Good evening all passengers, this flight today will cover the first A350 flight for Air China on Flight-Report. This trip’s intention is vacation in Thailand, I got an excellent deal on my flight from LHR to BKK via PEK with Air China. I decided to take it and fly with them for the first time. Please note that this is not my first flight on the Airbus A350, and to be honest I missed flying on this bird, such a beautiful and stable aircraft!
Here I am driving towards Heathrow on the M25, in bound to catch CA856 from London Heathrow T2 to Beijing Capital international airport. The scheduled aircraft is an Airbus A350-900, delivered in August 2018 to Air China, is registered as B-1085. That's how the sky looked like on approach to Heathrow!
Eligible for Business and First class check in, this area was quite empty, but some passengers were causing some headache to the Check-In agents. They kept litter behind them while leaving..
Terminal 2 in Heathrow is so spacious and relaxing!
Anyways, after passing through the fast-track security, I notice a huge and clean terminal, with barely a few people in it, those were the passengers from Air China, Turkish Airlines, Egypt Air, and Aegean, that’s what I saw anyways, barely anyone! It is normal I believe since it was almost curfew time for aircraft flying from/to Heathrow, and those were some of the latest airlines in the terminal. Time to board, a loooong queue builds up for economy passengers, and to my surprise a gate agent did not approve my priority boarding, keeping me in the economy queue. The aircraft was full, and boarding took around 25 mins. The aircraft was equipped with WiFi
Once I stepped on board, the aircraft was still piping new, and was filling up quickly. The seats Air China chose for the economy class are the Recaro CL3710 with excellent legroom, the same ones MEA ordered for their upcoming A321neos. I’ve got to say; those seats are pretty comfy! I made it rested 9.5hours later! But sleeping was kind of an issue to me because I cannot sleep while seated. Already falling asleep at home is a challenge to me lol! The boarding music was a bit too loud for an overnight flight..
And that's the legroom.
Mood lighting on, very comfortable for the eyes and off we go!
As soon as we departed, I had a beautiful view of Terminal 5, love it! There we are taking off runway 27L and we got the chance of having a beautiful air to ground shot, there you go!
And good bye UK!
Although I selected English on the IFE, it was in Chinese. Choosing Chinese would be French, and choosing French would be English. After reaching cruising altitude, IFE started working and it is pretty responsive. Too bad IFE has to start 30 mins after departure! Beforehand it was only flight information.
This was sorted at cruising altitude.
Then it was time for the service on board, I had a choice of Prawn with rice or Chicken Coque au Vin with potato puree. I opted for the chicken, I have got to tell you, this dish was DELICIOUS! I am very critique when it comes to food, and this one made me want to eat my fingers after the chicken!! Well done LHR catering and CA for this excellent choice.
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So after then, I tried to sleep, merely enough, but as I said, I am hard to sleep. The seats were reclinable and comfortable, one of the best in economy on my flights so far.
The cabin crew came and asked to shut the windows in order to keep PAX asleep and be gentle with the eyes and Jet Lag.
Time passes..
It is taking a bit too long
I tried connecting to WiFi, but it was unsuccessful until the last hour of the flight, only 50 devices can be connected simultaneously, unlimited data I had, but I was able to use it for only 1 hour, apparently I should pre-purchase a code.
Mongolia
1hour and a half before arrival, the cabin crew came back with another full meal, this time it was breakfast. The choice was either Porridge or Omelette. I opted for the omelette, not really a fan of Porridge. There you go, breakfast presented below.
I tried to sneak in a picture of the Porridge without being noticed, this is what I could get.
Then came time to start decent, the aircraft was shaking violently from turbulence, I love turbulence, but the passengers apparently did not, their screams did not seem to cheer the shakes, but for me it was very lovely.
And here is China on approach!
Loving the approach!
Nice, isn't it?
A bit closer to the ground!
And here we are on a remote stand!
Bye-bye B-1085 you've been good!
Hello big bird! Coming all the way from Dubai.
And that's a wrap from the terminal!
Many thanks!
I've got a daytime long haul flight on Air China from IAD to PEK on a 777-300ER in July. It's going to be pretty boring with the lack of newer movie selections.
Best of luck! Indeed not a very nice selection of movies, but maybe download some movies on netflix on your iPad and you'll be fine ;)
Lmao I don't have Netflix, and I don't use my iPad anymore.
Hahahah!
Nice report as usual! Lucky you got to deplane on the tarmac, it made for some beautiful shots of your aircraft and what a good looking bird it is! Very pleasantly surprised by the cabin--the seats look very sleek and comfortable and the legroom does look quite generous.
Thanks for sharing this first report on the CA A350!
Anytime Kevin! The seats are indeed comfortable and really are good for a long haul flight! Glad you liked it, stay tuned for the PEK-BKK leg on the 321neo!
Thanks for this very nice FR!
I wish CA could send their A350s to CDG instead of the old A330s...
Anytime! Don't they use their 77Ws?
Thanks for this FR.
Decent meals and a nice modern cabin sure made for a nice flight in spite of the basic cabin crew.
It seems CA's catering has improved lately.
I got to say, the catering was top notch for Economy, although I was full, I think they could invest with cheese or something a bit more, just an extra :)
I have to agree with you that CA cabin attendants do their job faithfully. I have been on several CA flights this past year, and the service is very consistent. The crew may not be fluent in English, but they go all out to help if you need them. Very patient, and obliging (at least they don't show their displeasure on their face). What I find irritating is that the Fasten Seat Belt sign is perpetually ON throughout the flight. But as you rightly pointed out, the crew would not stop you from walking around, unless they have been informed by the flight deck of an impending major turbulence.
Do the IFE monitors tilt? On their 787s, the monitors are fixed. So if the person in front of you reclines, there's no way to adjust your monitor to view your movie unless you recline as well. Bad design!
Hi Flyguysg, many thanks for your comment. Absolutely, you've seen it too! They are indeed very patient, I agree and kind. The IFE monitors do indeed tilt, thankfully ?.
Hope you enjoyed this Flight-Report. stay tuned for more ?