Air China Reviews 

HORROR- plane broke down when we start from (04.01.2026) CA941-Beijing to Dubai and they start fixing the plane when this was full of people ,they turned lights and ventilation off and dont let us out-then people gets mad and start panicing then they let us out-later they find new plane and we flew to Dubai 5-6h later.They give us paper and told we get refund-but only chinese nationals can get refund:)They threated us like animals and didnt give us any food coupons -NOTHING! So i never choose this airline company agan-and it is not cheap at all!

Air China's web check-in process has been the most disgusting in years.

We travelled from London to Shanghai and from there to Tokyo, then from Tokyo to Beijing and then to London. The seats of the plane were very small especially when you are travelling for up to 11 hours one flight, the food was prison food although you do get to choose between chicken/beef/fish. The staff on board was as helpful as possible hence the two stars instead of one. I would have not write a review cuz it wouldn't have been the worst flight I ever had, HOWEVER, when I got back to London I was patiently waiting for my check-in luggage to arrive and I was told that mine plus probably like 10+ people our luggage is still in Beijing, it did not board with our flight. Then on the desk we were met with members of staff being super smiley and acting as if it is not a big deal that my luggage has not arrived. I was told that it will arrive the next day in London, but because I live up north it will take longer. Yes, but this longer turned out to be 8 days later. I was extremally annoyed and I was trying to get in touch with someone from the team through email and phone and they kept sending me to different departments. At the end, when I finally got my luggage, I wanted to apply for compensation as I never asked for the stress I went through. After numerous email from my side I started received answers with very non-human like tone saying I should not use gmail. Finally, I received an email saying they will be happy to refund my purchases of cosmetics and clothes that I bought in the time I was waiting for my luggage. I did not buy anything, so my time and nerves were for nothing. Well, all I know is I will avoid airchina in the future as firstly it was not a comfortable flight, and then with the stress I went through I prefer to pay slightly more but to be sure my luggage will arrive with me wherever I go. Imagine this happening the other way around, when I landed for my holiday?

The baggage allowance of 50 pounds is not used to calculate overweight. You pay the entire amount of the bag's weight. What is the point of providing a baggage allowance if it is not used to calculate the overcharge fee???

Choose another airline, they are completely hopeless and not solution-oriented. We are a family of 3 from Denmark to Vietnam. They lost a wheelchair and a suitcase on the way down here. The wheelchair arrived after about 3 days, where we had to find alternatives ourselves. They only found the suitcase after 11 days, we will pick it up on the way home at the airport. We are on an island, which is why we cannot pick it up sooner. In the meantime, we have acquired new clothes and other things as well as a new suitcase to transport it during our internal flights in the country. On our return flight, we have 4 suitcases instead of 3, Air China will not allow that, even though they are the reason we had to spend days getting the ones we needed. Really bad and uncomprehending customer service, without a doubt choose another company. We will never fly with them again!

Our first time flyng with Air China, and it will definitely be the last. A couple of months before we were due to fly, they cancelled our second leg, from Beijing to HCMC, so after conversations with our booking agent, they added another leg so we could get there on the same day. Then just as we got in the taxi to head to Heathrow, we had an email to say they had cancelled our second leg. We managed to get through to their customer service, who then re-routed our middle leg to Shenzhen, with an arrival at our final destination 4 hours late, which then ended up at 5 hours with some delays.
On our return we have started to make a compensation claim, but it is a complete nightmare. We spoke to their European Customer services, who directed us to the London office. Their phone permanently says they are not taking calls, so I emailed them, and they said they don't deal with claims and directed me to 3 other offices via 3 different emails addresses. No response as of yet from my emails and no one wants to take ownership, I suspect they just want be to give up.

The food during the flight was decent and the cabin crew very attentive and pleasant which is why I give them a 2 star. But the rest was horrible. Their booking system is a joke and their staff by check in is terrible. We had paid extra for seat reservations and when we get to the airport they give us other seats than the ones we had booked. When we brought this to their attention and showed our receipt, they refuse it because they claim it's not in their system and give a very poor attitude and service to their customers. Never flying with Air China again.

I had a great flight. Thank you to Mrs Tang Zitian 唐子添. She welcomed us very well. Help us with resolving our seats problem. She showed genuine interest to us, provided a top excellent professional service. She learned that we just got engaged she gave us both a treat. We were very touched by her kindness. Air China can only be proud to have such high value employee. We highly recommend Mrs Tang Zitian.

We booked our flight through Lufthansa, but it was operated by Air China. Due to the codeshare system, we couldn't check in online, and our children (ages 3 and 9) were assigned separate seats, away from us. We offered to pay for seats next to the mother at the check-in desk, but it was refused, and we had to resolve the seating ourselves onboard. Despite the onboard service being good, the lack of proper seating arrangements and care for families was unacceptable. This experience has seriously shaken our trust in Air China as a Star Alliance partner.

I have already travelled with more than 20 companies, this is by far the worst experience I have ever had. Believe me, even it this is the very cheapest flight available, it is worth to expand, even if way more, to at least avoid all the nightmare they put their passengers through.

Worst company I have travelled with
Avoid when possibile

I am astonished at the poor reviews for Air China. I flew them for the first time last week from Tokyo to Beijing and return.
I booked them because they were the only flights available to get me to Beijing on the same day following a flight from the USA to Tokyo - it's complicated!
Having recently retired from 30 years in the aviation industry, I have travelled extensively on Western carriers and, like many others, as this was my first experience with a Chinese carrier, I was slightly apprehensive.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. The plane was a modern Airbus A321, it was clean, the seat was comfortable and the cabin crew were extremely friendly and attentive - on both flights. The aircraft departed and arrived ontime and I easily made my connection on the return to Tokyo.
The experience has put to bed any predjudices I may have had against Chinese carriers and I will definitly fly them again.
Now if we want to give an airline just 1 star, shall we talk about United????

Very much reliable fast and easy comfy

close to the worst sh... i ever tried . constantly checking for human. if mobilphone hiding a symbol so not possible to pass . no way of change prices. just bottom cr.ap

I've flown two different return journeys with them and never had an issue. The flights are more 'affordable' so didn't have high expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I've flown from Heathrow to Bangkok and back, and also Heathrow to Tokyo and back. All flights had a layover at Beijing Airport.

I pre-booked meals for the flight for my dietary requirements and the food was reasonably decent (minus the meals leaving from London, because when is plane food ever good that's made in the UK lol). Service and flight entertainment were also decent, and so was luggage allowance.

My only complaint is that you can't check-in online and have to get to the airport early for all flights, but besides that the price is good value.

Awful customer service.

I was supposed to call them and get a hotel transit.

1. Very hard to find a worker who actually understands English.

2. The communication between the staff horrible, one of the staff told me they would send email for hotel transit booking. Never got it. Called again. They say it´s full.

3. The hotel transit is full. Took me about 48 hours to get this answer. Flying in another 28 hours.

They tried their best, but it was like the workers live in different planets and have no idea what the other Air China staff has done with my ticket.

Flying tomorrow and I have 15h layover with apparently no transit hotel anymore.

My flight from London to Phuket was rescheduled less than a week in advance, resulting in a 24-hour delay of my flight.
Frustrating enough to loose a day of holidays, and pay for a night in a nice hotel that I wasn't going to use, but Air China's customer service was appalling.
I'm rightfully entitled to €600 compensation under UK Regulations, but have received absolutely no useful reply from Air China to at least 10 emails - the best I got was they we're going to pass on the issue, then never heard back, even after following up continuously.

Even after escalating my case to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), who formally confirmed my entitlement to compensation, Air China has continued to be unresponsive. They are not only ignoring their passengers but also a national aviation regulatory body.

Save yourself the potential headache and choose an airline that values its passengers and respects the rules.

Multiple attempts made to contact air china but been totally ignored and left out of pocket. Appalling treatment we received from Air China between 15/06 and 16/06 that resulted in us being stuck at Beijing Capital airport (T3) for almost 12 hours and delaying our overall travel itinerary by 15 hours. However, flight CA960 was delayed by an hour and half making the connection to CA851 impossible. The only alternative flights offered were almost 12 hours later and would arrive into London Heathrow (CA937) - which was not our end destination. We asked for an alternative but were not given any. Instead of 06:35am at Gatwick, we instead landed at Heathrow at 17:40 and had to take nearly 3 hours of additional public transport to make it back home.

After being swapped onto the later flight as arranged at the Bangkok Air China check in desk, we were assured that vouchers for food/drink and hotels would be ready on arrival in Beijing. When we arrived in Beijing there was no one working on the help desk. The only person working was on the transfer gate before security. She was extremely rude when she tried to communicate in English, nor did she try to work cooperatively with us when a fellow passenger used a translation app. Not once did she say sorry for the delay. We asked her about the hotel, water and food as everything in the airport was shut and she just kept saying no.

We were stuck at the e-passport gate before security trying to get the assistance we were promised for over two hours. We were told to go through and find the air China desk. Once we went through security into the terminal, we discovered we had been lied to - as there was no Air China desk in the transfer terminal. We instead we tried to speak to staff at the Air China business class lounge as there was no other staff available. The staff member was extremely unhelpful and wouldn't contact anyone else at Air China in the main terminal check in desk to help us, even though they would have been able to make an internal call but we were unable.

We then attempted to find a member of Beijing airport staff and only then were we offered a 'transit hotel'. However, we spoke to immigration staff who advised us that the only available hotel was an hour round trip and that as British citizens without Visas, the immigration queues would take too long to re-enter and that it would not be worth leaving. So we were left for 12 hours without access to a bed or shower, with no food or water and nothing open inside the terminal. Completely inhumane.

Extremely disappointing experience with Air China. I was scheduled to fly from Seoul to London with a layover in Beijing. When I arrived at the airport, I was offered a direct flight to London that would arrive 2 hours earlier — I accepted and was told to wait while they sorted the details. After waiting for over an hour with no updates, I was finally told the direct flight was no longer available — and by that time, I had missed my original flight.

I was rebooked on a completely different flight with a layover, arriving 2 hours later than my original itinerary. No apology, no upgrade, no compensation. To make things worse, when I finally arrived in London, my luggage was missing.

No accountability, poor communication, and a total lack of customer care. I expected far better from a national airline. I won’t be flying with Air China again.

Awful, awful carrier. Cheaper than the rest because they fly via China. Tired and dirty interior, uncomfortable seats, rubbish entertainment, the rudest and most horrible cabin crew I have ever come across, the most disgusting food ever eaten on a plane. One free drink of alcohol if you are lucky, a warm horrible beer called snow or thimble of wine. Pay more go with a better airline. I hate Ryanair with a passion but I would choose Ryanair over Air China. Going on holiday is meant to be fun and relaxing but after flying with Air China and then having the tedious and awful experience of going through Chinese customs I am not sure it is.