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sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Trip route:
Singapore – Shanghai - Singapore
Airline – China Eastern
Flight no. MU 546/MU543 Departure: 10:10/9:50
Date: August 13th 2013/August 15th 2013
Aircraft type – A330-200/B767-300
Flight duration – 5:00 Hours

Live: Typing Live at 39,000 feet, but later ran out of steam and it took me another four months to complete this report Very Happy

Background Info:

Another work related meeting this time in Shanghai and with the cost cutting initiative in my organization I had to fly the cheapest which meant no more Singapore Airlines. The only other direct flight from Singapore is on China Eastern which incidentally was also the cheapest option. Since I had never flown on a Chinese carrier before I was not only excited to try but also a bit apprehensive.

A heavy downpour greeted me Tuesday morning in Singapore, and I had read the news that Typhoon Lutor had just battered the town of Luzon in Philippines and was on its way to China across the South China Sea, which obviously meant that this was going to be a very bumpy flight.

Reached terminal 3 and the check in was a breeze as there was hardly anyone around. But the agent told me the flight was 98% full. I requested for exit row seat, but was denied it is reserved for their premium passengers. He was kind enough to put be on 33A which was just behind the exit row seat.

Check in rows:

About two years back China Eastern bought out Shanghai Airlines and although they have merged I am guessing they have kept the air operators certificate separate so that they retain slots. If you look at the screen closely both China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines was listed.

As I was about to enter the immigration I was greeted by this huge advert TV wall which incidentally was playing a China Eastern advertisement which I could not help watching.

Advert China Eastern

After clearing immigration I took a stroll and visited the Koi Pond which houses huge fishes and the Butterfly Park.

Because of the downpour the butterfly park was damp and not a single butterfly could be seen flying around, so made a quick exit and decided to go to my gate as the check in agent had warned me it was going to be a long walk.

On my way, I saw an artwork commemorating the festival of Ramzan Eid. As Singapore celebrates the major festivals of Eid, Diwali and Christmas, Changi always capitalizes on this oppurtinity to showcase the cohesiveness of the Singapore community.

Eid Photo

The China Eastern plane, an Airbus A330-200, was already docked at the gate. The A330s are the latest aircrafts that was purchased a few years ago by China Eastern and is one of the newest in their fleet.

China Eastern:

Very soon, boarding commenced by seat numbers. As soon as I boarded the aircraft I was pleasantly surprised by how new and clean the airplane felt. The business class seats had lie flat beds and the economy class was configured in a 2-4-2 configuration. The seat pitch was also quite comfortable at 32-33 inches, with an 8.5 LCD display with AVOD. A USB port was also available either for viewing photos or charging your phone and pillows and blanket were neatly placed on the seat for usage.

Pillow/blanket

The seat pocket was filled with the in flight magazine and the duty free catalogue.

After I settled in my seat I saw a Jet Airways flight that was being readied for departure to Chennai.

Thanks to the downpour the flight departed a good 50 minutes behind schedule and with the typhoon on the path we made a few diversions as well. As a result we never made up for the lost time. After a fairly long time, push back commenced and the safety video was played twice, once for the hearing impaired.

Safety Video:

Very soon it was our turn to take to the skies and we quickly accelerated and were airborne in no time.

Airborne photo:

It was a bumpy all through the climb out phase until we reached the cruising altitude.
Finally after some time the seatbelt sign was switched off. For a good 30 minutes the crew was not to be seen but then they slowly started the drink service. What was interesting to me is that this is one of the few airlines where they serve PepsiCo products instead of Coca Cola. Most airlines that I have flown typically serve drinks from Coca Cola Company which seems to have an exclusive arrangement and much stronger foothold. Since it is rare to see Pepsi products on an airplane I opted for 7-UP, which is slightly sweeter than Sprite.

After the drinks were cleared meal service started, and as usual my special vegetarian meal arrived fairly quickly. There was nothing to write home about the meal as the main course was just plain rice with lentils. The peas and carrot sabzi was not up to the mark either as I could make out that the “masala” was not mixed well. The salad was a big disappointment as it contained dried fish which I did not realize till I popped it in my mouth .Neither was there dessert in my tray, nor did anyone get any desserts, hence I was still half hungry.

Normally I keep working on the plane except for the meal service time. That is when I try to catch up with the latest movies. I saw “White House Down” as that was one of the few latest flicks available on the IFE and I can bet that it can give a Bollywood masala movie a run for its money. Overall the IFE had a decent collection of movies, documentaries and music which could all be accessed by the remote or by using the touch screen.

Since I needed to get back to work I decided to turn on the flight path map. I was very impressed with the flight map display on China Eastern as it had unique ways one could view it. – Standard 3D map, map through a cockpit and even through a window.

Soon the cabin lights were dimmed and some lucky souls fell into a deep slumber while I got back to my work. A water run was conducted in between which kept me hydrated.

After what seemed like ages we started descent into Shanghai and made a safe touchdown.

Shanghai Airport – Plenty of China Eastern

I always take a taxi to my hotel, but this time around I decided to be a bit adventurous and try the high speed Maglev rail which is supposed to be the fastest in the world.

http://www.smtdc.com/en/

The train seating is comfortable which is similar to the Hong Kong express train, except that there is overhead storage and the train was quite empty as compared to the one in Hong Kong. The experience itself barely lasts seven minutes but you can make out the speed especially at the curves when the train hits 300 Kmph. The train used to run at 431 kmph but I understand for safety and energy efficiency the train runs at this speed only at certain periods - from 9am to 10.45am and from 3pm to 4.45pm. But generally for the rest of the day, it travels at 300 kmph.

A word of caution: The train line runs from Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road station in Pudong. So it basically drops you half way through to nowhere and is not a good option if you plan to stay on the other side of the Puxi river. Also the other challenge is that there is no proper taxi stand. As a result, you end up haggling with the taxi drivers and the fare they charge is similar to what you would have paid from the airport.

This was supposed to be Shanghai’s pet project to showcase to the world of its coming of age, but I understand that it is a big flop as the train ridership is only 20%. Besides the idea was the German consortium who built this would also get a piece of high speed rail business but the government decided to go with local technology rather than using magnetic elevation.

My return trip was on a mid morning China Eastern flight operated by Shanghai Airlines. I reached the airport early knowing that there will be long queues for both immigration and check in.

After clearing both I reached airside. Shanghai airport is one of the most unfriendly airports for plane spotting thanks to its airport design that offers an obstructed view of the runways.

I reached my gate and the airplane B767 was already at the gate.

Boarding commenced and I entered a tired looking but clean and well maintained airplane. Legroom was comfortable but there were no IFE’s on this airplane. In-flight entertainment was via drop down screens that toggled between the flight map and some comedy show.

As we began to taxi for takeoff I could not help notice mannequins placed at intervals. I am not sure what they are for but I am assuming they must be for scaring off the birds.

Anyone from the forum knows what this is about, please enlighten me.

Waiting for Shanghai Airlines to take off so that we can could line up.

We took off about 20 minutes late and with no IFE on this airplane one had to look outside the window or watch the moving map on the drop down screens.

Lunch was served after an hour and half into the flight but my middle aged Chinese passenger had come well prepared. Once we started cruising she started munching on some oranges, which was followed by two large boiled eggs. It is interesting to note that some of the Chinese travelers do bring their own food on board and it seems like you are travelling on the Indian railways where everyone opens their packed lunches.

My lunch comprised of western vegetarian meal as China Eastern advised me that they do not cater Indian vegetarian food from Shanghai. The western meal was quite tasty and comprised of couscous and vegetable in tomato gravy. Once again there was no dessert but only a few pieces of fruit.

The flight was smooth and we landed a good 15 minutes ahead of schedule in Singapore. We docked to our bridge and I saw a SQ A380 that had gone tech that was being fixed.

Verdict:
For the price that I paid for the ticket, there is no room for complaints.
Pros:
-Reasonable price
-Fairly decent IFE, although if they want to be a global airline they need to have more content that caters to different nationalities.
-Extremely neat and clean aircraft

Cons
-Some of the crew member’s English was difficult to understand as they had a very strong Chinese accent.
-Food was very limited in quantity and not up to the mark. A meal without dessert was disappointing.
-Although I flew economy the business class seats had the old style recline seats on the 767.

With 460 aircrafts, and transporting around 80 million passengers China Eastern has great potential to be a world class airline. With its convenient hub in Shanghai it can be a good option to fly to the USA as they have quite a few good connections from Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

At one time Singapore Airlines was very keen to have a equity partnership with China Eastern but since China Eastern is 60% owned by the Chinese government, rumors has it that Air China put a lot of pressure as they were worried about a foreign carrier taking control.

If China Eastern can improve on their shortcomings and spruce up their hardware than this will be a great opportunity for a Chinese carrier to play a global role in aviation in this part of Asia.
Hope you all enjoyed reading the report, feedback/comment as always welcome.

Sri_Bom

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Wow, Srinivas, thanks for a nice trip report after a long time! Singapore is your home airport, and somehow, I have found it a bit over-hyped, but that could be just me. In the early 2000s, I did not find much of the signage to be too friendly either, but the next time I go there, I will study the maps and other information well, to check out the attractive parts for an aviation enthusiast. Thanks for some very nice pictures of the flight, and the Shanghai Maglev! It is nice that you found the western vegetarian meal to be decent: most of the while, airlines go quite clueless with vegetarian meals (AI/9W/Thai are notable exceptions, I believe, from what I have experienced - AI, and read about - the others). A meal without dessert...hmm...I could not but help dream about Air India's signature firnI, the delicious beaten-rice-based Kashmiri sweet.
Cheers, Sumantra.

PAL@YWG · Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 1:34 am Post subject:

Srinivas, interesting TR! Very nice pictures too!

What you wrote about China Eastern is more or less what I hear from people who flew that airline. Very little English, Food just passable, newer aircrafts especially the Wide body ones...a great hub (PVG) to exploit.

thanks for your feedback on Maglev high speed train. PVG must be a nice experience I guess, what about spotting opportunities?

You mentioned about downpour in Singapore, I had a taste of that in KUL briefly..it reminded me Calcutta's monsoon season! Miss it.

Now what about a trip to north America? Reasons can always be found.. Very Happy

Thanks for Posting.
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sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Nimish · Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2014 7:11 am Post subject:

Great report - thanks for sharing. The quality difference between the outbound and return sectors is disappointing!
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We miss you Nalini!

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

jbalonso777 · Posted: Sun Feb 09, 2014 6:59 pm Post subject:

Great to have you back sir - and thank you for sharing this with us!
Many interesting aspects in this TR..

The coke and pepsi thing - I am more of a Pepsi person..
But it is interesting..

This is onboard EK762 DXB-CPT. On the same flight, obviously!

Strange that Shanghai Airlines planes are not yet coloured in China Eastern colors!

Looking forward to more from you!

Regards
Jish

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

Karan69 · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1334

Sri, thanks for the lovely TR

Its always nice to read a frequent and distinguished travellers opinion like your self especially when the airlines in question are relatively less reported upon

P.S seeing your pics of the quality of vegan meals is also one of the reasons I re converted to a non vegetarian after a gap of over 16 years
Very Happy

Karan

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi