China Airlines

LHR-TPE-SYD. Food drink and service were good. Lounge at Taipei not brilliant but good enough. Priority baggage seemed to come off last for all of us that had a connecting flight in Taipei. Return flight arrives in TPE before anything opens and seemingly before any staff arrived - a nightmare working out where to go. Airline staff were very friendly couldn't do enough for you.

Vancouver to Bali back and forth - no PTV on seats and old 747 aircraft. Even if it's 1500$ cheaper then flying other airlines I'll never fly with China airlines again.

Sydney - Taipei - Vienna in Business. Stopped overnight at Sunmoon Lake Taiwan to catch connected Vienna service. Flew CI last year and the service is still good. Qantas lounge in Sydney excellent CI lounge in Taipei ok limited drinks and food. On board service good but they really need to review serving breakfast three hours before arrival in Taipei when the flight arrives at 4.10 am. This could have been done 1.5 hours prior. Would fly again if they keep the fares low and continue to offer the better airbus business class seats on the route that I wish to fly.

Sydney-Taipei-Peking-Taipei-Sydney. I was impressed with service on the ground and onboard. The inflight service didn't have many 'trappings' (eg. no hot-towel before departure) as some airlines do but was sincere with good interaction from flight attendants. Food was very tasty and woolong tea was the great drink to wind up a meal. The downer was the limited leg room on the A330-300 between Sydney and Taipei considering it was a long-haul night flight. The flights between Taipei and Peking were much more pleasant.

LHR-TPE-SYD return in C. Very attractive pricing but 5 hour layover in TPE make for 29-hour trip which is on the long side . Outward trip more than acceptable for the cost. A340 C-class seats are quite comfortable; less so for the A330 TPE-SYD leg. Lounges at LHR and TPE both did the job. Meals drinks and IFE all okay without being stunning - to some degree I suppose you get what you pay for. Return leg was problematic. TPE-LHR flight cancelled (no reason given at SYD) ended up rerouted via Frankfurt with a BA short-haul FRA-LHR leg. Main problem with this was a 20 hour layover in TPE (first flight landed at 0400 and FRA flight departed midnight); with a 4 hour wait in FRA for the final leg this made for a 50 hour trip which is really not good. Layover arrangements in TPE were acceptable in the circumstances : comfortable Novotel for the day with meals transfers organised swiftly and efficiently. However the business class product on TPE-FRA (747-400) is really quite poor - it is at least a decade out of date and looks like it. Meal service roughly equivalent to other sectors flown but seat not really acceptable and IFE laughably poor. Overall would consider again and regard it as very good value for money had all four sectors flown as originally scheduled.

Heathrow-Taipei-Sydney return in Economy. Surprised how good the service was as expectations were low due to low price. Good travelling times. Good food although got a bit fed up with rice and noodles. Staff happy to get drinks. Taipei airport not the best. Didn't open till 6am so had to sit on floor with no food drinks or information for an hour or so. Plane not full on way back so had 2 seats each and lay down.

Heathrow-Taipei-Sydney return in Business class. Check in LHR T4 was excellent and Skyteam lounge is acceptable. Onboard seating (A340-300 and A330-300) just about adequate - it is not lie-flat. Service ok crews friendly and managed as well as they could given their poor command of English. Meals and drinks services rather haphazard with drinks being served only with meals - and in very small glasses wine selection the same on all flights and not very interesting. Food ok with 3 main course selections but the service processes need some refinement. TPE lounge is a rather depressing windowless facility although the showers are welcome - however it was not open when landing back at 0415 on the return leg nor were there staff available to direct transferring passengers to the correct terminal (flight/gate not noted on the information screens). It eventually opened at 0530 but this needs correcting. Note should be made that the LHR-TPE-LHR sectors are very long as CI cannot fly over Chinese airspace - eastbound was over India Thailand Hong Kong then north-east to TPE (about 13 hours) and westbound was over Japan Siberia etc (14.5 hours). One thing that CI must address - the priority baggage tag system does not work and both in SYD and LHR all bags that had transferred in TPE came off last. The main advantage in using CI for this type of journey is cost - keep expectations low and it is ok.

TPE-JFK. Business class price wise. Boeing 747-400 old cabin design inadequate seating (outdated sleeperettes) broken legrest. Food good but little and poorly presented. Nuts and rice crackers as snacks during more than 15 hour flight. inattentive crew. Waited four days for luggage after arrival.

London-Taipei-Sydney Business Class. Online seat selection is available one month before the first sector is flown and selection was honoured. Online check in can be done twenty four hours before the flight and was completed but boarding passes would not print out. Check in at the airport is at a dedicated desk and was fast end efficient. China Airlines uses the Skyteam lounge which is close to the departure gate - lounge is spacious and attractively designed and has all the facilities you can expect. On boarding coats are taken and welcome drink appears. China Airlines is not big on alcohol so that drink is Oolong tea. Aircraft LHR-TPE-SYD route have no first class and business cabin is right forward. There was no pre-dinner drinks service and the drink I ordered came on my meal tray. Meals properly served course by course and accompanied by wine wine on offer was adequate but not up to much and it was served in glasses more appropriate for serving a small sherry. The meal was tasty and interesting and there were choices for each course that was presented on good tableware with plastic cutlery. TPE-SYD sector the cutlery was stainless steel. Seats in business class are angled lie-flat ones but the footrest rise is a bit less than adequate and I noticed that several passengers used their pillow to give extra height to bring legs up to a more comfortable position. The seat controls are on the top of the armrest where they are nudged several times on a thirteen hour flight to cause sudden small random movements. I did not use the entertainment. We broke the flight at TPE for a two night stopover which was allowed within the basic fare. Arrival procedures at Terminal 1 very fast and away from the airport about thirty minutes after landing. TPE-SYD sector departs from Terminal 2. The China Airlines lounge is basic and looks like a railway carriage. Close by is another lounge that welcomes Priority Pass cardholders so those passengers may be better off trying that one instead. Arriving at Sydney was not the best. We were parked at the wrong gate where there was no one to meet the aircraft. After some delay and a debate whether the plane would be towed to the correct gate eventually the original gate was staffed and we left the aircraft 45 minutes later. We chose China Airlines because it offers competitive fares on the route and were satisfied with the service they provided.

AMS-BKK return in Dynasty. Dynasty class is excellent value in the increasingly costly world of premium cabin flying. KLM Air France British Airways and Thai Airways do this route with noticeably flatter seats wider menu choice and better AVOD but you pay accordingly. It's down to choice and the size of your wallet I guess. Well organised boarding attentive service good drink choice on time departures and arrivals. Plane is a little older than some but it's clean and well maintained. Overall a great choice for those who want a biz class service without breaking the bank.