Hi, Im looking to book a flight from Calgary to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia in November. The flights that I see from china eastern have a 2 hour layover connection in Shanghai on the way. Just wondering if anyone has been at that airport or done that transfer and what their experience was. Thank you.
PS just checked the KL-Shanghai flights are operated by Shanghai Airlines. Dont know if that makes a difference to your feedback but I thought I would mention it here. My other Calgary-Vancouver leg is through Westjet.

If possible I recommend the layover through Hong Kong
Great airport

Cale Hong Kong is a bit of a political mess right now. I strongly encourage that you avoid it.

I feel china eastern is still an up and coming so generally it’s not as mature yet in services or flight experiences. Go through Taipei via China airlines or eva airways or even air canada.
Hong Kong can be a bit scary now with protests going so maybe steer away for a while...

I have done all 3 Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. The airport experience all great with No issues, all sign are in English, easy to Navigate the only problem we had going on the Coast of China, horrible Turbulence, my heart almost stopped, it felt like the plane fallen off the sky, so lately I avoid going that route again. So Hong Kong or Taipei are your best options.

Is 2 hours enough for a connection?

Shahab yes 2 hours is enough time for connection in any of those airports. I did 1 hour in Shanghai with No problem.

I flew with china eastern earlier this year and had a stop over in Shanghai. Personally I will be avoiding this airport and airline in the future. On the way there was fine other than them not giving us our boarding passes from Vancouver in Calgary so we had to go right to the gate to get them. Trouble is without a ticket they have no reason to let you get to the gate to begin with. We had our baggage tags as proof and they ended up letting us through but it was dicey. On the way back, we had a 7 hr layover in Shanghai and almost 4 hrs were eaten up with issues such as CE made us recheck in and that meant waiting in a line for almost 2 hrs, then our boarding passes wouldn’t scan so we had to wait to see security. There were multiple people having the same issues and wait times and some missed their connecting flights. I’m on some other travel groups that have similar reports so just be aware that there may be multiple delays.

The airport is good. U might be able to use whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram while using the airport wifi.. unless u roam.. just letting you know.
there are a lot of duty free, and restaurants but I don’t know if they have halal foods. They do have dunkin donuts

I forgot to mention we were flying to japan from CALGARY.. flight route calgary to Vancouver, Vancouver to shanghai, shanghai to Okinawa. And we had no issues.. our layover going was 3 over hours, and over 4 on our way back.

We have flown with china eastern. All good, but you will likely need boarding passes in Shanghai and they are SLOW!
But you only have 2 hrs so they have to hurry up anyhow lol
Longer wait times are horrible at that airport.

If flying with china eastern, take your own food on board. Their food is not edible. The flight is fine, the food, not so much

Hong Kong airport is the way to go. I think the protests have calmed down at the airport and it’s back to business. Last month,we flew from Calgary to Hong Kong, 2 hour layover then took off to Singapore. BTW, singapore airlines are the best in Asia in my opinion

Naz Hongkong is better.

Didn't like the airline or the airport. Definitely take your own food. When we were connecting in Shanghai, we had to exit then re-enter again. Their security is not set up for passengers in transit.

Maria Malik

Eva through Taipei is a great airline and route. Highly recommended.

yes, EVA it a great airline a little more expensive but definitely worth it.

Anne going to check out Eva next time.

the planes are clean,
Better than normal seat pitch and the flight attendants and food very pleasant. The flight was something to look forward to than dread

Yes it is enough time for a connection, and if the airline shows that as their booked through flight I would not worry about it at all.

Have flown Singapore Aiines/Air Malaysia/cathay pacific several times... all were good.

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