I flew with Air China in January 2016 from London to Auckland (stopped over in Beijing) and to be honest it was actually alright. Bearing in mind that they were at least £400 cheaper than any other airline, it was pretty good value for money. Looking back, would I spend an extra £100 per flight for Quantas, Emirates etc? Yes, probably, but Air China was still alright.
Their time keeping isn’t amazing and flights regularly left about 30 minutes late, but that’s neither here nor there so I let that slide. Our plane was what I would consider small for a long haul flight. It carried a 2-4-2 formation for all but one which had a 3-4-3. I was expecting a double decker jumbo, but never mind. The language barrier is sometimes a struggle, however, when it comes down to it you can usually communicate in the end. The food was actually pretty good. I had beef and rice every flight. They only seemed to serve proper drinks (beer, wine, coke etc) about twice a flight (before meals). Other than that, its just a small glass of water. There were a few up to date western movies which was good too.
In summary, Air China isn’t bad, but they aren’t British Airways, but they aren’t the same price.
