China Eastern boosts Sydney flights to Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing
By John Walton, December 6 2012
Shanghai-based China Eastern airlines, Qantas' Chinese partner, is boosting its Sydney-China schedule this month with new flights to Beijing and Nanjing plus two extra weekly flights between Sydney and Shanghai.
The thrice weekly Nanjing-Beijing flight will start 21 December. MU740 is a one-hop direct flight from Sydney at 1130 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It stops in Nanjing at 1930 for just over an hour before reaching Beijing at 2240.
Return flight MU739 runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving Beijing at 1550, stopping in Nanjing two hours later and leaving for Sydney at 1930, arriving at 0930 the following morning.
The flight will be the first direct service from Australia to Nanjing, the capital of eastern Chinese economic powerhouse Jiangsu province, roughly 300 km west of Shanghai's Pudong airport.
And speaking of Pudong, two additional weekly overnight Sydney-Shanghai flights starting 14 December will also provide a welcome timetable boost for business travellers.
MU736 will be a red-eye run from Sydney, departing at 2130 on Fridays and Saturdays, arriving at Shanghai Pudong the next morning at 0500.
On the way back, MU735 leaves Shanghai at a sleep-friendly 2355 on Thursdays and Fridays, arriving in Sydney at 1335 the next day.
Existing daily flights are noon departures from Sydney and 2020 departures from Shanghai.
Angled lie-flat seats are in store on both routes for business class passengers.
Laoluan
Laoluan
China Eastern is one of China's big four airlines, and will use Airbus A330 planes on both routes. Business class passengers will find angled lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration up front, while it's the standard 2-4-2 economy layout down the back.
Qantas Frequent Flyer members can earn points on China Eastern, as laid out in the QFF China Eastern partner earning table.
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Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.
26 Oct 2012
Total posts 6
I think you mean 300 km west of Shanghai.300km east of Shanghai is very wet.
03 Jan 2011
Total posts 665
Zhen de...they must have moved it! Thanks for the pickup — I take comfort in having actually put a map up there for readers who haven't visited Jiangsu.
04 Apr 2014
Total posts 1
China Eastern is Horrendous and I'll never forget the nightmare.
I bought a round-trip ticket from China Eastern and they lost my luggage both times!! I arrived in Sydney, Australia with no fresh clothes or underwear and had to live that way in a hotel for 2 days before they finally found it. No apology, no money refunded.
Coming back home they lost my luggage again! I'm still waiting for them to find my 2 bags, their phone numbers either are out of service or just keep ringing with no option to leave a message.
Besides having the worst phone service and losing my luggage constantly, the plane is dirty, completely uncomfortable, puts pork in your vegetarian meals, the flight crew have terrible attitudes and were very rude, they only show Chinese commercials or Chinese movies with no subtitles, and yes the plane does have a certain putrid smell. I couldn't listen to the radio because it only had Chinese artists, the films were all in Chinese with no dubbing, and there was absolutely nothing I could do on a 30 hour plane ride from NY to Sydney.
I even remember when they tried to hand me a burger and I told them I'd rather have some peanuts because I don't eat meat, they were so rude and told me to 'Just Try It.' I had to beg them for 2 bags of peanuts instead, which they handed me with such disdain.
I paid $1,100 of my hard-earned money (which was very hard to save) and got treated like a stowaway in a ship's cabin. It was absolutely dreadful and I urge anyone considering using their airline to Please Re-think it.
I'm never using them ever again!!
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