Flight routing
- 1CA984 - Economy - Los Angeles -> Beijing - Boeing 777-300ER
- 2CA1643 - Economy - Beijing -> Harbin - Airbus A321
- 3CZ6269 - Economy - Harbin -> Xi'an - Airbus A320
- 4CZ6270 - Economy - Xi'an -> Harbin - Airbus A320
- 5ZH9622 - Premium Economy - Harbin -> Shenzhen - Boeing 737-800
- 6CA769 - Economy - Shenzhen -> Los Angeles - Boeing 787-9
SUMMER 2019
Good evening from LAX!
This will be my first flight out of the six as part of my summer travel series. I will be going to stay 18 days in Manchuria and China spending time with family and traveling. I will be flying 3 flights on Air China (CA), 2 flights on China Southern (CZ), and 1 flight on Shenzhen Airlines (ZH).
Star Alliance airlines use the C check-in slots here at LAX's TBIT.
Plenty of departure tonight. Midnight is the peak hour for trans pacific flights.
Booking
Oh yeah that reminds me. I booked this flight with Amex Plat for a grand total of $550 everything included for the four legs: LAX-PEK-HRB-SZX-LAX. I was supposed to fly on Sichuan's Airbus A350-900 booked 4 months before departure for $750 (Air China was going for $1100 for this flight). "Thanks" to the trade war with the US, tickets prices dipped and I got this flight for a ridiculously cheap price a week before departure…(It would be very bad for the national carrier to have 30-40% occupancy rate). Air China needed to get rid of the seats somehow…
check-in
Love the Departures board.
This is my 3rd time flying this flight (CA984). Hope everything goes well!
Swift check in as always. Bags will be delivered straight to my final destination, Harbin.
Line at TSA was short as always. I hate LAX but also at the same time love this place!
Not a big fan of dogs…Gotta stay calm around them or they will pat me down!
I take a picture of this everytime…Don't know what it is but it looks pleasing.
Made it through the first time without having any mean ladies yelling at me. Proud of myself. (I am not dangerous I'm just a plane nerd)
Normal people would just go straight to their gate or shop around. NOT ME.
Beautiful livery.
Here is the plane that I was supposed to fly on… Database showed 38% load…
Here's my favourite Chinese carrier hometown airline China Southern's A380 to Guangzhou.
Flew on CX's new 3-4-3 77W back in April.
Flight routing
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Flew on HU's 789 too. It was fine, that's all I can say…
Flight routing
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Walking towards Costco
SQ37 going to SIN. This is the very first time that I have actually got a decent picture of an A359ULR!
delta tour
Thanks for the chauffeur ride to Terminal 3 Delta! Been craving for some Shake Shack.
Gotta give Delta credit for assigning my "personal" ride in just 30 seconds…It's like Uber in world's 4th busiest airport!
Delta A321 and Delta Ford Escape
Big fan of Delta. Sadly their business model doesn't work for me. I am a Star Alliance loyal and my fav US carrier is United.
Delta 739ER going to MSP
No one wants Shake Shack at 12AM? Guess I'm the only one…
Dang Terminal 3 looks fantastic! Good job Delta.
Going back to TBIT on my "private" bus
Boarding
Here's my ride! B-2087, a 7 year old 777-300ER.
Boarded in last group for sitting in second row of economy.
And with a swipe on my boarding pass, I am out of the United States. (debatable)
Claustrophobic jet bridge for a spacious and modern terminal. Now that's a juxtaposition.
Anyone feels like reading at 1AM?
And here we go. I had not a great experience with them last time flying, wonder if it has changed.
air china 77w economy
2-2-2 config in J class.
Darn it! Middle seat strategie failed… There goes $15*2 dollars..
Legroom is good even after my gears conquering the pocket.
Pillows and blanket were provided. That blanket is gonna come in handy but not for its intended purpose…
There is a premium economy section where you can get by spending $1000 more when booking or $15 more when choosing your seat… That's because the soft and hard product are exactly the same except for 3 inches of additional pitch.
Pushing back…Drama ahead (more than 1)
Because we were at the awkward gate 133, we needed to be pushed on D10 to D short of D10. The driver instead pushed us blocking the D/D10 intersection. The only one ATC acting as both 24/25 TWR and N/S Ground continuously yelled at us to get out of the way for Delta entering ramp… The pilots didn't understand… At the same time, a Korean was looking to get push clearance and ATC got mad because he stepped on ATC's mike…Drama that 300 other passengers didn't have a chance to appreciate. Poor Delta waited 10 minutes because of us…
Drama 1 of 2
5 minutes later we're off to China. Took of at 1:40AM, the exact scheduled time. Looking great so far!
Drama 2 of 2:
The middle seat lady complained about the PTV screen being…weird? (It was fine when I used it) She demanded to be moved to business class. Instead, FA offered her an exit row seat and she accepted. Free middle seat for us! Yay!
Apple juice, not pee.
This light is super annoying when you are sitting right under it…
Power outlet works.
Dinner
My mom's fruit platter, not bad.
Finished dinner as we left the US.
Crew bunk
Self serve station with NO SNACKS only drinks.
Database showed 97% load.
Woke up after a decent 5 hour sleep with 6 hours left to go. THE SEAT HURTS. It lacks padding. I had to wrap the pillow under the blanket so that I could sleep…
Watched two movies before breakfast… Outdated IFE system and small and crappy screen.
Breakfast…
Not bad just they used to serve breakfast breakfast on this route…
Fruit platter
Goodie
It said spoon inside yet my mom ate it with the "breakfast" spoon from the try.
Flying over my final destination, Harbin. See ya in 8 hours!
This mood lightning is putting me in a bad mood. It made the cabin looks so dystopian.
highly adjustable headrest.
Good morning Beijing!
Long final plus low cieling…Typical Beijing
On final 36L
And after 12 hours we're in China.
Grounded 787-9s due to engine issues. And grounded 737-8MAXs. Great job Boeing!
Parked next to B-2035, who suffered a compressor stall at IAD a few months later.
Now that's a much better jetbridge @lax
Thanks for the ride, B-2087!
Walking to immigration took a solid 10 minutes.
Mom has abandoned me to use the Chinese nationals electronic admission line…
Immigration took about 20 minutes.
transfer
After a smooth transfer, I made it to the Air China domestic lounge.
Stay tuned for my trip to see the terracotta warriors!
Thank you for this report, really nice pictures
How do you know the load of the aircraft ?
All Chinese carriers publish their load on a database which is accessible via an app called veryzhun. Thanks for reading!
Great review ..That business class looked like a premium economy!!!
Haha thanks. United also uses the same config and seats on their "old" 788/9.
It seems that Air China definitely improved their product compared to your last flight report if I read through it.
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I could understand that she would ask cabin crew if there's a possibility to be relocated due to a malfunctioning IFE system, but to demand a business class seat as in return for a broken IFE is a tad too much. I would've probably relocated her to an even poorer seat somewhere in the vicinity of a lavatory haha, but good that you had your free seat back.
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Another excellent report and thanks for sharing!
I agree. Though the FA was extremely nice to her... Thanks for stopping by!
While I'm usually a fan of mood lighting on planes...not this weird orange lighting...yuck. Dystopian is the word.
Too bad he seats lacked padding. At least they were in a more spacious 3-3-3. IME the middle seat strategy has only worked about 50% of the time and usually at the back of the cabin. You all got lucky with the "weird" IFE in the middle seat! LOL that she wanted to be moved to J...right, like that was ever gonna happen.
Was the power outlet a regular outlet, USB, or both?
Sad ?
Nice report as always.
This is the fourth time it had worked for me haha. The 100% way is to buy the seat tho that’s kinda expensive... The power source was only an outlet. Somehow Air China’s 77W doesn’t have USB ports... They desperately need refurbishment although Chinese carriers never refurbish... Thanks for reading Kévin!
Thank you for sharing this flight report! I am excited to see what the rest of the series entails of :)
Having flown CA on (slightly) different routes compared to this one, I do have a few comments...
-With CA having several flights to LAX, I am surprised they haven't upgraded the 777s to have their latest product, comparable to those on the 747-8, 787 and A350
-...which means the IFE would've been miles better as well...
-No snacks?! Ouch.
-Food hasn't changed clearly haha... well, it does the job..
-Crew being nice, I have noticed this on all 4 of my CA flights as well. Awesome stuff!
-An efficient transfer at PEK?!?!?! NO way!!!! :P
Looking forward to the rest!
I have a feeling that Air China would retire its 777-300ER fleet or move them to domestic service... Chinese airlines NEVER refurbish their planes...Haha yeah I was kind expecting no snacks, that's why I brought some...Thanks for reading my post!