China’s second-largest airline might not be a bad option if you’re heading to the Middle Kingdom, but aspects of the service are a bit… hit and miss.

China Eastern flights MU792 and MU791
Sydney (SYD) to Nanjing Lukou (NKG) and return
December 2023
Tickets purchased

China Eastern operates flights connecting Sydney with Shanghai Pudong (PVG) and Nanjing Lukou (NKG). Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane have additional services to Shanghai, while the airline is planning to launch flights from Cairns in February 2024.

In my case, I went with China Eastern because Nanjing was the most convenient airport for my needs, the dates were the ones I needed, and China Eastern is the only airline flying to NKG from Australia with no layovers or connections. The return fare out of Sydney was about $1600, so not a promotional or seasonal fare.

The Schedules: China Eastern operates four flights per week out of Sydney airport, with flights departing at 1pm and arriving in Nanjing at about 9pm local time. Return flights from Nanjing depart at 9pm and land in Sydney at about 11am.

In my case, flights were slightly late (less than 15 minutes) leaving Sydney, but bang on time leaving Nanjing; and a tailwind overnight meaning we landed in Sydney more than 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival time.

The Airports: For a city of over 9 million people, Nanjing Lukou International Airport isn’t terribly large, and Terminal 2 isn’t particularly well-appointed. Presumably most international traffic goes through Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou rather than through Nanjing.

When I travelled through Terminal 2 on a mid-week flight (departing at 9pm local time), there was literally nothing open after the security checkpoint except for one small restaurant, a gift shop, and a currency exchange. No duty-free shopping was available, although it appeared the terminal was undergoing a revamp and this may be addressed shortly.

As of December 2023, though, plan accordingly- if you’re hungry, eat before going through security. There are a number of eateries, including a KFC, available before the checkpoint.

You might have more luck finding food if you have lounge access privileges. China Eastern is part of the SkyTeam alliance, and SkyTeam Elite members have access to lounges in both Sydney and Nanjing. Qantas also operates a lounge at Sydney’s international terminal for its Gold and Platinum status holders, although they don’t have access to one in Nanjing. (If you’re carefully counting your points, China Eastern is part of Qantas Frequent Flyer as well.)

The Aircraft: Outbound: B-5952, an Airbus A330-200 delivered in 2014. On the return leg, B-6543, an Airbus A330-200 delivered in 2012. A330s seem to be pretty common for this type of distance; I was on a Qantas A330 travelling from Brisbane to Singapore earlier this year.

On our outbound aircraft there were seven rows of Business Class seats, arranged 1-2-1; the above picture shows you row 15, which has a bulkhead behind it and a window (although given the placement of the seat, not much of a window view.)

Wi-Fi is available for a fee (or included in your fare if you travel in Business). There is a 10-minute free trial which didn’t seem to be terribly fast; I couldn’t even upload one 3Mb photo to Mastodon in that time. (On reflection, I wonder if the inflight Wi-Fi is affected by the Great Firewall.) The pricing also seems fairly expensive compared to other Asian carriers.

The cabin overall, including the toilets, was very clean and well-maintained throughout each flight.

The Seats: In Economy Class, China Eastern uses a standard 2-4-2 seating arrangement. The Economy Class seats are also pretty standard although were slightly different on each flight (see Entertainment below). Seatguru lists the pitch between 32 and 33 inches; there are three different configurations of the A330 so it may vary slightly.

Out of Sydney, a blanket (wrapped in plastic) was provided on each seat. Oddly this wasn’t provided on the overnight flight out of Nanjing, but these were available on request. Pillows were also available.

There were the usual call buttons and reading lights above each seat, however there are no air vents.

The Entertainment: The Sky Entertainment system China Eastern uses is easily the weakest part of their onboard experience; limited, clunky, outdated and at times, barely functional. And different aircraft in the fleet have slightly different versions to boot.

The first issue you’ll encounter is that the headphones are absolutely awful. The ear buds provided are extremely cheap and do nothing to block out cabin noise, meaning whatever you’re watching is muffled and barely audible. In addition, on the touchscreen setup it’s extremely difficult to plug them in; the screen sits in a recess that partially blocks the headphone jack.

I had my own noise-cancelling headphones and solved this problem by removing the 2-prong airline adaptor and just nestling the headphone jack in one socket; this mostly worked unless you bumped the plug at any point. Obviously this approach is only possible if you’re bringing your own- wired– headphones.

If you do get audio working, you run into the second issue: the library is pretty threadbare. There are a total of 16 movies in the ‘Hollywood’ section and a grand total of just 1 (!) in the ‘Asian’ section- a Bollywood film. The only movie included in the library that had been released in the last twelve months was Fast and Furious X; if you’re feeling generous you could include 2022’s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish as relatively recent. At least the category has a few well-received movies, including critical darlings like Green Book, although a 9-inch airline screen with awful headphones is hardly the best way to watch, say, Interstellar. (I did try, though.)

Captive Audience: December 2023

There are a lot more choices if you speak Mandarin (and fair enough, it’s a Chinese airline mostly serving Chinese markets). While it would be interesting to check out some Chinese cinema and take in some films not previously well-known in the West, there is no way of finding out which movies have English subtitles without starting playback and waiting for the opening dialogue. Chinese subtitles are hard-coded in on all films, with no way to turn them off.

I made a note to go looking for more films with English subtitles on the return flight, and get a few more photos. However, trying to play one of these films actually crashed the system on my screen on the return flight, rendering the entire service totally unresponsive for the rest of the journey. I couldn’t even go back to the main menu. Luckily I had an empty seat next to me and used its screen for the inflight map.

There’s also one other complication, as the system plays an advert before each movie to sell you the inflight wi-fi- but the ad only plays in Mandarin and to the untrained eye, looks like an error message or further setup instructions. On the outbound flight, trying to skip the ad did confuse the system for a few minutes, but it eventually sorted itself out and went back to the main menu.

The Television section is equally sparse, with just one entry in English in the comedy section (Just For Laughs Gags, the very definition of filler content). Two categories on the main menu- one for Games, the other for Books- have no content at all.

As a bonus, though, China Eastern offers something that Qantas has ditched- music. There is a small selection of albums to listen to (again, a wider variety if you speak Mandarin), but you can navigate through the various albums and set up a custom playlist to use for the duration of the flight. A few odd ‘greatest hits’ compilation albums are included as well, and while these look like cover-version hell, they are original versions- albeit thrown together with no logic or theme.

If you load up your own devices with entertainment options, you’ll be fine. Bring a charging cable- both setups did have a USB port for charging your own devices. (China Eastern policy is that powerbanks can’t be used in-flight.)

Food and Drink: Two meals were served on each 10-hour flight, with two options each time and both options containig meat. Apparently it is possible to pre-book custom meals (for example, vegetarian or vegan options), although I didn’t test this. Also, one of the travel YouTubers I follow struggled to make this work– getting customer service ahead of time, even on premium tickets, is apparently not easy unless you speak Mandarin.

The flights out of Sydney offered wooden (Western) cutlery. Oddly there didn’t seem to be chopsticks offered, although maybe the cabin crew could somehow sense my total lack of chopstick-handling ability and just didn’t offer me any. The meals themselves, however, were fine and with reasonable portions. In particular I felt breakfast on the return journey was pretty good- eggs, ham, yoghurt, cake and a croissant to fuel you as you wait in the Immigration queues.

Again, though, there is some inconsistency. On the return flights, only a fork was offered as cutlery- no knife or spoon (despite dinner coming with a bread roll and butter). Also, the aforementioned bread roll (or croissant with breakfast) was served hot (a plus!), but several minutes after the rest of the meal (er…). So a bit odd.

Meals were served with drinks- softdrinks, juices, tea, coffee and water. I did see one of my seatmates get a beer (Tsingtao, naturally) but I didn’t investigate further.

The Bottom Line: China Eastern offers an inconsistent experience, to be sure, but you might well find that it’s a pretty reasonable option with those caveats in mind. It’s basically much like any other Economy Class flight, although the experience with the in-flight entertainment might encourage you to look at other airlines if Shanghai is your planned destination. Even then, you can plan around that by using your own gadgets.

And if Nanjing is the destination, China Eastern is the only game in town, assuming your town is Sydney. From that perspective, it was perfectly fine. Just remember to update your podcast feed before heading to the airport.

All prices are in Australian dollars and were correct at the time of publication. Fares were purchased from a travel agency; the airline was not notified that I would be writing a review and did not provide consideration.