Review of China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Phnom Penh in Economy

my first time in asia: hello cambodia!

Back in 2016 a very good friend of mine had the idea to go to Cambodia amongst us 6 friends… He used to work there and knows well the country. What we didn't know at the time and found out later is that he also proposed his girlfriend on a beautiful beach!
I just wanted to share this little story to bring a bit of romance into this world of kerosene! 

Flying blue Miles earned with this flight: 504
Status earned: 5 XP

This flight is in continuation of our previous flight from London; I know a bit of a detour but really cheap! Look at the price 

China eastern airlines isn't the best user friendly website, and there was no application at the time… In fact it really felt like completely out of time as you had to phone a call centre to book seats in advance and to have your boarding pass issued to your email directly - see below.

The flight is operated on an A321, that has a configuration of 178 seats, which is quite ok for this kind of cabin… If you compare with A321 of Air France / Lufthansa / British Airways where they fit a good 30 more people for the same fuselage..

You can tell Business class is fitted with proper business seats, not just with the same layout but with the middle seat free. 

at shanghai pudong airport

We arrived at the airport from the previous flight from London Heathrow with a transfert bus.
Arrival was a bit impressive to go through passport controls as we were asked to provide a few elements. 

We got another boarding pass ticket printed and stamped to let us go through the international area.

We had some food in the duty free area at coffee place… 

The lady at the coffee told us off as we sat near the windows to have the view on the runways, instead she requests us to move and offered us a table near the entrance of the bar… The avgeek in me was disappointed! 

We arrived at our gate and I realised there was no jetway, another transfer bus was positioned instead.

The bus followed the route and we got lucky - we passed in front of the - what was supposed to be the real flagship of Air France - super dumbo jet! Sorry for the quality of the picture…

onboard the a321

Our bus arrived and parked on the side of the plane and we boarded with stairs - good old fashion way.

Aircraft: Airbus A321-231
 Registration: COuldn't remember sorry!
Engines: 2x IAE V25200
Age: 10 Years
Layout: 178 seats
Observation: With the new livery

The AvGeek bit

China Eastern airline has an impressive fleet of 566 aircrafts, amongst which 329 are out of the A320 family: 35 A319, 180 A320, 37 A320Neo and 77 A321s; that is really the backbone of the domestic aircafts. It has to be noted that it was the first chinese airline to order Airbus aircafts. China Eastern airlines was born at the same time as China Southern and Air China, all three for the former heavily regulated national airline. The airline is the second busiest airline in China, after China Southern however is the most present Chinese carrier internationally, strengthening bonds with Delta, Virgin and AirFrance KLM. 

The Cabin seemed quite modern and the seats were nice. I think it is a nice thing that CEA decided to position toilets in the section of the cabin just near the emergency exits.

We taxied a short time and took off shortly after.

We were a bit tired after all this journey and without having a shower nor properly resting all these hours so I must admit I fell fast asleep.

The crew woke us up when they served food, which was a real plus to have a complimentary snack for that fare.

The time for my usual magazine review!!

The magazine is quite thick, the pictures are all very attractive and is written in majority in chinese but there is also some english.

Quite sadly, for an avgeek like me, there isn't any information / graphs about the fleet, but instead there is this interesting map featuring some of the major airports both nationally and internationally with the indication as of where China Eastern Airline usually operates from. 

After almost 4 hours and me being fast asleep again, we descended towards the capital of Cambodia..

at PHNOM PENH airport

I remember the landing being very smooth, the airport staff being very friendly, the airport very cool with AC and outside very warm!

And very soon after we were off in a tuk tuk!! 

the last Cliché of our plane.