Air China

[Winston]

Touchdown are doing a really good deal from LHR-PEK with Air China. Business class return is only about £700. I just wanted to see if anyone has any feedback about Air China eg quality of service, inflight entertainment (is there much in english?) catering and most important safety record.
Not sure whether to pay a bit less and go BA economy.
Also are there lots of airlines that fly between PEK and HKG?

[Waveman]

Flew cattle class with them earlier this month LHR-PEK. Food outbound ok, return not. Plenty of drinks on offer though. Entertainment is one big screen per cabin (if it works - the rear economy cabin one wasn't - didn't even bother with a safety demo for those in there!), showing films from a couple of years ago. Can't grumble too much at £200 for 10hr flight but wouldn't want too pay much more. Aircraft is a 747-400 combi.

[Homepage]

Are there many Western crews working with Air China?

[KiloMIke]

CA 747-combi and A340 into LHR at the moment. Occassionally they bring a 747-400 all PAX version in.

Crew are all Chinese but do speak English.

[Winston]

Has anyone seen what the business class seats look like? Also how is their safety record?
Cheers

[akerosid]

Air China (not to be confused with Taiwan's China Airlines) has a reasonably good safety record. Apart from a 767 crash in Busan, South Korea about a year ago, it's been pretty good on the safety front - certainly well ahead of CAL and Korean Air.

All pilots are Chinese.

I don't know anything about their service standards, but you should try Skytrax and Carsurveys.com, both of which provide detailed reviews for most major carriers. I recall that those for CA were decidedly mixed. Cathay it ain't, but GBP700 for C class is a chance you shouldn't miss.