Review of China Eastern flight from Shanghai to Chengdu in Economy

The pride of china

Hey guys and welcome to another Flight Report! 

This is FR number 3 of my recent trip to Asia and will cover a very, very special flight. Hot on the heels of my last Comac flight, today we'll be flying from Shanghai (上海) to Chengdu (成都), Sichuan on the brand new Comac C919! To be honest, I wasn't planning on taking this flight originally as going to Chengdu would be a massive detour on my way from Jinan (济南) to Shenzhen (深圳). However, I checked the flights 2 weeks before and saw that this flight (along with my next one to Shenzhen) just got a discount, saving me 2/3 on the price I would've paid if I booked in July/August. This was way too good of an opportunity to pass up so we're going on a 2 day detour across the country, which was an amazing decision (as you'll see in my next FR). 

The Comac C919 is a brand new narrow-body airliner developed by Chinese manufacturer Comac. It very recently entered service with China Eastern on 28 May 2023 (the first one carrying registration B-919A) with a second aircraft (B-919C) being introduced in July. As of the making of the FR, these are the only two C919s in commercial service and so far they are only flying on the Shanghai-Chengdu route. It was amazing to get to fly on such a new aircraft type as well as to experience first-hand the pride all of the staff felt getting to work on a Chinese made plane (as you'll see later on in this FR). 

Finally, as for price I paid CN¥1100 ($150) for a single. This is a lot, especially by European/North American standards however this fare is pretty standard for domestic flights within China (LCCs aren't really a thing here). For context, the fare when I checked back in July was CN¥1700 ($230). 

I've made some changes to the way photos are taken (and processed) compared to my previous FRs, please do let me know if you noticed any difference and if it's better (or worse). Thank you! 

From 2023, I aim to offset all of my CO2 emission from flights. All emissions are calculated using the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator and I will be funding projects approved by The Gold Standard. The CO2 output for this trip is:
 
SHA-TFU: 144kg
Total for 2023 (so far): 2806kg

Video report

Here's the video version of this FR, I somehow managed to lose a lot of the footage I got from this flight, which is super, super sad (but I salvaged what I could).  

Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA)

As usual with all Chinese airports, there's a mini security check at the entrance (as you can see on the right). 

Check-in for business class passengers can be seen on the left. It's in a completely different part of the airport and is quite far from the main check-in area. 

The main check-in area. It's huge and is quite confusing as around half of the desks are for China Eastern with passengers directed to specific desks depending on their destination. This is fine except some of the staff have no idea which desks are for what as I got (very obviously) wrong directions from two staff members before eventually finding one who knows what they're talking about. Although now thinking back, having the check-in desks for Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) and Chengdu Tianfu (TFU) be in two different areas of the airport (for the same airline) probably isn't the best idea. 

During check-in, I found out that the seat reservation I made online somehow didn't go through however I was able to get a window seat on the correct side of the plane. 
 
There's also quite a lot of shops however they're all closed this early in the morning.  

One last photo of check-in area before we head through security.  

Security only took 5 minutes and we are through to the departures lobby.  

Some photos of the apron.   

An Air China A330-300 (B-6523) that's not going anywhere soon. 

On the left is a Juneyao Airlines Boeing 787-9 in the Chinese Peony (梦旅生花) livery (B-1115) heading to Shenzhen (SZX) and on the right a China Eastern Airbus A330-300 (B-6085) heading to Chongqing (CKG).

Another photo of the departures area (all of the shops were closed however they all started opening at around 7AM).  

You really can't tell from the photos however this place is huge! The gates just go on and on. 

Our plane will depart from gate 51 (on the right), which is a bus gate.  

the flight

Flight time is around 2 hours 40 minutes and here's our route:

Sadly, it was pouring down with rain when we boarded, which isn't the best conditions for photos but here's the best one I could get: 

Some info about our plane:

Type: COMAC C919
Registration: B-919C
First flight: 8 May 2023
Age: ~4 months
Config: C8/Y156
 
The 2nd C919 in commercial service (after C-919A) she was built just a few km away in Shanghai Pudong (PVG) before being delivered to China Eastern on 16 July 2023. 

The seats on this brand new plane.

The seatback pockets and tray table.  

On each seat is a blanket.  

And here's the legroom - pretty good.  

First views out of the window.  

China Eastern (and the Chinese in general) are obviously very proud the C919, which can be seen with "The World's F1rst C919" ("全球首架") stickers being everywhere (despite this aircraft being the world's second C919). 

Overhead panel with the reading light being around the air vent. 

It's really interesting how thick the walls are on the C919, as can be seen with the distance between the inner and outer windows. It reminds me a bit of the windows on the A380 with the inner window being much larger than the actual window.  

There's also retractable screens on the overhead panel, which is used to play the safety video and other videos during the flight.

Pushback on time.  

Bye bye Shanghai!  

Last views of land as we climb through the clouds.  

I personally love this photo with the way the clouds reflect off the wings.  

Lets have a look at the contents of the seatback pocket, which includes:

- A safety card.  

- China Eastern's inflight magazine.   

- And a special air sickness bag for the C919. I don't usually keep souvenirs of flights (except photos/boarding passes), but I'm 100% taking this home. ;)  

Rather interesting tray table that extends out to reveal a 'cup hole' rather than a wedge.  

A little while after takeoff, the crew came around with a very colorful breakfast. The main is pork dumplings with broccoli and pumpkin along with a red-bean rice pudding-thing (红豆饭). Along with it is a small biscuit, 2 packets (one being dried fruit and the other being nuts), coleslaw, mint cake and… 

… white rabbit milk!! Alright, hold your horses (or rabbits?), this'll take some explaining. If you've been to China (or a Chinese supermarket), there's a good chance you'll have seen White Rabbit Candy (大白兔奶糖) it's a very famous brand in China and this is basically the milk version of that candy. Yes, in China we have 'sweet milk' and it's really weird the first time you try it because it's milk… but tastes like candy. It's quite nice once you get used to it. Anyway, all of this is served with a choice of drinks (including beer). I just went with apple juice. 

In my last review I mentioned how meals on Chinese domestic flights are nowhere near the quality of long haul flights - that absolutely isn't true for this meal. This is by far the best meal I've had on any flight in economy (and that includes on long-haul). The quality is just as good (if not better) than what you'd find in a restaurant and there's just so much on the plate. For some reason I have a slight suspicion that their catering is only this good on the C919 but I have nothing to back that up (and I really hope it's not true, although it's not entirely surprising if it is). 

View outside during breakfast - the wingtip kinda reminds me of the 787 (except it's a lot more flexed).  

After breakfast, the crew came around once again with drinks. I just picked water.  

Pretty soon after, we're starting our descent into Chengdu.  

Hello Sichuan!!  

On final approach.  

Welcome to Chengdu!! I call it the 'cutest city in the world.' Why? You'll find out in my next FR. ;)  

Parked at the gate.  

Chengdu Tianfu International Airport (TFU)

Heading to baggage reclaim - as you can tell, the airport is very modern and clean (like most airport I've been to in China). 

It was a long walk (around 15-20 minutes). 

But finally, we're here at baggage reclaim.  

It took around 20 minutes for my bag to arrive and here's the arrivals area.  

The Chinese have a very simple philosophy for building infrastructure which is 'bigger, better, bolder'. Tianfu Airport is no exception and can be seen from its huge metro station (the metro takes an hour to get to the city).

Anyway, that concludes a very special FR on the C919. Sadly I've only got a day in the city before my next flight to Shenzhen (which will be the next FR). Thanks for reading and see you there!