China Airlines

Vancouver-Manila I was so impressed with the service I received form China Airlines. I am not new to flying having worked internationally for 23 yrs on all continents except Australia. The meals come quickly and the tray only sits infront of you for 15 mins tops and is removed The cabin staff are so efficient. I look forward to travelling with this airline again and again.

Been travelling with China Airlines 4 times now. And I have to say it is quite a service you get plus comfortable seats with LCD screen lots of movies (even new movies which just released) games. I have nothing to complain about. The food is acceptable and they are mostly right on the time with the flights. Only one time it has been late at arriving. However it was only 30 mins which is acceptable for me.

SYD-JFK via TPE/KIX. All flights arrived on time. Sydney-Taipei flights (A330) have the long haul 166 degree angled flat beds. Taipei-New York was in the first newly refurbished 747 which is the same business product as Thai Airlines/Gulf Air/Turkish. Excellent product and nice new pillows and soft duvets. Food high quality and AVOD lots of choice. Quick transfer at TPE but total journey was 29hrs. The price justified the route and choice of airline. Would fly again.

TPE-SFO. Flight was 2 hours late due to late arrival of aircraft and later a mechanical failure. Boarding chaotic and disorganized. Very tired cabin flickering lights dirty overhead projectors no PTVs not even air nozzles. Blackout twice during taxi and crew had to manually perform safety demo which took up 10 mins both in Chinese and English. They try very hard to sound pleasant and friendly with their English but it doesn't work without 'pleases' and 'thank yous'. Food ok. Overall I regretted paying more for such an outdated product. They're currently upgrading their cabins but that's no excuse for the poorly co-ordinated delay and rudeness.

I purchased our tickets refundable Business class for the family to Europe. A medical surgery came up and we had to cancel - since we have fully refundable I didn't think it would be a problem. I read through the terms prior to purchasing. After getting the runaround from the Bangkok sales office I was finally told to do it online. In order to get a refund you have to agree to wait 45 days for the charge back to a credit card. Of course this wasn't mentioned during the purchasing process. I called the ticket office and they told me it would be much longer than 45 days. We will get a refund but weren't prepared for the lengthy time.

Flights on China Airlines are fine. My complaint is about their frequent flyer program. Don't bother. They give you an award ticket for 30000 miles but it is only good for Hawaii which has no Availability through the year end (a full 12 months at the time of our attempt) at which point the ticket is no longer valid. So we had to make a special request to "downgrade" our award to 25000 miles so we could chose any flight in the continental US. Still pretty much impossible to get a ticket. The stupid thing is the staff will sit with you on the phone for hours trying. First they have to plug in a specific flight both outbound and return and then wait for their partner airline to get back to them. It is always unavailable even though the super saver discounted tickets are still not sold out on the web site. So they not only waste my time but they pay their staff to sit on the phone and go through this useless exercise. Eventually the staff will tell you that they can't stay on the phone all day!

Auckland to Brisbane return. Modern A330-300 2-4-2 seating configuration cabin fresh and clean if a little cramped. The fare was less for a full service airline than a low cost airline with no meal or baggage allowance - hence the plane was pretty full. Check in was done by Air NZ at AKL and Qantas at BNE so efficient and without difficulty. The personal allowance of 20 kg per person was allowed to be pooled over our family group so we weren't charged for the 28kg case as we would have on other airlines. Cabin crew were mainly young and well presented. Their English was possibly only at a novice level. The seats were comfortable with adjustable winged head rests. In flight entertainment was a touch screen seat back TV approx 7 inch screen; a choice of about 15 current movies plus a catalogue of oldies and regional content as well as the usual games music etc. Outbound headphones blankets and pillows on seat on. Soft drinks served before a light dinner - reasonable quality. Wine served with the meal this was poor - maybe ask for a beer instead. Hot drinks were served afterwards. The inbound was a little different; as the aircraft had arrived from Taipei some seats had headphones others none. The cabin crew distributed these shortly after take off. All in all a decent flight crew were pleasant not exceptional but not poor either.

Brisbane to Auckland Easter Friday and flight was very busy. An ageing A330 seats were rather hard and uncomfortable. IFE was very good and offered a range of movies and music. The service was above average with a good meal and tea and coffee offered. The service was efficient but not polite and had an indifferent aspect to it. If the price does not remain competitive I would not use this airline again.

Flew economy LAX to TPE. Flight was late 30 minutes at least taking off. Then after take off the estimated arrival time kept being moved back. The flight ended up 1 hour 25 minutes late landing. Flight was completely full - to the point they were weighing bags and people. The check staff literally told people to get on the scales. The plane was an upgraded 747-400 that had personally video screens in economy seats were very narrow and the seat pitch was painful. Food portions tiny. No more hot towels provided upon boarding and before landing.

We booked our return trip LHR-BNE in August 2010 with China Airlines. We are due to depart from LHR on the 10/4/2011. Two days before our departure China airlines called and cancelled our flight due to the cancellation of the flight from Taipei to BNE. They didn't give us any reason and not even try to find us the alternative route. Although we have the full refund we have to find another airlines in the last minute. Luckily we are able to get on another airlines but it cost us £600 extra due to last minute fare. We are so disgusted with China Airlines and we would not recommend China Airlines to anyone. It is a joke that a 4-star airline provide such a terrible service.