Anyone ever flown on "China Airlines"?

[Flaxbee]

Looking at travel in the next few weeks, and China Airlines offer the best rates - Delta to LA, China Airlines to Taipei.

Any input from fellow Loungers?

Thanks...


edited for typo

[Deep13]

1. Nope, just aluminum ones.

[Blue-Jay]

2. Ha!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Post of the day.

:thumbsup:

[plcdude]

3. Yes

I have they are a decent carrier try to go business class it is a long flight to Taipei

[Flaxbee]

4. well, if business is gonna cost me an extra grand or so,

no can do. But we get in at 6am one morning and don't have meetings until the following day, so I'd have 24 hours or so to recuperate...

but - do you know of any decent travel agents who might be able to help me with fares, if I did want to go business class?

[plcdude]

9. try some sites

on line like Kayak.com and see what they have.

[NewJeffCT]

14. try a Chinese travel agency.

if you're near a major city, pick up a chinese language newspaper - they will have ads in the back for travel agencies. Mostly in Chinese, but hopefully enough English that you can make out that it's a travel agency & their phone number.

[Flaxbee]

18. no, I unfortunately live in rural fascistville so no papers

but a good friend travels often to China so I'll ask him in the coming week...

[NewJeffCT]

20. ok then

try doing a google or yahoo search on "China Tours" or "China travel agency" or similar.

[Kickin_Donkey]

5. Excellent airline ...

I wouldn't hesitate to take CAL.

I flew from KL to San Francisco via Taipei.

Nice planes. The staff were nice, both ground and in-flight,

Asian flag carriers still tend to believe in service.

[dpbrown]

6. I've flown China Air

Unremarkable. The national airline for the Republic of China, if I recall.

[DrDan]

8. yes - several legs

CAAC - known affectionately as "China Airlines - Always Cancelled"

what was cool was that we received little gifts on each leg - like a little tea cup or the like

[Kickin_Donkey]

11. Incorrect ...

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) was the state airline of Mainland China, now split into three carriers: Air China, China Southern Airlilnes and China Eastern Airlines.

China Airlines (CAL) is the national airline of Taiwan.

[Flaxbee]

10. thanks for the info, everyone

and anyway, it doesn't look like I have much choice, unless I want to spend $12K on an Alitalia flight into Taipei (uhhh...no).

Never been to any Asian country before, only stood on the Asian continent when I was in Istanbul many years ago. Looking forward to it!

[CanuckAmok]

12. "Istanbul"? I thought it was "Constantinople".

[GirlinContempt]

15. Now it's Istanbul

Not Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople

[CanuckAmok]

21. Well, that's just great....

I had a date in Constantinople, but I guess she'll be waiting in Istanbul.

[GirlinContempt]

22. Well, you know,

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam. Why they changed it, I can't say.

[baldguy]

13. Are they related to Mandarin Airlines?

[Flaxbee]

17. ok, not funny!

I have mild to medium flight phobia!

Though at least my husband has flown jets before so perhaps he's more skilled at landing that the pilot in the pic...

[NewJeffCT]

16. we flew China Eastern 2 years ago

that was okay. Unlike the US, there are probably a few dozen decent sized airlines in China. So, I can't say that I know China Airlines.

Expect better food than on a US airline. Expect all the flight attendents to be tall, attractive, bilingual women... many of them with college degrees.

[Godhumor]

19. Used them once

Went from Japan to Hawai'i. The flight was very smooth, good food, and rather polite passengers. The most interesting this was the two boarding lines--all Chinese Nationals had to go through, uh, a line ot make sure the government knew where they would be staying, confirm passports, etc.

I wonder what they thought of the other line of people just boarding.

[mzteris]

23. I'm pretty sure we did -

I don't remember definitively though as we were on a number of different planes on our trip.

That said, all of the ones we were on in China and Taiwan were great. Clean, polite, orderly. VERY accommodating. No matter what.

Hubby kept forgetting to tell the airlines that the boys and I were vegetarian. One of the flight attendants gave up her personal meal so my boys could have it. And they went through the galley looking for food that we might want.

A tip here - if they ask you if you want "tea" - that's just HOT WATER. Chai (pronounced Chah) is tea. Cafe is coffee.

[FILAM23]

24. Another Option

  China Airlines is pretty good, but I prefer EVA,
  They have 4 classes instead of the standard 3. Their
  Evergreen Deluxe Class is between economy and business
  class, for me the extra comfort is worth the extra $300 or 
  so that the ticket costs. What the class is is business
class
  sized seats put closer together, plus you get individual
  seat back entertainment systems.

[Flaxbee]

25. hm. thanks! Never heard of them...

but will definitely check them out. I'd spend another $300 for more comfort, definitely (just once it gets up to another $1K or so it really starts to hurt).

And welcome to DU! :hi:

[FILAM23]

26. Thanks

for the welcome. Check their website, it explains
Evergreen Deluxe in more detail.