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You could take a look at this web. You'll find info and reviews about airlines, their seats, airports...

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Cool site!

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You probably won't get an emergency exit row unless you speak decent Mandarin. If the plane is full of foreigners you'd have a chance, but if not, unlikely as they'll seat Chinese speakers in those seats. In the event the plane has an emergency any commands will be given in Chinese and having people who don't understand in the emergency rows will only add to the clusterf*&^.

Most flight attendants speak at least basic English. Enough to offer you a meal in that language, and answer some basic questions.

China Eastern is really just another typical airline. Not great, not horrible.

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A interesting story about flying in China ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/rage-smelly-socks-and-stolen-wine-in-china-s-skies.html

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I'd say that most Chinese airlines are about the same or slightly worse than your typical American airline.

I think most Chinese airlines give exit row seats only based on their frequent flier program status or if you are disabled. I don't think they have are equipped to let people pay cash for those seats, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. I wouldn't expect it to be cheap though. My guess would be $75+.

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I've flown them. I have absolutely no problems with them. Probably as good if not a little better than most US airlines. I'm 6 foot but I have crazy long legs. Didn't have a legroom problem at all.

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I've flown on them too and can't remember a thing about the flight which suggests it wasn't too bad.

I disagree with the statement that they'll give orders in Mandarin if there is a problem (Why would the word "brace" be used to warn people rather than it's Chinese equivalent and what instructions, other than "get off quick", are they likely to need to give people sitting near emergency exits?). That said, with online check-in these days, those seats are the first to go so offering money may not help. I doubt they'll upgrade you to Business Class on the cheap (Nobody ever has for me).

There will certainly be someone who speaks English amongst the crew (The pilot will, most likely, be Australian. They always seem to be when I fly in China).

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I flew with them a few times when I was in china a few years back and found they were good. I guess it depends on whether you are using them Internationally or Domestic. i flew International business class way back in 2000 so it is hardly current but the service was exemplary with the stewardesses speaking good conversational English. On domestic flights I took in 2008 they were less proficient but good enough.
I am 175cm tall so I am not tall but I thought Chinese planes in general had more room than Australian domestic flights have.

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I fly United weekly and American monthly, the last 16 years, as a Chicago based executive. I consider United a tad better than AA, mainly on International. When we lived in China, both Shanghai and Beijing in 2011, I flew China Eastern 3 times, they are fine, keep in mind most of China air fleet is far newer than most the fleets in USA, as its airline industry is is much younger and has expanded in recent years that have seen huge additions of new planes from Boeing and Airbus.

As a foreigner, you will not be allowed in Emergency Rows unless you can speak Mandarin.

The flight attendants are far more polite, and far better looking, and professional, than any of the old sea hags on the US with bad attitudes, thats for sure, heck, all of Asia, when it comes to service, blows most of the US away, as does their looks and attitudes.

No worries, the most uncomfy plane I flew in China was a low budget Spring Airlines, from Shanghai to Macau, the seats were close together and did not recline, but it was just a 2 hour flight, service was fine though, a tad unorganized at Check In at 6am...

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#9

As a foreigner, you will not be allowed in Emergency Rows unless you can speak Mandarin.

That's odd. Because I took a China Southern flight between Beijing and Hong Kong last December 27th and I got an emergency exit seat. As it happens, I do speak reasonable Mandarin but the Cantonese/English speaking stewardess didn't know that when she offered me the seat

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We will be at the gate like 4 hours early because of layover. We are going to try to request maybe a BULK HEAD SEAT (do those have more room). We will try for exit row but it sounds unlikely.

Has anyone ever upgraded to business class at the gate? My friend says they will do it for around $100 per person if there are open seats. Seems worth it (lay down seats, personal tv, more leg room, etc).

What do you think - would you do that if there is the option?

I am 6'3" and heard those economy seats are even smaller than the USA seats sometimes which I barely fit into.

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I disagree with the statement that they'll give orders in Mandarin if there is a problem (Why would the word "brace" be used to warn people rather than it's Chinese equivalent and what instructions, other than "get off quick", are they likely to need to give people sitting near emergency exits?).

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Assuming all goes well during an evacuation (an unlikely scenario) one or two commands would be all that's needed, but think about all the things that can go wrong during an emergency: huge carry-on bags that weren't properly stowed obstructing the emergency exit, darkness, a seat back fully reclined and/or broken partially blocking the exit, someone passes out and blocks the emergency exit, exit door is jammed, people panicking. These are all possibilities and during such situations/clusterF**** I wouldn't expect to hear any commands in English, and if there were, I wouldn't expect them to be understood by most of the Chinese on-board. Here's food for thought: Anyone who's been on a flight full of Chinese people knows how much they love to push to the front to get off the plane first once at destination, practically rushing the door before the plane's even reached the gate. Imagine the chaos to get off the plane first if the pilot was forced to make an emergency landing.

I was on a half-full domestic flight in China last year and after the plane was fully boarded I moved to a seat in the emergency row, which was otherwise empty. I was approached by a flight attendant and asked if I spoke Mandarin, I do but not enough to deal with any kind of emergency situation. I was told I had to go back to my original seat, which I did. The explanation made sense to me, everyone else on-board was Chinese and I was one of only a couple of foreigners.

I don't expect every flight attendant on every airline in China follows the same rules, and for international flights, everything may be different than my experience above, or not. I don't know as I don't normally fly on China-based airlines outside of China.

I'm over six feet myself, I usually request an aisle seat and it's always been good enough. Bulkhead seats are better but those ones are almost always gone by the time I get my ticket.

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1. 12

think about all the things that can go wrong during an emergency

Yes. But these potential problems are not the responsibility of people sitting in Emergency exit seats. Their job is simply to open the door/hatchway and get out (After all: they are just as likely to be in the way). Evacuations are, theoretically, the responsibility of the flight crew. Even if specific passenger's did bear some responsibility for evacuating others should the plane experience problems, it would take a very special kind of individual to put the interests of strangers before themselves which would take a fair degree of prior psycological profiling to identify and, as you so rightly say, Chinese people can't even queue at a bus stop.

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flew with them on 2-3 flights in 2010 and 2011. absolutely no problems.