China Airlines

Frankfurt-Shanghai Economy. Had got a window seat by online check in. Flight started dead on time plane was very clean seats comfortable (A330). As the movie choice was mainly violence-bound and absurdly censored/cut I resigned on spoiling my eyes on those low-quality monitors and slept through most of the flight. Food was quite okay service efficient and kind. In comparison to the price this was a rather good value for money rate.

My first time using CI. My trip was CGK-TPE-LAX-TPE-CGK. TPE-LAX plane was an old 747 which is still un- refurbished among others. The seats were not as comfortable as the refurbished ones and the AVOD screen was so small! LAX-TPE plane was the refurbished one. The seats were comfortable enough for long haul flights and the AVOD screen was the new one. CGK-TPE and TPE-CGK planes were comfortable to me and the stewardesses English fluency was good even though I still kept asking for something in Mandarin. The food was awful to me compared to another Asian carriers. The movies and music selections on Fantasy Sky were not as much as the others. I'd say CI is NOT uncomfortable for long-haul flights and didn't worth it enough for me.

YVR-TPE-DEL return. First time travelling with China Airlines and it turned out to be a fairly good experience. 747-400 between YVR and TPE seemed newer but A 330's between TPE-DEL seemed older. IFE was fine and toilets were kept clean and cabin crew was polite and spoke fairly good English. We had a delay at YVR which was not really airlines' fault because the bridge could not be retracted. Apart from that all other three take offs were also slightly late. My only real complaint would be the beverages and food. They seem to be very limited in what they offer. Still I would certainly recommend it.

Taipei to Honolulu via Tokyo in economy. All flights on time. Food OK. Plane and bathrooms clean. Entertainment not bad. Service was great at all levels. Would fly them again for this route.

TPE-SIN in Y and DPS-TPE in C for a family vacation. CI allows instant cash upgrades at the airport and seems like a group of boisterous passengers took up the offer but the C cabin could not accommodate all of them. Instead they took turns in the C cabin which resulted in lots of chaos and unrest. Later the crew gave up maintaining order altogether. Also noticed an old lady with an infant was seated one row behind the bassinet seat while the bulkhead was occupied by one of the half business ladies. CI need to be more considerate handling passengers with infants for the old lady was holding her grandson all 5 hours of the flight. IFE was drop down screens from yesteryear. Not much contents to talk about. Otherwise the cabin was well maintained food adequate for a regional hop. I upgraded to C with my miles on the second sector. CI shares its premium lounge with a dozen other airlines in DPS. By mid afternoon the lounge had ran out of hot food barren of drinks and was over flowing with passengers even the common waiting area looked more appealing. Service onboard was warm and nothing was too much trouble. CI allows C passengers to pre-order meals 48 hours before the flight. "Seafood with tomato concasse" didn't sound anywhere appetising but it turned out to be amazing. AVOD was well stocked but no amenities kit for our 6 hour flight. Late arrival into TPE due to heavy traffic but bags were delivered in record speed. Despite average products and staff CI continues to profit from expensive cross straits flights shared among a handful of Chinese airlines and hence had gotten unused to competition. I'm giving my Dynasty Miles a long rest after this.

CI53 from BNE to AKL continuation of flight from TPE. The aircraft upgraded to a B747-400 from usual A330-300 in Dec. Check in swift. Gate agents a bit rude. Managed to grab a seat on upper deck. Usually J class but sold as Y on BNE-AKL leg. Flight was on time. Arrived a few minutes early in to AKL. Food was reasonably good. Good AVOD entertainment. Fantastic flight attendants who were very polite and kind. Did two tea coffee runs. Excellent option to NZOFVA or JQ on route. Managed to get a good fare and would consider in future too.

PVG-TPE B747 Short flight. comfortable seating given distance but would be concerned if this was the room allowed on a long flight (747). Despite short flight full meal served with coffee/tea. Inflight entertainment available but did not partake.

London Heathrow to Hong Kong via Beijing one month round trip. Flights left pretty much on time nice planes with good food and great entertainment on the long haul LHR to PEK flight - individual entertainment systems. Aircraft were modern. Wide range of refreshments including Chinese beer and wine on both connecting flights. Small issue with return ticket (as PEK - LGW service had been stopped after I purchased) was easily rectified at Hong Kong check in - desk staff spoke good enough English. Point to note: confirm any schedule changes that are sent to you by phone for ease of mind.

LAX to Beijing to Hong Kong and back to LAX. The staff is mean to you if you are a westerner. The food is terrible - it reminds me of the food you would get on airlines in the 1990s. With every meal they would give you a tea cup but not offer you any tea so the cup just gets in the way while you are eating. The inflight entertainment is very poor some of them don't work at all and sometimes you don't even get any. The staff English skills are lacking terribly to the point that they might as well just speak to you in Chinese. I cannot stress enough how mean they are they are to westerners.

Flew from London Heathrow to Beijing on a weekend late afternoon flight. Wasn't particularly looking forward to it given some of the other reviews but the plane was fairly new and clean the in-flight entertainment system was fine (on demand personal seat selection with plenty of choice in English). The food was reasonable enough and the customer service at check-in and prior to that when I rang up to request seats together for three of us was good. Bit of an attempted scrum on to the slightly delayed plane but all-in-all this was much better than I had expected and up to the standard of other Star Alliance members. I'd still prefer to travel with British Airways and would pay more to do so but to be honest Air China weren't far away in terms of what they offer (though a bit more wine wouldn't go amiss).