Had my first long haul flight with AirNZ to Shanghai the other day. The food was better than average but beside that there was almost nothing differentiating the flight from the next flight 5 hours later with KLM. Both in 777’s, both almost entirely staffed with chinese staff. Both flights had no empty seats, clearly no issues with demand.
in future when going to europe I will be prioritising Singapore airlines with the included 1 night stop over and tourist pass as the price is more or less the same and Changi airport is far better. I will be actively avoiding chinese airports in the future.