China Airlines

BKK-YVR. Planes new but had a 3 hour mechanical in BKK so missed connection in Taiwan. It felt like they had this problem many times before. As I was on a bereavement fare they placed me in the bulkhead with no other seats occupied in the row (seems nice) When I boarded there was a family of 15 with at least 8 kids from India. I was told there were no other seats available but after 8 hours of screams and people sleeping and crawling on me and other passengers getting upset they moved me to 1st class where there appeared to be several empty seats. After being lied to and putting up with sub-par food and no sleep the flight attendant moved me to avoid a scene. I would fly another airline next time even if it's a little more money.

CGK-LAX-CGK last time was not entirely satisfying. CGK-TPE was good with TV screen on the back seat though it was only 5 hours flight. I continued my 16 hours flight TPE-LAX with no TV screen on the back seat and it was boring. China Airlines lounge in Taipei is good. Staff are friendly good snacks and drinks. I count it as a compensation to my disappointment to long- hours flight with no TV screen.

Supposed to fly LHR-TPE-SYD flights changed at short notice to LHR-AMS-BKK-TPE-SYD adding 13 hrs to journey - no explanation. Given 45 hr trip with 11 hrs at Taipei : not good with 4 yr old and 9 yr old. Rice or noodles every meal - my kids didn't eat whole journey. On the plus side they did give us a complimentary hotel room in Taipei.

LAX-Taipei-Denpasar traveling in Economy with an active three year old. We were given bulkhead seats before we got to the airport. Got to LAX and was ushered to the almost non existent Business Class queue as I had a young child. My son was accompanied without this being requested by a friendly steward when we got on the plane as I had too much to carry (I took his FAA approved car seat with us). His kids meals arrived without prompting and were favorably received. On the Denpasar leg I asked for his kids meal before they were being served as my son was hungry - it arrived two minutes later with a smile. We were also offered the choice of moving into an empty four seat section on this leg so that we could rest more comfortably. Throughout the service was wonderful. Nothing seemed too much trouble. Plus the flights were on time the toilets were always clean and the adult food was perfectly acceptable too.

LAX - Hanoi via Taipei return Business Class. Overall very good service at a very reasonable price. Service attentive (almost too attentive). Seats not lie-flat but able to sleep on both trans-Pacific legs. Overall service is very similar to US domestic business class at about half the cost. Would fly with them again at this level of pricing.

TPE-PEK. Upgraded to Business Class at boarding as wanted some peace on this morning flight. Business class on B747-400 is sort of angled lie-flat but I would not be happy to spend 14h on a transpacific flight in one of those seats. Service polite and friendly and food is not bad. I could sleep a bit and I found the upper deck seats to be better and also the best seats are the ones in row 9. I was quite happy with this flight and think they are a good airline. Four star and no more though. Seat is really borderline for Business class.

Brisbane to Auckland. China Airlines have recently added this sector and are offering a full service flight at a very reasonable price and flight times are excellent. A340 was spotless on demand IFE was very good meal was pretty good. Crew were very attentive not a full trip probably only 60%.

LHR-TPE return in business - rescheduled return via Frankfurt due to unexplained and unhelpful cancellation of original flight. Outbound crew excellent but food not as good as usual. Seats not lie-flat but fine for resting. Return service noticably poorer and dinner rushed on the basis that it was a night flight. Personally I expect the choice of a full or express service and had the same problem last time I flew this route. Overall a fair and pleasant business product for the price.

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.