I spent a few days in Bangladesh and Northern Thailand then I went to Lijiang, Yunnan, China. I first took a flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Kunming, China, a distance of only 500 miles (810 kms). I fly intra-European business class quite often so I was curious about how this flight over a similar distance would compare.
Chiang Mai Airport has about 45 flights a day to Bangkok and about15 flights to elsewhere in Thailand. It also has direct international flights to Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hanoi, Hongkong, Jinghong, Kuala Lumpur, Kunming, Luang Prabang, Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Taipei, Xi’an and Yangon. It’s quite a busy airport.
Priority check-in was available. There was almost no waiting time, and I was checked in quickly.
Although Thai Airways does not have anymore business class flights from Chiang Mai, there’s a business lounge which is also used by China Eastern.
For some time, I was the only customer in the lounge. It’s simple but quite nice and comfortable.
There was a reasonably good choice of food and drinks.
Some of them are quite nicely presented.
The drinks are the usual ones.
I went to the boarding area.
Boarding started at 16.30 and was very quick. Priority boarding was available.
China Eastern has a huge fleet of 645 aircrafts. This is more than any airlines in Europe. The fleet includes over 100 B737-800s.
This particular plane had registration number B208D and was built in 2018.
It was equipped with two rows of business class in a 2+2 configuration with US Domestic first class type seats.
My seat was 7A which would have been called 2A almost anywhere else in the world.
Legroom was of course excellent.
Seat 6A = 1A.
Seats 6A and 6B = 1A and 1B.
The were only two passengers in business class. Economy was quite full.
A pillow, a blanket, a small bottle of water, a newspaper (a real, print newspaper), two different on-board magazines, headphones and slippers in a nice bag were all waiting at the seat. All this for a short regional flight – compare this to most intra-European business class services.
A welcome drink with a choice of orange juice and water and a hot towel were offered.
The cabin crew informed me about an expected flight time of 1 hour and 25 minutes.
Drink orders were taken before departure. Here’s the drink menu:
There was a personal screen in the seat in front of mine.
Push-back was at 16.45 for a scheduled departure time of 16.20. There were only 15 minutes between start of boarding and push-back.
There was an announcement during taxi, right before take-off: If you want to upgrade to business class, please contact our cabin crew.
We took off at 16.58 from runway 36.
Some views during and after take-off:
There was an article in the China Daily about how visa free entry and especially cruises boost tourism to China. I came to China because it was visa free; I wouldn't have come if a visa had been necessary,
Flight information shortly after take-off:
I was first offered a Coke and another hot towel.
A very nice snack box was served as a meal exactly 30 minutes after take-off.
We flew over Chiang Rai and then over Laos.
Let’s have a look at the in-flight entertainment. There were about 30 Chinese and 6 International (i.e. French, German, Italian) but no Hollywood movies.
Approaching Kunming around sunset. Kunming Airport is located at an altitude of 2172 meters.
Thanks for sharing this report. MU really needs to up its game if they only serve J a Y-style snack box since CA serves hot meals on ~500 mile flights. MU has really been pushing its revamped drink menus, which are definitely the most comprehensive in mainland China. Overall the seats look comfortable and more cushy than CA.
To ensure the same row numbering system fleet wide. All F starts from 1, all J from 6, and all Y from 31.
Thank you for your comment and clarification about seat numbering!
Great report as always. Nice cabin, especially since IFE is rare on Chinese carrier narrowbodies. The snack looks nice for a short flight, but odd that it's served in a box.
Thanks for sharing!