Preferred Domestic Airline in China

A question to the collective wisdom and experience of the group.

My wife and I are travelling to China in September this year for a three
week holiday.

We have three one-way domestic flights to make as part of our itinerary,
namely; Shanghai - Xi'an, Xi'an - Beijing and Beijing - Shanghai.

A friend of mine who did a lot of travel to and from, and within China a few
years ago told me that China Eastern is the best airline to use with "best"
being a relative measure of safety not necessarily overall service. I have
done a bit of research on some of the domestic airlines in China and found
that China Eastern rates quite low on overall service. According to Skytrax
China Eastern gets 2 stars and mainly negative reviews from passengers.
While I have not checked all airlines thoroughly I have found that Hainan
Airlines appears to be more highly rated and gets more favourable comments.

My question to the group is: On which domestic Chinese airline would you
prefer to fly domestic routes in China when taking into account safety
(perceived or actual record) and overall service? Also we plan to fly
Business Class if the seats are available given the small difference in
price relative to Economy Class.

Thanks you in advance to all who reply.

Regards,
Steve

China eastern is based in Shanghai, I have been used them a lot, their
services seems fine to me. you can get more information on china at
www.modernchinaguide.com

Steve Remington wrote:
A question to the collective wisdom and experience of the group.

My wife and I are travelling to China in September this year for a three
week holiday.

We have three one-way domestic flights to make as part of our itinerary,
namely; Shanghai - Xi'an, Xi'an - Beijing and Beijing - Shanghai.

A friend of mine who did a lot of travel to and from, and within China a few
years ago told me that China Eastern is the best airline to use with "best"
being a relative measure of safety not necessarily overall service. I have
done a bit of research on some of the domestic airlines in China and found
that China Eastern rates quite low on overall service. According to Skytrax
China Eastern gets 2 stars and mainly negative reviews from passengers.
While I have not checked all airlines thoroughly I have found that Hainan
Airlines appears to be more highly rated and gets more favourable comments.

My question to the group is: On which domestic Chinese airline would you
prefer to fly domestic routes in China when taking into account safety
(perceived or actual record) and overall service? Also we plan to fly
Business Class if the seats are available given the small difference in
price relative to Economy Class.

Thanks you in advance to all who reply.

Regards,
Steve

Steve Remington wrote:
A question to the collective wisdom and experience of the group.

My wife and I are travelling to China in September this year for a three
week holiday.

We have three one-way domestic flights to make as part of our itinerary,
namely; Shanghai - Xi'an, Xi'an - Beijing and Beijing - Shanghai.

A friend of mine who did a lot of travel to and from, and within China a few
years ago told me that China Eastern is the best airline to use with "best"
being a relative measure of safety not necessarily overall service. I have
done a bit of research on some of the domestic airlines in China and found
that China Eastern rates quite low on overall service. According to Skytrax
China Eastern gets 2 stars and mainly negative reviews from passengers.
While I have not checked all airlines thoroughly I have found that Hainan
Airlines appears to be more highly rated and gets more favourable comments.

My question to the group is: On which domestic Chinese airline would you
prefer to fly domestic routes in China when taking into account safety
(perceived or actual record) and overall service? Also we plan to fly
Business Class if the seats are available given the small difference in
price relative to Economy Class.


China Eastern is good. Check also Dragon Air.


Thanks you in advance to all who reply.

Regards,
Steve

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Steve Remington wrote:

We have three one-way domestic flights to make as part of our itinerary,
namely; Shanghai - Xi'an, Xi'an - Beijing and Beijing - Shanghai.

....

On which domestic Chinese airline would you
prefer to fly domestic routes in China when taking into account safety
(perceived or actual record) and overall service?

Any that's flying in the right direction for the right price, although
when tickets are bought in China (usually for a fraction of the price
available overseas and a substantial discount over the quoted price in
China) there's no difference in price between similarly timed flights on
various carriers.

There's precious little difference between the carriers and they're all
fairly poor. While it's fine to discuss which might be fractionally
better than any other most don't fly all the routes mentioned. China
Southern usually gets higher marks amongst domestic users, and has a
fairly comprehensive network, but really it doesn't matter when a flight
is three hours or less.

The service is universally indifferent (although it's trying a great
deal harder than it used to) and the food on all carriers is inedible,
so take your own snack of choice.

Obnoxious behaviour by other passengers (pushing and shoving, fighting
over overhead bin space, arguing with flight attendants, using mobile
phones as soon as the wheels hit the ground, ignoring the seatbelt sign,
declining to take a numbered seat, dropping used toilet paper at the
side of the lavatory rather than down it) is the biggest drawback to
flying in China, and that's the same on every airline there, although
most flights go smoothly enough.

Again, for just a few hours all that's needed is a little patience. You
don't go to China for the flying any more than you do for the hotels.
The planes are just a way of getting from A to B.

As for safety, the chances of being killed in a plane crash in China are
almost infinitesimally small. Your chances of being killed on the way to
and from the airport, including in your own country, are many thousands
of times higher. Get things in perspective.

Also we plan to fly
Business Class if the seats are available given the small difference in
price relative to Economy Class.

Typically flights have a tiny number of larger seats at the front of the
plane for business class. There are no other wothwhile benefits except
cutting down on the push and shove. But if the observation on based is
based on figures obtained while overseas, then you need to think again.
Tickets bought in China itself as you go will typically be a fraction of
the prices visible on websites overseas. I've paid as little as 25% of
what Travelocity thought was a good price, for instance. Booking ahead
is a bad idea.

Peter N-H
http://www.datasinica.com
http://peternh.blogspot.com