Review of Air China flight from Hong Kong to Beijing in Business

Intro

For the next portion of my around-the-world adventure to Pakistan, Afghanistan, The Seychelles, and Madagascar saw me taking a flight from Hong Kong to Beijing. I hadn’t been back in Mainland China for a while, so I was extremely excited to be on the ground, albeit for a short while. 

Picking up off the last report: I took the train into Kowloon which was a cool experience and very nice!

Met a mate for lunch at the Kowloon Cricket Club, and managed to have a shower as well. Highly needed after the long flight from Los Angeles

And lastly, had Pizza Express. As a kid growing up in the UK, my tradition every Friday night was Pizza Express so this is mandatory when I am around one, no matter how bad it is 😅.

Back to the FR!

So how was Air China? Well, after a very early arrival from Los Angeles on United, and a busy day in Hong Kong, I slept most of the flight. However, from what I experienced while I was awake I was very impressed with the service of the carrier, but the seats are quite firm in business…

Routing

How I Booked

My main goal for this trip is to visit Afghanistan, and the quickest way to get a visa into the country is through Peshawar in which they supposedly issue visas in 30 minutes. As I had cleared pluspoints to Hong Kong, that just meant I had to get from Hong Kong to Islamabad/Peshawar.

So, this left me with two options. Either CX to CAN, and then China Southern to Islamabad for 800$ in Business, or Air China from Hong Kong to Beijing and then onward to Islamabad for 798$. The only issue was that this meant I had to book it through Expedia, which I always get nervous doing.

Considering this was about 10 hours of Business Class for 800$, I would get to see my last World Wonder (on the drive out now there), and it would get me closer to retaining 1K, this is an exceptional deal. 

Check-In

Arriving at Hong Kong Terminal 1, the airport had been closed for the past 20 minutes due to weather. Having checked in that morning (since I was worried my booking didn’t exist) I proceeded straight through to the immigration checkpoint which took no time whatsoever.

However, yesterday evening, Air China was operating out to check-in zone J, for those interested. 

Plaza Premium First Lounge

Strolling right back into Hong Kong airport, which has now become a third home at this point, I headed off to the Plaza Premium First lounge located by gate 4. Air China business class passengers are given an invitation to this lounge when checking in, but you also have access to the SQ Lounge as CA is part of Star Alliance. 

The Plaza Premium First Lounge is a decent lounge, with a nice drinks selection, a good ambiance, and some delicious food. They had Japanese rice and Orange chicken yesterday which was delightful! In terms of amenities, free wifi, clean toilets, and showers were available.

Singapore Airlines SilverKris Lounge

One of my biggest regrets in the past has been not properly reviewing the Singapore Airlines Silverkris Lounge in Hong Kong. Well, today that changed, as I decided to head over to the Silverkris Lounge located by Gates 5-9, and gosh is it beautiful.

While the food wasn’t quite as good of a selection in comparison to the Plaza Premium First Lounge (personal preference), the staff was very friendly, the lounge had a sleek SQ feel to it, and I love the little Ice creams available. 

Even with a Singapore Airlines flight scheduled to depart in the coming hour, the lounge was never over half full and never felt too busy.

A delightful lounge.

Boarding

Peeping flighty from the Silverkris Lounge, I saw that it was 5:10, and our plane still hadn’t landed yet. As the airport had shut earlier due to weather, this apparently created a backlog of arrivals and departures.

The A321 ended up arriving at the gate around 5:25 pm, in which case I figured now would be a good time to stroll the 5 minutes over to Gate 12. 

But of course, they weren’t boarding yet. At 5:40 the agent came on to announce that boarding would commence around 5:55, and I decided to quickly head back to the Plaza Premium First Lounge to have some more Orange chicken! 

15 minutes later I returned, just as they were finishing up with Group 1 boarding, and within no time was on board. Isn’t she a beautiful plane! 

Finagling my way down the jetbridge, a couple of friendly cabin crew welcomed passengers onboard. 

The Seat/Cabin

Turning right, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. There aren’t many reviews on Air China and its A321 in Business Class, but I was pleasantly surprised to see 4 rows of business class laid out in a 2-2 configuration.

Each seat features a decent amount of legroom, a footrest that pops out, and 4 buttons on the side to alter different parts of your seat. In terms of what the seat features, this is one of the nicer recliners I’ve experienced. 

Seat Controls:

However, I found the seat to just be really hard, with no cushion whatsoever. Perhaps this is a cultural difference and it wasn’t the end of the world since we got pillows, but it’s something that stood out to me.

Side note: originally I was seated in 2L, a window seat in the second row of the aircraft on the Starboard side. However, someone was next to me, and I saw that nobody was in 1L so figured it would be nicer for storage. DO NOT SELECT A BULKHEAD, the foot space is not great at all. 

Departure

Within seconds of settling into my original seat of 2L, the fantastic flight attendant working my aisle came along to place slippers next to my feet. What service! 

A couple of minutes later I moved up to seat 1L, with her permission of course, and then she proceeded to come around with an offer of a pre-departure beverage. I selected a champagne but didn’t end up drinking more than a small sip. While the flute is a nice touch, I found the champagne to be warm which was a letdown. 

I digress, 6:30 pm came around and boarding was well and truly wrapped up. The cabin doors were closed and we should be on our way soon, right?

Not quite, due to the backlog of traffic, the flight attendant came around, knelt down to speak at eye level, and informed me that we were waiting for clearance (about 15 minutes or so). 

At 6:50 sharp, we pushed back and were wheels up to Beijing Capital Airport by 7:09 (an hour and 14 minutes late). This delay is no fault at all to Air China whatsoever… 

Amenities

Once airborne, there was one thing on my mind: sleep.

Air China has quite a few amenities if sleep is on your mind, consisting of a very large and plump pillow, a comfortable blanket, a pair of headphones (with no IFE), and really comfortable slippers.

I’ve gotta say that for recliner seats on a flight of this length, this is some of the best amenities you’ll find. 

IFE+WIFI

If sleeping isn’t the avenue you want to go down, you’ll be happy to know that Air China operates In-flight entertainment through the wifi. There is a card located in the seatback that shows you how to do so.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to check it out this flight, but supposedly there is WIFI as well since I saw a sign on the plane saying Wiif. I’ll make sure to check it out on their A330 today over to Islamabad in an hour.

Meal Service

Prior to takeoff, the lovely flight attendant came over to showcase the menu for today's flight. I’ve gotta say, this menu looks unbelievable for a flight of 1260 odd miles. A beef tenderloin with demi glaze sauce??

While she did enquire if she could “provide assistance in waking me up for the meal if I was sleeping”, I was so tired that I slept the whole way. If this had been my only flight on Air China, then I would have pushed through, but I am flying them long-haul today in Business… 

Arrival

From takeoff to touchdown, I was out like a light, even with the hard seat. We had an extremely short flight time today of only 2 hours and 45 minutes as by 9:53 we touched down, and by 9:58 we had pulled into our gate right next to a Japan Airlines 787-8 who had called it a night.

Interestingly, it seemed that there was a security guard or something on the flight, as this man dressed in uniform jumped out of his as soon as the ding went off.

We bid farewell to the cabin crew and were soon on the long walk towards immigration. Without a visa, American passport holders (along with some other countries) can transit in China for up to 24 hours. However, the agent was a little bit wary, checking all of the stamps on my passport and asking why I was going to Pakistan the next day. 

A long walk+ a train:ugh…

This is proof that calories don't count on a plane 😁.

All in all, it worked out and I was at the airport hotel by 11:00 pm. Stay tuned for the tourism bonus of the Great Wall of China Tomorrow! Thanks for reading!