I wouldn’t necessarily consider booking Air China as a standalone flight redemption, but would book a segment as part of a larger trip featuring other Star Alliance airlines, such as ANA first class or Lufthansa first class.

Using Aeroplan points for a flight will cost between 105,000 and 107,500 miles per direction in first class from North America (though keep in mind you can add stopovers on roundtrip tickets), and Air China doesn’t impose fuel surcharges on redemptions, which is great. The catering, however, was below standard for an international first class flight, and more what you might expect on an average business class flight.

While there was definitely a language barrier, I found the service to be well-intentioned and friendly. The ground service at Beijing was horrible, with my worst lounge experience to date, by far, though the on-board product was slightly better than I expected (the bar was set really low). Well, what can I say? Air China first class was exactly what I expected it to be. Plane Spotting At LAX Air China First Class Bottom Line My first impression of the cabin was that it was spacious and fairly private, and very similar to the seats offered on Thai Airways first class, though there were only 8 seats in a 1-2-1 configuration over two rows compared to the 12 offered on the Thai Airways Airbus A380. While well-intentioned, she basically had no English, which I kind of expected based on other reviews. She gestured in a way that made me think she wanted to hang my jacket, and offered a choice of pre-departure beverages. I was greeted at the door by the friendly first class flight attendant who walked me to my seat. You can read my review of the Air China First Class Lounge at Beijing Capital Airport here for a little foreshadowing of my flight experience. Naturally I spent some time in the first class lounge before my flight.

Air china 777 300er economy