China Eastern Airlines

I have been a bit of a China Eastern apologist in the past, but I have decided to mend my ways. I took a trip to Bangkok this weekend with some friends and flew the friendly skies on MU (China Eastern's call sign). Against my better judgment, we flew economy to save some money. This is a 4 hour flight, and it is miserable in economy.

Going to Bangkok, our plane boarded at the terminal which was a good sign. The flight wasn't too crowded, so the seat next to me was open and I had an aisle seat. My friends had fantastic seats in the front of the economy section (more leg room) near the bathrooms. They were entertained by first time fliers trying to figure out how to get into the bathrooms. It sounded like a Far Side cartoon. Passengers would push on all parts of the door for a few minutes trying to get in and suddenly someone would come out and the door would close. The passenger trying to get in would resume pushing on the door with no success. There are instructions on the outside of the door in both English and Chinese.

I was starving and had avoided dinner thinking we would eat on the flight. The Chinese airlines are much better at feeding you even if it isn't very good. Unfortunately, we were given the box of assorted breads in lieu of a meal. The box of assorted breads contains one dry roll with no butter, two pieces of cake that are dry and fairly tasteless, a small packet of some sort of nuts, a smaller packet of something I wasn't even willing to open and two kit cat bars. Not what I had in mind.

The flight back was a whole other deal. I had a window seat and we had requested additional leg room - specifically the emergency aisle which really doesn't contain much more leg room. The gal gave us seats directly in front of the emergency aisle that don't recline although the seats in front of us did. That meant that the heads of the people in the row directly in front of us were about 6 to 10 inches away from our faces. For 4 hours.

The top of the seats in the MU planes are rounded on the sides to cradle the head of the average Chinese person. The average western person's head is in a different place so this is not a convenience. My friend complained that the rounded section hit his shoulders and dug in.

There was a Chinese gentleman in front of my friend and his fiance who started scratching his head about an hour into the flight. All the sudden there was great commotion coming from my friend. Apparently, flaky scalp pieces where coming over the back of the seat into my friend's face and his fiance's water. The gentleman had sores on his arms and face which didn't make them feel any better.

Upon arrival into Shanghai at 12:00 a.m. the MU plane did not pull up to the terminal. It was pitch black outside, no lighting and we were forced to feel our way down the stairs to the pavement before making our way to the buses. This is made more difficult by the fact we had bags and carry-ons and the stairs were not even so you didn't know whether you were going to be stepping down or on a landing between stairs. We were tired and not amused.