Hello everyone! Welcome back to another flight review. Today I'll be turning back the clock ever so slightly to fall 2025 during my time in China. I've got a few reviews published from that time, two from MU, and today's will be the third. Despite all three reviewing flights between Shanghai and Beijing, they're in significantly different configurations and today's J cabin takes top spot. Not quite as private as MU's A350 cabins, but a step up from the herringbone J seats found on their 777-300. Be sure to do your homework before booking. Frustratingly, on ctrip (where I booked most of my mainland flights) you can only see the aircraft configuration being "A330". Only after clicking in and digging deeper will it reveal whether the aircraft has today's superior layout or the slightly inferior herringbones or even worse, the ancient 2-2-2 seats. Let's dig in!
My flight today takes off from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, the less busy of the two Shanghai hubs. Hongqiao primarily deals domestic trips with only a very few international routes such as Tokyo and Seoul (Similar to Gimpo vs Incheon in Seoul). On the bright side, there's usually less passenger traffic but loses the appeal of spotting international carriers at Pudong (even if you fly domestic).
A J ticket opens the door to various lounges, but the superior one being MU's signature V21 lounge located before security. I have a comprehensive review of that on my SHA-PEK MU F trip report already published.
I was quite short on time today, so just grabbed a few quick bites from the buffet before heading into the main terminal. In my opinion, the V21's greatest perk is private security inside the lounge, a feature I've only ever seen at LAX's P/S. The food was good, loved the spicy Mapo tofu.
A very quick plane spotting detour on my way over to the lounge. It was said MU chooses their livery to be plain white in order to allow special liveries to be painted. One of the most well-known, the Disney livery promoting Shanghai Disneyland.
I wasn't paying much attention to configurations at the time of booking and simply wanted to get to Beijing, so I was delightfully surprised upon boarding.
The 1-2-1 configuration adds a significant level of privacy. They look very similar to the A350 J suites just without a sliding door. Waiting at the seat was a pillow, menu card, headphones in the storage space, and a thin fleece blanket. The hot towel came shortly after.
MU gets a decent amount of criticism on Western media, but I'm unsure if it's that Shanghai-Beijing routes are considered highly important, but I've never had a bad experience with the crew. Today, like every time, a crew member was waiting at the door and escorted me to my seat.
I was also lucky enough to snatch a window seat with extra privacy closer to the windows, meaning more distance from the galley. I would be more than happy to fly 10+ hours in this.
The middle seats, alternating between ones further away and those closer to one another. There's a small divider between the two.
The view sitting down.
Welcome drinks were offered along with the towel, just water for me. The little navy blue bag located above was the slipper bag.
A decently sized IFE screen, another improvement to the older A330 seats.
Charging ports, headphone jack, and controllers were located near the storage space.
A quick look at the drinks menu on offer, quite extensive for a short hourtwo flight.
Unfortunately, since my flight was booked between 13:26 and arrived at 15:48, it was technically outside the scope of lunch hours meaning no full meal service would be offered. Full meals on Chinese carriers are usually excellent even on short mainland flights. but the alternative "snack" or "light" meal is far less impressive. For reference, feel free to check out the incredibly underwhelming "light" meal on my CA F review from SHA to PEK.
Slippers
Solid storage space once the cubbie is opened up.
Standing up and taking a snap of the entire seat, this is a really impressive hard product. I have a few pictures from the far worse old A330 configuration I'll try using in a future review. I was also in the front row but I',m unsure if that added any significant room.
Some Chinese newspapers were offered.
We began pushing back and onto our 2 hour 22 minute flight.
I spotted this "LuckyAir" bird. I couldn't stop laughing at its tail and how its just BA's recolored. I read up on a forum apparently BA once tried suing LuckyAir for some sort of infringement, but I'm unsure of the merits on that case .
A rather rare find here at SHA, an international carrier!
Followed by the adorable groundstaff boding us farewell!
It was quite a bumpy ascension, and with the limited flight time the crew really didn't have too long to work with service. Luckily for them, they didn't need to spend time taking orders since only one option for the "snack" was available.
But tablecloths were still provided like this was a full meal.
To be PERFECTLY HONEST, I actually quite enjoyed this? No one around me seemed to, but I was starving so maybe that worked in the panini's favor. The cheese was fully melted and warn, but nothing else was inside. Note to self, if you want a full meal, book a flight during lunch or dinner hours.
There's also some extra space on the right side for your documents and what not. A bottle of water was also hiding, seat controls and lamp just ahead of it. Hard product wise, really no complaints whatsoever.
Imminent descent into Beijing was soon announced as our short journey came to an end. I did get a glimpse of Hainan Air's peeculiar golden livery, on hiatus it seems. I flew on that back before COVID to Boston once, oh the good ol days!
Another interesting spot, a bird parked at the terminal (with a gate attached, it seemed) without any tail.
