Air China Reviews 

Customer service numbers are extortionate
You have to listen to music for an hour or so and paying a pound a minute premium to do so.
You cannot understand the chinese option they give you, they talk so fast in english you cant understand.
On top of all this they have raised fares and introduced non refundable for the lower fares that were refundable with a 120 pound charge.
They give you a great comfortable plane to look at when you book but you then board a tacky uncomfortable substitute.The attendants are power crazy. Wouldn't even let me show pictures on my phone to another passenger, even in flight mode.
It's cheap for a reason

We flew with Air China for the fourth time in a row and were very satisfied. The staff was nice and helpful and the Stopover in Beijing worked perfectly. All flights were on time. We will definitely fly with Air China again.

Like many other complaints about Air China, it is impossible to contact anyone at customer service for flight info, seat assignments, etc. Their web site is totally useless.

The inflight entertainment wasn't working for a third of the passangers (unfortunately us too) on a flight from Beijing to Frankfurt. So no movies, music, and we weren't prepared fot that option so it was our "longest" flight ever. We got a paper on the airport Statement on Service Compensation, you can see the text below. As you can see, completely useless if you are not a Chinese citizen, and you need to download the app and that was completely useless too. So bring your own movies/devices just in case!

Dear Passengers,
First of all, we apologize for the inconvenience caused to your journey. We hope to show our sincerity by way of compensation. Thank you for your support and understanding. We provide economic compensations in three ways: e-voucher (hereinafter EV),
mileage and currency. The ratio is RMB 2EV: 5km non-elite qualifying miles of Air China: RMB 1. You can choose one of them based on your needs. Please scan the following QR code to download Air China APP, register for membership and click to
claim it from "My Wallet". Tips:
The EV is valid for receipt within one year since the date of issuance. Please use it within one year upon receipt. You can use it to pay for air tickets for yourself or others from your membership account on Air China APP (not payable for fuel charge, airport
construction fee and other fees) and it can only be used to offset RMB payment. The EV can be used partially or in conjunction with other EVs, but it cannot be used with ther vouchers. The maximum offset amount for a single ticket is 50% of the fare.
When you apply for a non-voluntary refund or ticket change, the EV will be returned in full or continue to be used for a new ticket, and the expiry date of the returned EV will restart from the date of return. The EV is not refundable for voluntary refunds.
The non-elite qualifying miles are valid for 36 months and can be used in exchange for passenger tickets, upgrade classes and products of Phoenix Miles E-Shop. They can also be used in conjunction with the elite-qualifying miles. You have to first
accumulate four flight segments or a mileage of 3,000 km before using such miles. You'll have to provide your bank card information to claim the currency compensation. Bank cards are limited to debit cards issued in mainland China and marked with Union Pay.
We hope you'll choose Air China again. Please contact Air China hotline 95583 for inquiries.

Despite concerns from other reviews, our experience was pretty good.

Check in on line didn’t work, but as everyone is preallocated seats, and have to do bag drop anyway, that’s not an issue.

Air China is part of the star alliance. Our flight had Virgin Atlantic passengers on it.

Some flight attendants were (or could appear to be surly), but so are BA attendants on occasion. Most were very helpful.

Flights our were delayed, but wat back were on time. As in the uk, flights can be delayed for many reasons out of the airline’s control.

Overall, and as we travelled to Japan when the rugby World Cup was on, it was a good value service overall - some £400 pp cheaper than BA.

First the self check in at the airport and their app doesn't work. The flight experience was decent for the price you pay but unfortunately we were delayed and left waiting without knowing what was happening to our flight or the new timings. Nobody was around for assistance. Awful customer service with very little English speaking. We missed a connection and were left waiting at the airport without being offered any food and drink for more than 4 hours. We ended up with a total delay of 9 hours and being outside EU there is no compensation protection. Should take into account when booking with this company.

Great airline, fantastic value.

London Heathrow to Tokyo (Haneda) 20th Sep/5th Oct 2019.

Great value for the distance we travelled, some lovely modern planes with plenty of legroom, some older more cramped ones but certainly not the worst airline out there. If you're a frequent traveller who doesn't expect the red carpet to be rolled out for you when you pay a budget airline price then you'll be fine (just manage your expectations and take some extra on plane comforts).

The planes were boarded early on all occasions and the gate staff & airline crew were all very accomodating even when there was a mix up with our paid seats which was quickly resolved. Yes, they all speak English despite it not being their native language and if you are patient enough to understand that you can communicate perfectly fine.

The food was ok as far as aeroplane meals go, limited options but the Chinese options were much better than the western. Drinks were plentiful and if you ever wanted more it was just a call request away.

I can't fault air China for their service, and after reading some of the 'reviews' on numerous platforms we were quite nervous. The only reason this is 4 instead of 5 stars was due to the mix of older/newer model planes which caused me some discomfort even as a shorter person long haul but I'm glad we booked seats in advance which helped my taller co-travellers.

Would definately fly again. Thank you Air China, we look forward to our next Asia trip!

Withiut a doubt the nastiest, laziest, most ignorant , obnoxious customer service experience ever.

2 months later , still can’t log in to change tickets because all their responses, including SMS, web site errors, web site redirects, Apps etc are all in Chinese. The captcha system does not work and the email staff simply cannot comprehend English, telling me to log in to change my password every time I tell them I can’t log in because my passcode does not work. The error I’m given is “-False” , or in Chinese etc. The UK/Europe customer service number is far too long to be dialable from the the UK, yet all the web site staff tell me to do is make sure I add the country code. After 3 months I cannot log in, cannot get them to understand the issue , cannot reset my password, and cannot phone them. This kind of stupidly and nonsense is deliberate, they take your money and hide.

I beg you, do not use this Airline, for your own sanity.

Unfortunately my bag didn’t make the flight and It returned to me a week later. It was a big inconvenience and I am still waiting for a refund for clothes I had to buy and haven’t been offered any compensation due to this. The phone to the uk office doesn't work and many people in the eu offices have not been of any help on the phone!

Very bad , seriously don’t go with them.
The flight from London to Beijing they have ONLY ONE lady can speak English, they speak China to you all the time. The flight attendants were very rude very rude too. If you don’t speak China they would never care.
Most of the flight is go to Beijing airport, and Beijing airport is the worst airport ever.
SERIOUSLY DONT USING THIS AIRLINE

Online check in does not work
Even if I am a member of Air China, I logged in, it still requires me to provide the full flight information to proceed to check in. Wouldn't you know what reservation I have once I logged in? Then what's the point of logging in?? It's just a stupid website.

Check in service online NEVER WORKS. I have a chinese Mobile number and full information required, yet it still didn’t work! This is the third time so I should’ve known better than to fly with this airline again, but it was the cheapest flight I could find for my trip. I called their version of ‘customer services’ and they were quite useless, resulting in my having to rush to the airport in due to constant defunct systems online in 2019, how backwards! Beware

Suffered significant delays without any updates from staff. The food on board was rancid. The planes are dated and have terrible leg room and to top it all off the staff are rude and incompetent.

Air China is widely known for the worst customer service. I wanted to buy additional luggage but the website did not work, after having tried several customer service numbers I got through to a lady who said that I have to go earlier to the airport. However, I had to pay for it even more than online... I will fly nver again with Air China

I have never ever experienced anything as terrible as the so-called customer service at Air China! Flew to South Korea with no problems, but when I was to return to Denmark I was - to my big surprise - told at the airport in Korea, that my transfer flight from Beijing to Copenhagen was cancelled. Or so they guessed at the airport as they couldn’t see/get any info, just that I was put on a flight two days later (whiteout any notice, by the way). So after some back and forth, I just accepted that they where unable to inform me further, about what was going to happen in China, what I should do with my luggage and so forth. I just thought “well, that’s the worst that can happen?”...! And now I can tell you what the worst that can happen is: You arrive at Beijing late at night expecting to get some kind of information and/or basic customer service, such as maybe some drinking water, some food, just a smile and a “we are sorry, Miss”. But no! You get send around the airport for hours, without any Air China employees able to understand or give you proper information. When you finally get send to a hotel with a promise of food and water, you get send to something from a deleted scene from “The Shining” - you know, the one in the end with skeletons and huge spiderwebs all over the place. And absolutely no food or water, by the way! Back to the airport, getting send around from one corner to the other again, now trying to locate your suitcase - oh, didn’t I tell you this? Of course they couldn’t find it and when I finally found it (hours later) Air China had managed to smash it too. At this point I just had to laugh out loud AND cry at the same time. What the actual f Air China, how can you do SO wrong? It’s beyond me! Now over 12 hours since I arrived at Beijing, with a panini and a juice I bought myself, waiting for the SAS flight I was lucky enough to get rescheduled to, writing this review realizing how I’m never, ever, ever never again am going to travel with Air China. And I’m strongly advising you to not do so either.
(I apologize for the misspelling, am running on two hours of sleep)

It was my first time to fly Air china and I would recommend it to anybody. I read lots of not so good comment in reviews and I was brave enough to try it and wanted to try it myself. I would honestly say that this airline exceeded my expectations. From flight attendants to food, leg room, comfort everything was great! I would only comment on the sit as it is not so soft but would say it is pretty much comfortable and there is nothing much difference compared to other expensive airlines. Thank you very much, air china. You made my holiday as comfortable as possible considering It took me 16 hours to fly home to the Philippines from London. I did not feel the hours i fly back home because I was comfortable enough to have a good sleep. I hope you keep up the good work. Much love from Ms. Philippines xxx

Bought tickets to Japan via Beijing. Biggest reason using Air China was lowest cost. I was nervous however, due to the crappy reviews below mine, and my trip to Japan is using up all my savings and celebrating my honeymoon. Firstly you get what you pay for - lower fees means less luxury but guess what? The decision to fly with Air China is financially related so stop moaning expecting something pretty. The aircraft is old fashioned with old, withering fabric and slightly uncomfortable, cramped seats. If you're tall, aim for the aisle. Every seat has a functioning (albeit slow) screen with tons of movies, shows and games, and a USB charger for electronics. Pillows and blankets provided (could do with a wash to be honest). The food was SURPRISINGLY delicious for aeroplane cuisine. They always provide 2 choices. Jasmine tea is so lovely particularly. The sweet and kind staff would frequently visit all passengers to offer free soft drinks and beer, and tea/coffee. There were zero delays. The pilot was highly experienced and we didn't die. This review is describing my journey from London to Japan (where I am now). I hope the service is just the same on the way back. Thanks Air China for the great service!! 4 stars instead of 5 because of the need for renovation. And I'm only leaving a review because I want to reassure others that it's not THAT bad.

Took 4 flights recently in a return trip to Japan. Booked 10 months advanced and requested vegetarian food. First two flights they had no record of our request. I ended up eating 3 bread rolls as they had nothing else.

On the 3rd flight coming home, they somehow had remembered and provided a veggie meal (which was the same as the normal meal, but no meat. Just plain rice!).

By this point I had given up hope. Low and behold, the 4th flight was no vegetarian food.

How they can let this happen is beyond me, not because of me being a vegetarian, but what happens to those with nut allergies or something??

Also, the aircraft are awful. The final leg home from Beijing to London, we were ferried out into the middle of Beijing airfield, where a lone aeroplane stood, looking very dirty and unused. This plane was from around 1999, with old tv sets, practically no leg room, and uncomfortable seats.

Hands down the hardest flight I've had to endure. Will pay more next time and fly with a company like Singapore.