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I have been to China on an organised tour for aviation photographers / enthusiasts and here are the details of the 15 flights taken in 2 weeks!
01/10/05
LHR - CDG - AF1371 F-GRHY A319 (seat 12A)
Chaotic check-in at LHR T2. Short flight (45mins) but were 30 mins late on pushback. Wheels up was 12.07 and landed 13.52 local time.Usual drinks available and 2 choc chip cookies served as a snack. Crew friendly & attentive.
01/10/05
CDG - PEK (Beijing) AF126 F-GSPF 777-200 (seat 23L)
Total chaos! - We had a a few hours here before this flight and found a place to watch the movements from which was close to the gate we were going to use. Watched as 777 F-GSQJ was towed into postion and preped for the flight. After a while all work stopped, 'QJ' was towed off stand and F-GSPF was brought into replace it. We could see that catering / containers were being offloaded on a remote stand and it became obvious that a delay was certain. Drinks & sandwiches were served in the terminal as the schedule departure time was passed. Having swopped from a 777-300 to a 200 there were a few seat issues which resulted in 5 members of our group getting upgraded to biz class (lucky ****)
Eventually pushed at 20.57 (2 hours late) with wheels up of 21.16.
Route took us NE over Brussels, St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, tomsk, Irkursk, Ulan Bator and into Beijing at 12.41 local time. (flight time 9hr 25mins)
The main meal of chicken, rice veg + cake for dessert was very good. Usual drinks were offered and during the flight you could help yourself to more drinks from galley.
Breakfast was cold meats + cheese + fruit salad, Fromage Frei OJ etc -
Crew were ok but probably a little stressed at the delay.
5/10/05
Time for the first of 11 internal flights. This one with China Southern to Harbin.
CZ6212 on B2260 MD90 of China Southern (but in China Norther colours) Seat 7A.
Check in at Beijing was ok as CZ have a large part of the newer domestic terminal to themselves. One point to note is that check in opened 90 mins before the flight.
Pushed back at 08.53 with wheels up at 09.12. On most of the flights, the departure time on the ticket was the wheels up time rather than push back time.
Crew were attentive and friendly and served a meal and 2 drinks runs in the 1hr 22min flight.
As a general point all the internal flights served a hot meal or good snack.
Usually managed to do 2 drinks runs in the cabin but only because there had a lot of cabin crew compared to european/us airlines. Min of 6 even on a 737 or A320 with up to 10 on a 757. Anouncements were in english but at no point did we get anything from flight deck on route, weather etc.
Legroom on internals varied from very cramped (China Eastern) to spacious (China Southern)
Also all the flights were very full - with only 2 of the 11 having a spare seat next to me. Crews were all friendly and greeted us with hello etc.
6/10/05
Back to Beijing - again on China Southern MD90 B2255. CZ6211 Seat 31E.
P/B at 11.18 wheels up 11.30 for a 1hr 20 min. Again crew friendly with
a meal of chicken / rice + veg, bread roll with something of unknown origin.
Mint cough drops! + usual drinks.
Inflight entertainment consisted of a variety of xmas carols - bizarre but true and probably the only english tape they had.
6/10/05
Beijing to Xian on China Eastern A320 B2359 Seat 26A
p/b 16.41 t/o 16.34 - 1.29min flight time to Xian.
Hot meal of rice / chicken + pineapple cubes + cherry cake, salad - very good
usual drinks offered - again 2 runs through the cabin. Crew attentive & friendly.
8/10/05
Xian to Tianjin on Air China 737 B2519 CA1422 seat 23F
pb/ 14.40 t/o 14/52 landed 16.12 - flight time 1.20
Snack served was a meat + cucumber / gherkin roll, piece of cake (flavour not identified but poss cherry) full flight with 6+ cabin crew.
Leg room was not so good on this 737 but crew were fine.
8/10/05
Tianjin to Shanghai on Shanghai Airlines B2631 737-700 FM9134 seat 6F
p/b 19.09 t/o 19.23 landed 20.50 with a flight time 1hr 27min
Hot meal served - chicken with rice (common theme) + plum roll, walnut pices in a toffee like coating, mint cough drops, dried plums & a packet of something I did not try an id (based on smell alone) Usual drinks served. crew fine with adequate legroom.
9/10/05
Shanghai Pudong to Shanghai station - on mag-lev train. Not really a flight report but just a statement of what a stunning piece of engineering this is.
30+km trip done in 7min 30sec reaching a top speed of 431kmh (about 260mph)
10/10/05
Shanghai (Hongquoi) to Wuhan (day trip) on China Southern B5070 737-700 (CZ3578 seat 8F)
p/b 10.57 t/o 11.09 landed 12.27 with a flight time of 1.18
Usual hot meal of chicken & rice, fruit salad/ roll + drinks.
10/10/05
Wuhan to Shanghai on China Southern B5068 737-700
p/b 18.20 t/o 18.27 land 19.31 flight time 1.04
Hot meal of noodles with veg sauge, roll + carton of milk (i think) + usual drinks. Legroom on both the CZ 737s was very good.
11/10/05
Shanghai to Xiamen on Shanghai Airlines B2857 757 FM9253 Seat 12F.
p/b 8.02 t/o 8.17 landed 9.36 flight time 1.19
Breakfast of squidslice!, roll + cake, peanuts + mint cough drops. Usual drinks (2 runs) flight full with maybe 10+ cabin crew.
Again xmas carols played as entertainment (jingle bells was one)
11/10/05
Xiamen to Guangzhou on China Southern CZ3806 B2408 A320 seat 18A.
p/b 17.33 t/o 15.42 landed 18.33 flight time 51mins.
snack was a large packet of 'ritz' type bisquits + usual drinks.
13/10/05
Guangzhou to Chengdu on Air China CA4310 B2155 737-600 seat 14A
p/b 07.47 t/o 08.01 landed 09.54 flight time 1.53
breakfast = ham + veg + coconut cake + lychee jelly, peeled chesnuts + usual drinks.
13/10/05
Chengdu to Beijing on Air China CA1408 B2840 757 seat 21A - this was the only internal flight with any sort of delay (just 1 hour)
p/b 20.40 t/o 20.52 landed 22.52 flight time of 2hours
Hot meal fo either beef or chicken with rice (I had the beef which was very good) Hot/spicy salad, fruit salad (mandarin segements + pineapple cubes) roll/butter + usual drinks.
On arrival at Beijing it took 15mins for jetway to operate.
14/10/05
Beijing to Paris CDG on AF129 F-GZCJ A330 seat 22A
Check-in was chaotic - it took over 1 hour to get airside with a long queue for custom / immigration & security checks.
p/b 10.03 t/o 10.31 land 14.40 (local) flight time of 10.19 (approx 45 mins late)
Route was the reverse of the outbound leg - Ulan Bator, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Gdansk, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels.
Meal served were a choice of beef with mushroom, penne pasta + snow peas or pork saute with wu xi sauce, carrots, rice + pak choy.
both came with cheese, fresh fruit, fruit crumble + usual drinks offered.
About 90mins from CDG another meal was served which consisted of
shrimp salad, peppered loin of pork wth parmentier sald, cheese, black forst gateaux + usual drinks.
14/10/05
last flight of the trip AF2070 to LHR on F-GJVB A320 seat 19A
p/b 17.00 t/o 17.16 land 17.00 (local) flight time 44 mins
usual drinks served along with a cracker type bisquit.
Well - that is it - 15 flights in 13 days - not sure of miles flown but is quite a few. Worst flights for delays were the Air France ones. Cabin crew of the Chinese carriers were very attentive and friendly to our group and the serving of hot meals (generally very good) in economy is something that is not often seen in europe / usa these days. If there is anymore info I can provide then let me know and I will see what else I can remember.
01/10/05
LHR - CDG - AF1371 F-GRHY A319 (seat 12A)
Chaotic check-in at LHR T2. Short flight (45mins) but were 30 mins late on pushback. Wheels up was 12.07 and landed 13.52 local time.Usual drinks available and 2 choc chip cookies served as a snack. Crew friendly & attentive.
01/10/05
CDG - PEK (Beijing) AF126 F-GSPF 777-200 (seat 23L)
Total chaos! - We had a a few hours here before this flight and found a place to watch the movements from which was close to the gate we were going to use. Watched as 777 F-GSQJ was towed into postion and preped for the flight. After a while all work stopped, 'QJ' was towed off stand and F-GSPF was brought into replace it. We could see that catering / containers were being offloaded on a remote stand and it became obvious that a delay was certain. Drinks & sandwiches were served in the terminal as the schedule departure time was passed. Having swopped from a 777-300 to a 200 there were a few seat issues which resulted in 5 members of our group getting upgraded to biz class (lucky ****)
Eventually pushed at 20.57 (2 hours late) with wheels up of 21.16.
Route took us NE over Brussels, St Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, tomsk, Irkursk, Ulan Bator and into Beijing at 12.41 local time. (flight time 9hr 25mins)
The main meal of chicken, rice veg + cake for dessert was very good. Usual drinks were offered and during the flight you could help yourself to more drinks from galley.
Breakfast was cold meats + cheese + fruit salad, Fromage Frei OJ etc -
Crew were ok but probably a little stressed at the delay.
5/10/05
Time for the first of 11 internal flights. This one with China Southern to Harbin.
CZ6212 on B2260 MD90 of China Southern (but in China Norther colours) Seat 7A.
Check in at Beijing was ok as CZ have a large part of the newer domestic terminal to themselves. One point to note is that check in opened 90 mins before the flight.
Pushed back at 08.53 with wheels up at 09.12. On most of the flights, the departure time on the ticket was the wheels up time rather than push back time.
Crew were attentive and friendly and served a meal and 2 drinks runs in the 1hr 22min flight.
As a general point all the internal flights served a hot meal or good snack.
Usually managed to do 2 drinks runs in the cabin but only because there had a lot of cabin crew compared to european/us airlines. Min of 6 even on a 737 or A320 with up to 10 on a 757. Anouncements were in english but at no point did we get anything from flight deck on route, weather etc.
Legroom on internals varied from very cramped (China Eastern) to spacious (China Southern)
Also all the flights were very full - with only 2 of the 11 having a spare seat next to me. Crews were all friendly and greeted us with hello etc.
6/10/05
Back to Beijing - again on China Southern MD90 B2255. CZ6211 Seat 31E.
P/B at 11.18 wheels up 11.30 for a 1hr 20 min. Again crew friendly with
a meal of chicken / rice + veg, bread roll with something of unknown origin.
Mint cough drops! + usual drinks.
Inflight entertainment consisted of a variety of xmas carols - bizarre but true and probably the only english tape they had.
6/10/05
Beijing to Xian on China Eastern A320 B2359 Seat 26A
p/b 16.41 t/o 16.34 - 1.29min flight time to Xian.
Hot meal of rice / chicken + pineapple cubes + cherry cake, salad - very good
usual drinks offered - again 2 runs through the cabin. Crew attentive & friendly.
8/10/05
Xian to Tianjin on Air China 737 B2519 CA1422 seat 23F
pb/ 14.40 t/o 14/52 landed 16.12 - flight time 1.20
Snack served was a meat + cucumber / gherkin roll, piece of cake (flavour not identified but poss cherry) full flight with 6+ cabin crew.
Leg room was not so good on this 737 but crew were fine.
8/10/05
Tianjin to Shanghai on Shanghai Airlines B2631 737-700 FM9134 seat 6F
p/b 19.09 t/o 19.23 landed 20.50 with a flight time 1hr 27min
Hot meal served - chicken with rice (common theme) + plum roll, walnut pices in a toffee like coating, mint cough drops, dried plums & a packet of something I did not try an id (based on smell alone) Usual drinks served. crew fine with adequate legroom.
9/10/05
Shanghai Pudong to Shanghai station - on mag-lev train. Not really a flight report but just a statement of what a stunning piece of engineering this is.
30+km trip done in 7min 30sec reaching a top speed of 431kmh (about 260mph)
10/10/05
Shanghai (Hongquoi) to Wuhan (day trip) on China Southern B5070 737-700 (CZ3578 seat 8F)
p/b 10.57 t/o 11.09 landed 12.27 with a flight time of 1.18
Usual hot meal of chicken & rice, fruit salad/ roll + drinks.
10/10/05
Wuhan to Shanghai on China Southern B5068 737-700
p/b 18.20 t/o 18.27 land 19.31 flight time 1.04
Hot meal of noodles with veg sauge, roll + carton of milk (i think) + usual drinks. Legroom on both the CZ 737s was very good.
11/10/05
Shanghai to Xiamen on Shanghai Airlines B2857 757 FM9253 Seat 12F.
p/b 8.02 t/o 8.17 landed 9.36 flight time 1.19
Breakfast of squidslice!, roll + cake, peanuts + mint cough drops. Usual drinks (2 runs) flight full with maybe 10+ cabin crew.
Again xmas carols played as entertainment (jingle bells was one)
11/10/05
Xiamen to Guangzhou on China Southern CZ3806 B2408 A320 seat 18A.
p/b 17.33 t/o 15.42 landed 18.33 flight time 51mins.
snack was a large packet of 'ritz' type bisquits + usual drinks.
13/10/05
Guangzhou to Chengdu on Air China CA4310 B2155 737-600 seat 14A
p/b 07.47 t/o 08.01 landed 09.54 flight time 1.53
breakfast = ham + veg + coconut cake + lychee jelly, peeled chesnuts + usual drinks.
13/10/05
Chengdu to Beijing on Air China CA1408 B2840 757 seat 21A - this was the only internal flight with any sort of delay (just 1 hour)
p/b 20.40 t/o 20.52 landed 22.52 flight time of 2hours
Hot meal fo either beef or chicken with rice (I had the beef which was very good) Hot/spicy salad, fruit salad (mandarin segements + pineapple cubes) roll/butter + usual drinks.
On arrival at Beijing it took 15mins for jetway to operate.
14/10/05
Beijing to Paris CDG on AF129 F-GZCJ A330 seat 22A
Check-in was chaotic - it took over 1 hour to get airside with a long queue for custom / immigration & security checks.
p/b 10.03 t/o 10.31 land 14.40 (local) flight time of 10.19 (approx 45 mins late)
Route was the reverse of the outbound leg - Ulan Bator, Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Gdansk, Berlin, Cologne, Brussels.
Meal served were a choice of beef with mushroom, penne pasta + snow peas or pork saute with wu xi sauce, carrots, rice + pak choy.
both came with cheese, fresh fruit, fruit crumble + usual drinks offered.
About 90mins from CDG another meal was served which consisted of
shrimp salad, peppered loin of pork wth parmentier sald, cheese, black forst gateaux + usual drinks.
14/10/05
last flight of the trip AF2070 to LHR on F-GJVB A320 seat 19A
p/b 17.00 t/o 17.16 land 17.00 (local) flight time 44 mins
usual drinks served along with a cracker type bisquit.
Well - that is it - 15 flights in 13 days - not sure of miles flown but is quite a few. Worst flights for delays were the Air France ones. Cabin crew of the Chinese carriers were very attentive and friendly to our group and the serving of hot meals (generally very good) in economy is something that is not often seen in europe / usa these days. If there is anymore info I can provide then let me know and I will see what else I can remember.
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