Most reviewers were unhappy with their experience overall. Travelers frequently mentioned that customer service was completely non-existent, making it nearly impossible to reach anyone by phone or email to resolve urgent booking issues. Consumers also complained about poor meal choices during long flights, noting that they received very little food or options that failed to meet their specific dietary requirements.
Some reviewers were happy with the remarkably attentive staff and found the overall travel journey very comfortable and smooth. Passengers additionally appreciated seamless airport transfers, modern airplanes, and friendly crew members who provided professional care during specific trips.
Quite possibly the worst experience I’ve had with an airline. Did a round trip from LHR to PVG to MEL and back a month later. The initial flight there had no options for food. Booking or checking in online was impossible as their website is extremely difficult to navigate. No food options for my 4 year old or anything to support an egg allergy. Chicken noodles for breakfast lunch and dinner! Bland and soggy.
Return flight to LGW proved to be even worse. First they separate my mum and my daughter from me (we are all sitting alone) when I originally booked a row together. Only to then get on the flight and realise the seats were BROKEN! No options were provided for us. We were told to sit in vacay seats separately or to pay for premium. Absurd! In the end my mum sat separately and my 4 year old and I had to make do and were told to “stuff pillows” into the back of the seat. This was to make sure she didn’t fall through to the ground.
NEVER FLY AGAIN WITH THEM
And to top it off there was no customer service for me to reach out to about these issues when landing. Also the wifi doesn’t work and simply takes your money.
Fantastic Value for Money - Business Class (Tokyo to Heathrow via Shanghai)
Flew back from Tokyo Haneda to London Heathrow via Shanghai with China Eastern last month & am very satisfied with this airline overall.
Please remember people usually only feel compelled to write reviews when something has gone wrong, and there will be tens of thousands of happy customers every week who don't review.
However as I feel we had a great experience I thought I would share. We flew business class on this 23 hour flight back from Tokyo and I must say from a value for money point of view, it was outstanding.
We flew on the 777 so business class was reverse herringbone configuration 1-2-1 very spacious and comfortable.
I loved the beige / mushroom coloured aesthetic & it felt very tranquil. The aircraft was clean, and toilets were really nice.
We werent offered champagne when we boarded, just water or orange juice BUT they do have champagne on the menu, so just ask.
We found cabin crew to be extremely friendly, in fact they went out their way to provide a meal for my daughter who is vegetarian. Perhaps they dont all speak perfect english, but they spoke enough to be able to communicate just fine. No issues at all.
The food was absolutely fine, you get the choice of western or Chinese cuisine. I read reviews beforehand saying there was a lack of western options but that was rubbish, there was plenty.
In flight entertainment was plentiful, we never struggled for things to watch. Dont let that put you off. The wifi however, did not work (this is often the case onboard with other airlines too).
Give or take 20 mins or so, out flights were punctual. In fact we landed almost an hour early. We had no turbulence & smooth take offs & landings. It was a very enjoyable flight start to finish.
I wouldn't hesitate to fly China Eastern again. Incredible value, clean aircraft, nice food, comfortable seats, polite staff & punctual. What more can you ask for?
Unsatisfactory Service and Communication Difficulty
I took flights from Brisbane to Shanghai to Tokyo. The flight from Shanghai to Tokyo was an extremely unpleasant experience. Originally intending to land in Haneda Airport at 12:30pm, the plane did not land until 4:30pm at the entirely different Narita Airport. Furthermore, after landing, since we were at an entirely different airport, we were held on the plane for a further hour and 30 minutes, without any explanation as to why we were being held on the plane.
The second bad experience was when I attempted to board and subsequently change my flight ticket. On my behalf, I was late for my plane and had missed the baggage check in time - this was entirely irrelevant to their service. However, my ensuing attempts to obtain information as to changing my flights was unsatisfactory. Repeatedly, I had enquired but was met with the same response, to contact my travel agent, which I did and they had then granted permission to China Eastern to manage my flight bookings. I returned to the desk once again and was told instead this time to book online, furthered by their explanation that they were unable to contact service to help me book the flights. I would not recommend flying with China Eastern if you only speak English, the process is far more difficult and you are much more likely to be turned down as they falter with their English communication.
i travel now since 30 years with the airplane, visited all continents and have been with MANY companies flying.
I have never seen something like China Eastern:
The food is one of the worst i have ever eat in my life, on the way back i had to refuse as only the smell gave me nausea.
The unpoliteness of the hostess is something i have never seen neither, she was literally laughing at a sick person asking for another pillow for her back, instead of giving her one. Rude, zero education about politeness.
My luggages where open and items taken without any explanation but a little paper in chinese that even Gemini and ChatGPT can't translate because it's hand written. So to date i still don't know what's been taken from me.
The planes were simply disgusting, the toilets were some of the most dirty i have ever seen and when i mentioned this to hostess, they said they could do nothing, i should have used gloves or paper to protect my hands while using the toilet.... on a 13 hours flight. I have been awaken 2 times while sleeping, very rudely as they were serving food.
NEVER.IN.MY.LIFE.AGAIN.EVER
DO NOT FLY
Customer service terrible - non existent and are unable to be contacted. I will need to go into the melbourne office as they literally ignore all emails or phone attempts
Cancelled our flight and made it impossible to contact them to reschedule. Website not user friendly and customer service not existence. Avoid if you can afford to fly with another airline. Wish I had seen the very bad reviews before !
I care about one thing from airline: getting from point a to b. the airlines give me just that. that is all I care.
for other comments: I somewhat had a decent sleep. food was not great at all really. I had enough privacy and undisturbed time there.
we flue back from shanghai to amsterdam. service on board was bad and the food was worse! they only had the fish option left... cabin crew is not speaking english. im pregnant and i was hungry and asking for a snack. they just had some old bread... not okey for a 12 hour flight.
Terrible Airline staff is really rude. Treat their passengers so bad. Would never recommend this Airline to anyone highly avoid. Them staff are so rude and have no manners.
They are basic airline with basics offered on board. Food is pretty basic, offering the same meal in the dinner and then in the breakfast, no options as "breakfast" to offer. Small portions, no black tea, would not offer anything beside water except at meal times, no snacks like other airlines. Squishy planes, which would give you lower back pain when you incline your seat. The staff hardly understand any English beyond the basics, not even basics at times. You asked them for boiling hot water for your teabag, and they would ask you "boiling?" and then fill your cup with lukewarm water, wasting the teabag when they don't have any black tea on board to offer.
Most staff seems more friendly towards the Chinese speaking passengers then others (probably lack of english language skills). They would not help you and then would not be able to explain either as to why they could not help. My elderly mum was not able to select "preferred seat" when booked the tickets but requested if she could change when they were going empty after the take off and they refused even when offered to pay for that ("no no, cannot", sounded really rude). They would open tray tables on those seats so no one can go and sit there. When asked few times and even offered to pay for that, he bought a device with google translate to tell me that they are preferred seats and can only be bought on land. BUT they are happy to fly with those empty seats but would not offer it to passengers stuck in a situation like this.
I appreciated the service, it was professional and effective. We had 3 meals + snacks during our flight. They also provide a sanitary kit with toothbrush and stuff. The restrooms were clean and functional.
There was no delay for the entire trip (20hour-long).
I will definitely book a flight with them again in the future.
This is a budget airline, expect a budget experience.
The flight was delayed by 2 hours, with no communication with the passengers whatsoever - it turned out they had to find a new crew because they hadn't allocated enough rest time - their problem.
I missed my connection and was put on an alternative flight with another airline. I had to collect my luggage and change terminal. The new airline demanded that I pay for overweight luggage despite China Eastern approving it - so I had to go back and forth between terminals on the bus a couple of times to get it sorted. To be fair China Eastern did manage to sort it out by calling the airline, which I appreciated.
On the flight, cabin crew offered frank, not overly friendly service and didn't speak great English. There was no alcohol available, and when I asked for a gin and tonic the hostess didn't know what that meant. It was odd that their English was poor since 90% of passengers were British. Crew referred to each other as 'baobei' - which means 'baby' in Chinese - I didn't mind but some might consider inappropriate.
There was only one meal option, which the hostesses thrust into each person's seat. Food was okay - though I would note the hake for the second meal was actually very good.
Film selection was limited and poor, particularly the non-Chinese ones.
This airline is fine if you really need to save money, but I would recommend trading up if you can afford it, particularly for multi-leg flights.
One of the pieces of luggage got extremely badly damaged on the flight out, to the point of being unusable. We got in touch with customer service, where they offered either a PIR form or less than £10 in compensation.
We took the PIR form and went through their compensation claim system as required. At first they were slow to respond, but did at least ask for details from time to time, but they eventually stopped responding at all. Attempts to email their luggage service directly were likewise fruitless.
I then went to their customer service system to raise a formal complaint, where once again they were initially slow to respond, but then stopped entirely.
At this point I had exhausted what methods of contact they provided, so I submitted a complaint to the CAA, who informed me that over the course of their investigation, China Eastern had not responded to any of their inquiries.
My only advice I can provide in light of this is that if you do fly with them, be ready to be out of pocket if anything goes wrong with your luggage.
I flew China Eastern in Sept 2025 from London Gatwick to Bangkok I had booked this flight based on price. It was over £300 cheaper than any of the Middle Eastern offerings.
I had also watched some YouTube videos to get an idea of what to expect.
I was really surprised, the first thing I noticed on boarding was how clean the aircraft was. The staff onboard were real nice people. From my seat I watched the crew go above and beyond as they helped a disabled guy use the toilet they were more like nurses. the kindness they showed was extraordinary.
The food was ok seat was fine and there were no delays, in fact the flight landed early.
Transfer through Pudong efficient and well managed by China Eastern staff.
I will be booking another flight to Bangkok soon and China Eastern will be an airline of choice
Flew twice last year to London via Shanghai in Business class. For the money the experience was positive. Crew very capable and spoke English which was often not the case in the past. The lounge in Shanghai was very good. The airport was nearly empty so i felt like I had the place to myself. For some reason lounge staff do not like you to ask for a shower but a little perseverance pays off. Airbus A350 was fairly new and comfortable.
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.
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
Air China
Etihad
Emirates
Qatar Airways
Trip.com
Turkish Airlines
Cathay Pacific Airways
Csair