Air China Starting 747-8 Flights Beijing To Guangzhou

"There’s no denying that while the Airbus A380 is the best plane in the sky in terms of passenger comfort"

Debatable for sure. In business class, in particular, I know of lots of complaints due to the oversize business cabin and impersonal service that often results. That's among other complaints like a chaotic boarding process or that often 380's consolidate away a frequency that many passengers preferred. Also the A380 upper deck is narrower than a 777 and much narrower than a 747 main deck. Given the same seating layout (which is really only going to happen in first or business class), the Boeings would be more spacious.

"The 747-8 was in theory a breath of fresh air for the 747 “line,” though in practice it has been a complete flop."

I'd like to see some numbers to support this.

Given that it's not a completely new plane, only a re-design and upgrade, and that they already have 120 orders, I would be surprised if this wasn't a profitable program for Boeing. As the A380 is not a viable cargo plane, I expect a healthy (though not likely overwhelming) supply of cargo orders to keep rolling in for the 747-8 as older 747's continue to be retired in the coming years.

I think it's true to say that the 748 has not met Boeing's hopes or expectations, but what's more debatable about the success, or lack thereof, of the A380. The NY Times had an interesting piece a few weeks back: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/business/oversize-expectations-for-the-airbus-a380.html?_r=0

Basically, airlines are opting for smaller, frequent routings (777, 787), rather than larger, less frequent ones (747, 380).

I feel we may be seeing this on the IAH-PEK route. Air China has been achieving some pretty impressive loaf factors on the 77W and J+F are always quite full.

Air China - good hard products, HORRIBLE soft products

Their 777-300ER business class was very good in terms of seat comfort, IFE system, and amenities.
The food, service, and customer service at the airports are ATROCIOUS.

The food was like prison food. I couldn't take more than a bite of it. And I was HUNGRY like a wolf starved for weeks. Not one of the FA's spoke English or another language other than Mandarin. Not even Cantonese.

Airport customer service was worse. Air China's delayed a flight and you miss your connection. It should be their responsibility to rebook you on the next flight. Nope. They say too bad and just hide in the back room.

I am flying PEK-CAN Oct15 and Oct22...fortunately hadn't booked the Oct22 flight yet. I am seeing coach and first availability using LM. I'll send you pics of the configuration!

The hard product of Air China can be good but the soft product is not

Nobody will understand you in the flight and the services are just incompetent.

Don't forget that Lufthansa will have premium economy.

Lucky, why not a first class SQ run with Isabelle Chu? I bet she's a hoot - would love to read that!

I got more info for premium coach on Air China's 747-8 from another blog. The seats will both be in the same 3-4-3 setup and use the same seats as coach, but with 20% more pitch(probably at least 36" based on their premium coach seats on the A330-300's and 777-200's). All seats on their 747-8's will have PTV's, which is big cuz on their other premium coach equipped planes, premium coach has PTV's while regular coach doesn't, they have the overhead TV instead. It's likely that the 747-8 will use same seats used on the 777-300 in each cabin based on how recently those seats were introduced on Air China.

During my tour of the Boeing plant a month ago, the "747" assembly area had two Air China 748 planes in last stages of assembly (engines & interiors) and right after that there were at least 2-3 Korean Air 748s. The guide did say that they are no operating at full capacity although they must be under a deadline as they were working on some of these 748s during our tour even though it was a Saturday.