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PEK China Eastern First & Business Lounge

PEK China Eastern First & Business Lounge
October 2017

The Four Seasons concierge was kind enough to check us all in and print out our boarding passes, so we had plenty of time arriving at the airport at 1pm.

I remembered from our last visit to just follow the red carpet to First Class and VIP security.

Seems that there are multiple lounges and we headed for V2 which was the first lounge in the main concourse.

The lounge was quite nice and much better than the China Eastern Lounge we used three years ago.    It was clearly a different lounge so not sure whether it was in a different concourse or new construction.

Great Wall Cab?  I sampled for the team.  Yuck, pretty much on the same level as AA's domestic offerings.

At around T-45, we headed out for the gate.

Biejing PEK to Xian XIY
China Eastern MU2112
A325
3:05pm-4:40pm (sked)
3:15pm-5:55pm (actual)
October 16th, 2017
Seats 8AC

On board, First Class featured 3 rows of 2-2 seats which were quite comfortable, unlike the new slimline "First Class" seats in the US.

A peek back to Economy before settling in.

Good legroom with pillows and blankets at each seat.

Pre-departure hot towels and beverages.

Seat back IFE with a reasonable selection of on demand movies and videos. 

Once in the air, our cabin crew quickly started what turned out to be excellent and friendly inflight service.

And full meal service on the 90 minute flight.  It was advertised as beef, but I'm not so sure.  LOL.  And the garlic bread was very good, with loads of garlic butter unlike the single dap that United tries to pass off as garlic bread on 10 hour international flights. 

With a nearly 45 minute ground hold, there is no way that we were going to arrive on time and the flight map indeed estimated a 5:47pm arrival.  Nevertheless, our FA insisted that were on time, would land at 5:15pm and prepared the cabin for landing at 4:45pm... more than an hour before computer predicted landing.  When I showed her the screen and time, that said that was incorrect and the captain had told her that we were on time.  My first thought was that apparently Chinese FAs lie as much as American FAs.  But I think she was just confused and/or perhaps the captain had indeed told her "on time". 

Not sure what gate we arrived at, but it featured one on the longest and steepest uphill jet bridges I have ever seen or walked.

Then a long, long walk to the exit.

And another long, long walk from the terminal to the car park and our driver.

September 2014

We arrived at the airport 85 minutes prior to departure.

Priority security.

Just inside security is the China Eastern First and Business Class Lounge.

Not the most spacious or attractive lounge but adequate for a short stay.

Nice plane watching.

Although a prety anemic selection of snacks.

At T-40, we headed off to our gate.

Beijing-Shanghai Hongqiao
China Eastern MU 5116
A330-300
3:00P-5:05P
September 21, 2014
First Class
Seats 10AC
 
Thanks to FT, I found ctrip.com, a Chinese discount travel site and bought a $225 one way F ticket or about half of what expedia.com was asking.

My vote for the ugliest livery I've seen in a long time.

Both 1L and 2L in operation today, with 1L only for First Class.

And a nice 2-2-2 Business Class cabin.

Angled lie flat on a 600 mile domestic flight.  Someone is happy. :)

Pre-departure hot towel...

... and pre-departure water or juice, in a real glass.

Slippers at every seat.

Nice seat back IFE system with a reasonable selection of movies from around the world. 

After take-off, snack service with tablecloth.

And another hot towel.

Curtains drawn to block galley lights and activity.  Wow, what a concept.

Nothing fancy but better than Dougie's snack basket.

After an early arrival and a short walk thru a pleasant terminal, we met our guide and driver for the next three days.