China Eastern doesn’t exactly have the best reputation for their onboard product. They operate an A340-600 to some destinations in the US, and it leaves quite a bit to be desired, unfortunately. Meanwhile their A330 business class product is much better, though those planes don’t feature a first class cabin.
However, China Eastern is in the process of overhauling their longhaul fleet. Late last week they took delivery of their first of 20 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, which they plan to operate primarily between Asia (Shanghai, specifically) and North America. Rumor has it that the 777-300ER will first fly to Los Angeles and then to New York, and that could be as soon as November of this year (though the 777-300ER hasn’t yet been loaded for any longhaul service).
As of the now the plane has just been scheduled for domestic flights designed to help crews get familiarized with the aircraft, on routes like Shanghai to Chengdu.
Here’s a video of their new onboard product:
As you can see, the new 777-300ER will be in a three class configuration.
The first class cabin will consist of a total of six seats, and looks impressive. It actually features a double bed — it’s only the second commercial plane in the world to feature a double bed, after Singapore Airlines’ A380s.
Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class
And it does look like all first class seats are fully enclosed.
China Eastern First Class 777-300ER
Then business class consists of reverse herringbone seats.
China Eastern Business Class 777-300ER
China Eastern Business Class 777-300ER
Economy is in a 3-4-3 configuration, so while it’s not the most comfortable product, at least it does have on demand entertainment at every seat.
Kudos to China Eastern, I look forward to flying them. Historically China Eastern releases a fair amount of award availability — often two seats in first class and two seats in business class. Since they’re in SkyTeam, you should be able to redeem Delta SkyMiles for business class on them, or Korean Air SkyPass miles for first or business class on them.
China Eastern first and business class award availability
I look forward to trying out their first class product once they load the 777-300ER into the schedule.
Here’s to hoping they serve better champagne than their Chinese counterpart, China Southern.
China Southern’s Duc de Paris champagne
Between this and also China Airlines’ new business class product, SkyTeam transpacific hard products are certainly improving…
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