just putting out a warning to steer clear of this airline.
they offer pretty cheap flights, so they may seem tempting, but do not go for it.
the last flight i got with them was cancelled, due to ‘weather’. i had to stay in a ramshackle hotel of theirs over night in beijing and catch another flight the next day. my aiport was also changed. as you can imagine this caused a lot of hassle for my plans on the other side. another guy travelling at the same time had a job interview scheduled as soon as he got back, he was in a right mess and had to rearrange new travel to get to the interview on time, i dont know if he made it and he surely lost some money on it. since that time, 2 of my friends have flown with them, and they have had the same thing happen to them. cancelled flight, lumped on to the next days flight. screwed up plans. you cannot claim any compensation because they write it off as ‘weather’ but in actuality they are cancelling these flights to fill up later ones. they are state owned so they can get away with this and do whatever they like. AVOID. avoid like the plague.
on top of the cancellations- which is enough to ruin anyone’s trip. their service can also be shocking, it certainly was for me. the air hostess’s are rude, mongish and lazy, and their on board messages have such terrible english that they are barely decipherable. not to mention that getting to the ramshackle hotel for a couple of hours of attempted sleep in a room with a stranger was a mission in and of itself. so yea… just a friendly warning for you all to stay away from this 0 star airline.
Air China is indeed terrible. China Eastern on the other hand has cheaper fares and better service than Taiwan’s China Airlines. Their long-haul business class seat is as good as that of CX and comes at 60% of the cost.
Last summer we did use AirChina to fly back to Paris through Shanghai: there is no AirChina transit in Shanghai so we had to clear immigration and get our bags and then checking again. The Taipei to Shanghai flight was delayed 4 hours, we were super worried as of course we had no information at all from AirChina about our later connection in Shanghai. We rushed to transit just to discover the Paris flight was the same plane and delayed 4 hours as well. The return was through Beijing on a brand new 777 with 9 abreast economy class (10 on Cathay, Emirates, AF or KLM) and it was better (apart the poor cabin service that was expected).
Note that we had to change our plans of travel twice and actually rebooking fees on AirChina are quite cheap. My wife also delayed her return connection (Shanghai to Taipei few days after the Paris to Shanghai) and it costs only few hundreds NTD. So it is not all black and white.
i indeed heard China Eastern is a bit better but you can’t avoid the problems at congested airport like Shanghai or Beijing.
This is, for obvious reasons, an airlina non grata for many people here, I assume, but anyway I am planning a trip back to Europe for next June and like the idea of transiting through Beijing. Has anyone done this lately? Has anyone flewn with Air China recently? I’ve heard they have upgraded their fleet and are not as bad as they used to be. The website seems to be still problematic after poking around a bit.
How about the free transit hotel thing? Anyone done this before? This is from five years ago. Wonder if they are still offering this. If not, no big deal, I can find like an affordable hutong hotel somewhere.
I flew to the UK last Christmas with them. The price was so low compared to any other airline. Around 30~50% of the other prices, at just over 20kNTD. Transit was through Shanghai, with a 8 hour layover.
The food and long layover sucked. The in flight service was excellent. There was a hench security guard walking around the plane every hour or so, presumably to keep anyone getting rowdy in check.
I spent the money I saved on a treat for myself.
I’m a skin flint. I’d do it again if the savings were similar.
I flew Air China back to the UK last year, and would not do so again. The flights themselves were fine, but the overall experience of transiting through China was absolutely the worst.
I’ll caveat this by saying we were travelling with a one-and-a-half-year-old. The flight back to the UK was via Beijing. I thought I’d do the sensible thing of having a 24-hour layover there, taking advantage of the transit visa and booking a hotel close to the airport so we could break the journey into two for the little one. When we got to Beijing however, we were inexplibly told that they would not give us transit Visas, despite the fact we were transiting. No one would explain to us why this was, only that it was not possible, just rude assholes shouting mei ban fa at us. Cue 24 hours stuck in terminal 3 Beijing airport. We landed at 5 pm, got into the terminal at 6 pm and the only place serving any food at all was Starbucks. Starbucks for dinner then. After a shitty night sleeping on airport benches, what delights of Chinese cuisine could we expect for breakfast and lunch the next day? The options were Pizza Hut and KFC. That’s it. The only places to eat in the airport in the capital city of China were American fast food restaurants.
Well, that was an awful experience. At least coming back couldn’t be any worse right? On the way back we were transiting through Shanghai. This time we had a much more reasonable 4-hour layover. The boy slept very poorly on the flight, so the plan was to get off, stick him in the pushchair and push him around until he passed out. Surprise motherfucker! As someone else stated, for whatever reason, Air China don’t do transit properly at Shanghai airport, you have to go through passport control, get your bags and re-check in. In Beijing, we wanted to get into China and they wouldn’t let us. In Shanghai, we didn’t want to get into China, and they made us. This coupled with all the Covid forms filled out in triplicate, and a toddler having a meltdown, may have been even worse than on the way out.
I booked the flights to save money. It was not worth it. On top of the absolutely shitty experience, I also got an earful from the wife for my poor decision. I’ve learnt my lesson though. We’ve booked some direct flights with China Airlines for next year. It was a bit more expensive, but not by that much. Despite the savings, we’re never going to transit through China again.
Wow, they did not let you into China? That would be a no-go for me then. The whole point of flying with them would be to walk around Beijing for a few hours not killing time at the airport.
I did Shanghai last year and I loved walking around that city. They had to let me out/in because I had to move from Hongqiao to Pudong.
I would not do anything like this with a young child. That sounds nerve-wrecking.
we were inexplibly told that they would not give us transit Visas, despite the fact we were transiting
Did you figure out in the end why they did not let you in? Because of your child? Visa inelligibilty?
Could it be that Taiwan is not included in the elegible countries (cause it is not a foreign country in their eyes)?
Which countries’ citizens are eligible for the 144-hour visa-free transit policy?
To obtain this visa exemption, the foreign national must have a valid passport from one of the 54 countries, which are:
25 countries in the Europe Schengen area : Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
15 other countries in Europe : Russia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Monaco, and Belarus.
Six countries in the Americas: the United States, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile.
Two countries in Oceania: Australia and New Zealand.
Six countries in Asia : South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.
Still no idea. I did a similar thing on my own a few years back and spent a couple of days in Beijing, so it doesn’t make any sense, and they gave us the visa coming back through Shanghai. My wife had the Taiwanese China card thing so technically she could have entered China on her own, but my son and I were relying on the transit visa. If I were travelling on my own, I might risk it to save a few bucks, but that’s unlikely to happen in the near future.
Dude if they were taiwanese they would simply use the 台胞證, no visa required.
It seems the OP is a national from a non visa exempt country who found the usual moron and was not granted entry, which is always at the discretion of the immigration officer on duty.
I looked around and it seems the border people in Beijing are more “difficult” than those in other airports. Denying entry without explanation seems to be not uncommon. Lot of speculations as to the why. They seem to do background checks and if there is sth they don’t like you are not going in.
I am now leaning towards enjoying my trip without all that nonsense. Such a shame, China is right on the way, but such a pain.
Hanoi is looking more attractive each time l try to figure out China travel.
Yeah, still not a full visa exemption like other European passport such as mine (Italy). Which anyways also can be denied at the border at the discretion of the immigration officer (to be fair even already issued visas can be forfeited and can be denied entry at the discretion of the immigration officer at the border).
For my transit in Shanghai, both ways, I did not have to go through passport control or collect my checked luggage.
On arrival in Shanghai, us transit passengers had to wait about 15 minutes before airport security escorted us to a regular security check point which led into the departures area.
I believe this is only available when connecting between a few airlines. My arrival and departures flights through Shanghai were both with Air China.
I agree with you that I would not take my wife and kids on this route. The layover is too long and they would complain about lack of decent Wi-Fi and food in Shanghai airport.
I flew this route solo, that’s the only way I’d do it again. And, I’d only do it again if the savings over other airlines were substantial.
