China Eastern review by Ariel 2016-01-30

I read some fairly bad reviews of this airline, but I’m always willing to give a try to one i haven’t flown with. I flew jfk to Shanghai to Bangkok. No problems, everything went smoothly, the food was decent, I was generally satisfied. Problems arose in my return flight. Here I went Ho Chi Min to Shanghai to jfk. The first flight was a disaster. First it was an hour late, with no word from anyone at the airport. The main board continued to say an on time departure. There were no announcements and no representatives to ask. Once the flight finally did leave, someone was allowed to smoke through the whole flight. It is possible that there was something wrong with the plane allowing smoke into the cabin, but it had a distinct cigarette smell, and either way, smoke in the cabin is really not acceptable. I have since read several other reviews noting that smoking was allowed on other flights, even though the flights were supposed to be non-smoking. Given my extreme sensitivity to cigarette smoke, I definitely won’t be taking a risk on this airline again.