shanghai stopover was 4.5 hours and it’s the best airport I have ever experienced- v clean toilets everywhere, no people or crowds, easy to navigate and Well signposted, polite help desk, coffee and food shops and not expensive, free water stations everywhere - just a pleasure to rest up and get clean for final leg. Conclusion - for long haul the scheduling is perfect re jet lag, and the practical approach without bullshit is the best. My go to from now on.

Will never fly with these guys again. 12.5h flight to be told they have nothing for you to eat. More then half off things on their menu were not available. For someone who doesn't eat Beef or Fish there as nothing to eat and on effort was made to find anything. I even tried to per order meals for the five off us to be told they couldn't do that. they were not even willing to check economy or first class if they could offer us anything. I was told they didn't have cheese or ice cream. they also ran out of Coke Zero. what a joke of a flight.

I find China Eastern to be probably the best of the Chinese airlines for long haul business class (including their Shanghai Airlines subsidiary). Cabins are well fitted out with a very good individual seat design including privacy doors, food is fine and cabin staff have always been friendly and helpful. Transfers in Shanghai Pudong are OK and they offer some very competitive fares. Overall they're competitive with any business class I have tried and generally cost less meaning they can be terrific value for money.

⭐ 0/5 — AVOID CHINA EASTERN AIRLINES AT ALL COSTS ⭐
Route: Auckland → Frankfurt → Auckland
Fare: $2,600 per person (definitely NOT budget!)

I don’t normally write reviews, but this was the single worst travel experience of my life — stressful, expensive, and handled with an unbelievable level of incompetence by China Eastern Airlines.

1. They lost our luggage — and didn’t care.

Our flight was already over an hour delayed, and the staff at check-in even printed the wrong boarding passes, then acted arrogant and rude when we pointed out their mistake.
When we landed in Frankfurt, our luggage was simply missing. No apology. No update. No help.

It took three days to get it back — and we had to organise and pay for our own Uber to collect it because China Eastern wouldn’t deliver it properly.
And when it finally arrived? Damaged. These suitcases were only 9 months old.

2. Customer service is a joke.

Trying to contact anyone was like shouting into a black hole.
When we finally got a reply, it took weeks, and still no compensation.
We’re 460 euros out of pocket for things we only bought because our bags were lost.

3. A so-called “upgrade” that made things WORSE.

They dangled an “upgrade” like a consolation prize — except it resulted in my kids being seated separately from me, even though I paid for seat selection specifically to avoid this.
They also offered a “VIP Lounge Pass”. THANK GOODNESS we didn’t actually pay for it.

4. The “VIP lounge” was a disgrace.

It was so overcrowded people were standing — clearly oversold.
Dirty, messy, with stained, ripped seats, and no food left.
This isn’t “VIP”, it’s a waiting room at a train station after a riot.

5. The flight crew? Rude, dismissive, and unavailable.

On Frankfurt → Shanghai, staff were openly rude, acting like offering water was a chore.
On the long-haul back to Auckland, they ran out of food, so we didn’t eat the entire flight.
Imagine paying $2,600 per person and not even receiving a meal.

6. And the cherry on top…

The brand-new replacement suitcases we bought so we could return home?
Damaged again. You truly couldn’t make this up.

⸻

FINAL VERDICT: NEVER AGAIN

This airline turned what should have been an exciting family trip into an extremely difficult, frustrating, stressful nightmare.
Lost luggage, damaged bags (twice!), no food, rude staff, broken promises, shocking customer service — and not a cent of compensation.

Do yourself a favour: fly literally ANYONE else. ✈️
China Eastern Airlines is the definition of you get what you (don’t) pay for — except we DID pay, and paid a lot.

Possibly the worst online management experience I've ever had to handle, even with their 'new' portal. Logs you out every single action you take. . Can't change seats for a party, only individuals. Want to request a vegetarian meal, oh you have to log in for that. Sucks to be you though as signing up is impossible (I tried.. many times). I swore blind for about an hour just to change seat selection for a multi haul flight.

From an actual flight experience, some of the worst food I've had on any flight I've been on. Truly inedible at times, and I'm a big fan of Chinese food, and been to the country multiple times.

The only star they get is for the price. It's cheap. That's pretty much it.

Bangkok to London via Shanghai. Total 19 hours.

No food given on first flight (4+ hours) not what I expected at all, just a drink!?

On second flight full of pork spam options really hideous inflight ‘catering’.

Pork ‘salad’
Pork ‘noodles’
Pork ‘sandwich’

No desserts

Service was ok but seriously inflight catering was horrendous.

Flights itself were on time maybe pre order meals next time but unlikely to
Use again. I did book a last minute flight though.

Seats were decent spacious. Inflight entertainment limited.