Chinese Airlines Widebody Seat Pitch

Since I'm probably going to book one of the big Chinese airlines for a long haul flight, here are their longhaul seat pitches in Economy

I'm using AeroLopa - which usually has the most up to date information

First off there's China Eastern

Their twenty A350s have a 3-3-3 layout and 31" pitch and 18" width

Their 20 B777s have a tighter 17" seat width in a 3-4-3 layout but with 32" pitch

They have two different A330-300s configurations - with either

 a 17.3" seat width in a 2-4-2 layout and a 31" pitch or

a 17.8" seat width in the same 2-4-2 layout but with a 32" pitch

They have three different A330-200 configurations - with either

 a 18" seat width in a 2-4-2 layout and a 32" pitch or

a 17.8" seat width in a 2-4-2 layout and a 32" pitch or

a 17.2" seat width in a 2-4-2 layout and a 32" pitch or

Next up is Air China

Their fourteen B787s have 17.1" width in a 3-3-3 layout and 31" pitch

Air China's six B747-8s have a generous 18" width in a 3-4-3 layout and 31" pitch

Their 28 B777s have 18" width in a 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 layout and 31" pitch

Their 29 A350s have 18" width in a 3-3-3 layout and 31" pitch

Their 28 A330-300s have 18" width in a 2-4-2 layout and 31" pitch

Their 21 A330-200s have 18" width in a 2-4-2 layout and 31" pitch

And finally China Southern

Their twenty A350s have 18" width in a 3-3-3 layout and 31" or 32" pitch

Their ten B787-8s have a 3-3-3 layout and 31" pitch and 17.3" width

Their twenty B787-9s have a 3-3-3 layout and 32" pitch and 17.3" width

Their fifteen B777s have a 3-3-3 layout and 32" pitch and 18.5" width

Their 22 A330s have 17.4" or 18" width in a 2-4-2 layout and at least 32" pitch

Conclusion

Avoid China Eastern's twenty 10 abreast B777s

Avoid Air China's twenty eight 10 abreast B777s

China Southern don't have any 10 abreast planes

Online Checkin

China Eastern opens online checkin 48 hours before departure 

China Southern does not allow checkin from most foreign airports

Air China opens online checkin 36 hours before departure for direct bookings only

London to Seoul flights

Looking for flights from London to Seoul in November - there are direct flights for £765 ... or single stoppers for just over £300 ... so one stop it is!

All the cheapest flights are with Chinese airlines - which overfly Russia - which can be both a moral and a practical problem.

But if you want to to avoid overflying Russia - the price jumps from around £300 to closer to £600

So I guess that I'll just have to put up with overlying Russia!

At least with the current Visa Free transit policy in China, it should be easy to connect in any of the main airports

There are three main Chinese carriers with good connections from London to Seoul, and whilst you can book using an Online Travel Agent, it's usually better to buy directly with the airline, so let's look at each of them.

Air China has the best website - starting with a good price matrix - and with prices that do actual stay the same after you click through!

The flight selection page is pretty good, with plenty of sort and filter options - including whether you want to fly via PEK or TFU

And then once you've chosen your flights - you get a good summary screen

Next up is China Southern - which starts off with an unimpressive date / price matrix

But then makes up for it with a good flight selection page - including bar graphs above each date to highlight the cheapest options

China Southern quotes the full return price on the outbound selection - and then offers the inbound flights with a "price difference" - which I quite like

With just a handful of flights via PKX and CAN - China Southern has the smallest choice of the three big airlines

And finally we have China Eastern with the strangest website of the big three - which starts off with a warning not to throw objects into the engines!

The pricing matrix isn't overly helpful - you have to click on each option and load the flights in order to generate a price - which sort of defeats the whole idea of a price / date matrix!

And to get a final price for your selected flights you have to enter all your booking details - so you will probably want to make up names / phone numbers / email addresses

And then in my case the price turned out to be quite a bit lower than the price matrix claimed!

So whilst China Eastern has the largest number of flights and the lowest prices - I would probably book them via an Online Travel Agent rather than directly!