Review - Air China Business Class A350-900 Chengdu Shuangliu to Shanghai Pudong

CA8552 CTU-PVG

March 20th, 2025

Check-in:

I flew Air China just a couple months ago on its A321 and enjoyed my experience. This time, I had a chance to check out its new A350, on one of its most premium domestic business routes. Oddly enough, business class was only $30 more than economy, and roughly half of business class was empty when I booked. All in all, I paid $230 for a lie-flat seat on a two-hour flight, which was hard to beat. Both Chengdu and Shanghai have two airports, and the Shuangliu to Hongqiao pair is the most favored by business travelers.

With Chengdu being an Air China hub, there was an entire check-in aisle dedicated to Air China’s premium passengers.

Our flight was one of the last departures of the night.

Check-in was completed within seconds, even with a checked bag. The exit of the check-in area directly led to fast track security, so it was an extremely streamlined process for Air China’s premium customers. And once through security, the elevators to the lounge were immediately to the right. From the curb to the lounge, it was no more than 50 steps.

Lounge:

I had a brief stay at the Air China Domestic First and Business Class Lounge. It was an okay lounge, but nothing special.

Boarding:

Air China’s A350s have two types of business class products, one of which is the Recaro CL6710, found on carriers like EL AL, TAP Air Portugal and United’s Polaris. Our flight was equipped with the Collins Super Diamond seats, found on, well, the other 90% of the airlines. They are by no means cutting-edge anymore, but they represent a significant improvement for Air China. For the longest time, Air China had (and still has) the Collins Diamond seats on most of its long-haul aircraft.

I boarded through the forward jet bridge and was greeted by the crew. It’s always nice when airlines don’t skimp on using multiple jet bridges for a widebody aircraft.

The cabin was rather bland, to be expected for the Chinese flag carrier. Well, except for the red IFE screensaver. I guess also to be expected for the Chinese flag carrier. Lol.

The seat itself should look familiar to many. Interestingly, one of the flight attendants was standing in the aisle with a basket of hot towels. So as soon as I sat down, I was offered one.

Obviously there would be a pair of slippers. This time around, the flight attendant didn’t open the slippers and place them by my feet. She did pick up the wrapper the moment I took them out, though.

Air China Business Class Slippers CTU-PVG

Guys, I don’t know if y’all can see from the picture, but there were literally no fingerprints on the seatbelt buckle - shiny as a new penny. It was such a refreshing sight to see.

Awaiting at the seat were a pair of headphones, some packaged snacks and a bottle of water.

Air China Business Class Headphones CTU-PVG

For a domestic flight, there was a reasonably extensive selection of movies and TV shows, with a decent number of Hollywood options. Sadly, no exterior cameras were installed on Air China’s A350s.

A welcome drink was shortly offered. No alcoholic beverages were mentioned, so I had a carrot juice. Air China is still plenty old-school in some ways. Like the flight attendant came around to offer newspapers, and the literature pocket actually had literature in it.

Air China had a panda-themed safety video.

The crew turned on the mood lighting as we prepared for pushback. While the cabin was half full when I booked, it ended up leaving with only two open seats. I’ve read on Weibo that Chinese airlines are pretty aggressive when it comes to selling upgrades at check-in or at the gate. Just beware these upgrades often don’t come with lounge access or business class meals/baggage allowance.

I want to commend the crew on one little thing. I was seated in the last row of business class and saw several flight attendants rushing down the aisle towards premium economy. I was wondering what the commotion was, then I overheard them in the galley that an intoxicated passenger had lost his lunch in the lavatory. If I were a flight attendant in a situation like this, my reaction would most definitely be “ugh, eww, wtf?” But this crew handled it so professionally - they never complained and didn’t badmouth the customer one bit. One flight attendant said “let’s clean up quickly before takeoff and give him some hot water.”. I truly believe if you did that on American Airlines you’d be arrested.

Inflight:

Now that the congestion has vastly alleviated at Shuangliu, after the opening of Tianfu, we pushed back and took off straight from runway 02L five minutes later.

Chinese airlines tend to keep their seatbelt sign on for the first 30 minutes of the flight, so I connected to the wifi. There was a page in the inflight magazine with instructions.

Wifi was complimentary for business class passengers. The speeds were lightning fast - no delays in video streaming. Though you’ll need VPN to access certain sites and apps.

Streaming service was integrated into the wifi portal.

On the topic of tech, I found Air China’s mobile app to be quite useful. For one, there was a live flight map with all the flight stats.

You could also track your checked bags. Although the system was glitching on the departure airport.

Due to our departure time of half past eight in the evening, Air China, and most Chinese carriers for that matter, only served a light snack. I was told I could have either dan dan noodles or some kind of sandwich. I went with the former, and it turned out to be a great choice. Noodle dishes are usually soggy or clumpy on airplanes, but I was impressed by this one. I’m not saying it was better than the noodles on the ground, but at least they were untangled and al dente. The amount of topping was respectable, to put it mildly, lol. To drink, I had some delicious coconut water. I wish more airlines would have fun non-alcoholic beverages like this. Another shoutout to the fruits, which, actually had flavors?

Prior to our descent, I checked out the “lavatory in question”. I don’t know how much damage that passenger had done to it, but I doubt anyone else on the plane could tell what had transpired in here by how clean it was.

Air China A350-900 Business Class Lavatory

I popped behind the curtain and into the premium economy cabin, which was totally deserted.

Air China A350-900 Premium Economy Class Cabin

Upon returning to my seat, I found my empty water bottle had been replaced by a brand new one.

On Arrival:

I had another very pleasant flight with Air China. Although it’s not gonna join the ranks of EVA or Qatar anytime soon, the service has always been down-to-earth and genuine. Its new aircraft feature competitive hard products. I’d gladly take Air China on a long-haul flight in the future. Speaking of which, once we landed, our bird had a brief turn at Pudong, before continuing her journey to Milan.

Review - Air China Business Class A350-900 Chengdu Shuangliu to Shanghai Pudong

CA8552 CTU-PVG

March 20th, 2025

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