Hello everyone.
I recently had a tri-city trip across the country: leaving my home in the south, having classes in the central, and taking tests in the capital.
Here is the routing of my 3-week trip.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui'P=CAN-HGH-PEK-CAN
Part1: CAN-HGH MU5212 China Eastern A320 [THIS REPORT]
Part2: HGH-PEK MU5167 China Eastern A321 http://flight-report.com/en/report-8832.html
Part3: PEK-CAN CA1315 Air China B748 http://flight-report.com/en/report-8859.html
This report features the first leg of my flights, flying from Guangzhou to Hangzhou with China Eastern. Unlike the previous report, Airbus would carry me to the destination.
Taking a intercity coach to the airport is always convenient and comfort. I arrived the airport about 90 minutes before the take off.
Even in normal workdays, the security was always squeezed with tons of passengers. It took me 15 minutes or more to go through the security.
Since I was travelling with my classmates, I didn't have access to any lounge this time. So I directly went to the gate, B227.
(I'm really sorry for the poor quality of the picture…Really need a new phone)
Our ride had just arrived from HGH. I was so surprised and delighted to find out that it had equipped with the Sharklet. I had never been on a Sharklet Airbus before! Hooray!
Unfortunately the new technology only applied to the exterior, not the interior. Therefore I didn't take too many pictures.
Despite having the old interior, the seats were new Recaro slimline seats. With the leg clearance improved, I found them pretty comfortable in such a short flight. But on a transocean flight? No please.
We left the ground on time and soon the lunch service began. Like every other flight two options were offered: rice or noodles. This is an almost no-brainer choice for airline food, as I had never enjoyed the noodles onboard.
The potato-pork rice was really good in economy airline food criteria. To proof my conclusion I also opted for the noodles and it looked like this…..
It tasted so strange. Hence no noodles next time.
For all China Eastern flights I had taken this year I've found that they only serve drinks after you finish your meal, which differs from its rivals, CA and CZ. This is definitely a move to cut their expenses but also on their customer ratings.
The rest of the flight was uneventful and we landed in HGH on time.
It's my second visit to Hangzhou(first in 2010) and first arrive in HGH T2.
HGH T2 was modern and bright, but also kinda boring as a typical new Chinese terminal….
On night we visited the landmark of the city, Xihu, or West Lake. It's very famous in China for its cultural influences in our history. Hope you enjoy the scenery and my report!^_^
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Stay tuned on the next!
Rather than a new phone, you need a camera. A small and/or old one would do. Your pictures would be much better,and it would be a lot cheaper :)
I agree that the noodles are usually the bad hot meal choice on Chinese domestic flights.
Your conclusion is severe; wait until you fly AF on a two hour European flight. All you get is three tiny cookies and a drink, and last time, they even forgot to load the catering on our LIS-CDG flight home ! Tough luck for AF, there was a cargo of Flight Reporters on board, and they did not mince words about it.
Thanks for this FR and its bonus, and looking forward to read the next ones !
I do have a Canon DSLR...But since I wasn't heading for sightseeing and DSLR is big and heavy, I took all the pictures with my Android phone and iPod Touch 5, both are obsolete products now..
As for the catering issue, I think that market decides the behavior of airlines. Here in China, airfares are not really set by companies but government rules. More precisely, they set an upper bound(F/J/Y fares) for every route, and the airlines only have words on those lower fare tickets.
What's more, the cost differences on operating between full-service airlines and low-cost airlines are small due to some regulations in China. So passengers tend to choose full-service airline with free catering on board and these state-owned companies wouldn't cut free meal down to lose its passengers.
Actually I'm a high school student.^_^ So not that 'business'..
Touché ! a bulky SLR is ruled out on a business trip (I use a compact camera which I can carry around at all times, but which is nowhere as good as a SLR). Thanks for taking enough pictures to share this experience with us, despite this being a business trip.
Thanks for your very interesting clarifications on the fare constraints in China. I had noted that there was not much difference between airlines on domestic flights.
This is true, phones are evolving so fast these days. Oops, sorry, I see it's your second report. I have the memory of an amoeba :-P
Interesting about the fares in China. I knew government had a part in refulating airlines, but didn't know it was to that degree. Would you say that as a result fares are relatively more expensive in China?
Looking forward to the next reports in the series.
In my opinion there are bunches of smartphones with really good lens, so a cheap digital camera is not an upgrade..
And..It's my second report in FR...:)
I wouldn't say the fares are more expensive due to the government regulations, but avoiding the unreasonable high prices even in public holidays.
Airlines also faces competitions with other transport means, mostly from high speed train.
Thanks for your report.
As I fly almost twice a week on domestic flights in China, I notice that the so called catering is going down since 2 years. Of course it s still better than European flighs.
I only partially agree that the train competes with airline. For example, I d rather fly 1hr from FZ to SH than spending 8hrs in the train.
The real main issue here, is that the plane are never on time, this must be solved.
How do you use your cellphone in the plane as it s forbidden even in flight mode? The cabine attendants are very strict about this as well...