China Airlines Review

Overall Rating

Departures consistently on time; Bangkok office secured flight out of Thailand in the midst of political chaos; generally clean and comfortable aircraft.

Inconsistent food quality; Cabin heat during one leg.

This trip was LAX-TPE-BKK and CNX-TPE-LAX, Economy class, late November 2008. LAX to TPE was a nice new 747-400 with IFE in the seatbacks, a comfortable trip with no problems, above-average food and professional and personable cabin staff. The IFE system froze up just as we reached Hokkaido but was back up and running after a reboot that took roughly 45 minutes. The TPE to BKK leg was significantly worse - an older 747-400 that was clean but lacked the IFE (on a three-hour hop this was not a problem,) but extremely hot in the cabin from time of boarding until well after reaching cruise altitude, noticeably substandard food and cursory service from cabin staff, who seemed at the end of a very long shift but were otherwise competent. Our return date fell some three days after the problems at both Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang airports. The CA staff at the office at Peninsula Plaza in downtown BKK were excellent, placing us on an impromptu flight out of CNX a day before our scheduled return flight. It required a 10-hour overnight bus trip to Chiang Mai, but given the alternative of an indefinite delay, we took the truncation of our trip gladly. CNX to TPE was an older A340-400 that had filthy windows but was otherwise comfortable and with good service by cabin staff. The TPE to LAX leg was on a middle-aged 747-400 with the same IFE system and general comfort level as the outbound flight. The cabin staff however, at least the two assigned to our area, were nothing short of atrocious. It may seem unfair to dock points for the behavior of one or two employees, but I believe an airline has an obligation to maintain its staff - company-wide and without exception - with a modicum of supervision and discipline, or at minimum to require civility. One of them adopted an air of visibly impatience when he had to repeat our meal choices (at that point we hadn't had sleep in 36 hours, therefore weren't at a state of military alertness) - later he bizarrely, ordered me to close my window shade. It was the dead of night, we were flying over Japan, and I happen to love the sight of city lights from 37,000 feet. I can think of no rational excuse for requiring window shades to be closed at night - maybe China Airlines should ask Boeing to deliver its future jets without windows, just to keep this employee happy. Our other "attendant" was unprovokedly and consistently rude for the entire flight. Taking orders for beverages generally requires waiting longer than 0.006 seconds between rows, but she wasn't bothering even to wait for people to respond to her queries of "Tea-coffee-soda," etc. Maybe she had somewhere important she had to be. We had to flag down a passing attendant from another area to take our orders, and later to take away our used food trays when this prima donna again skipped over us. We were left with trips to the water stations at the restrooms for liquid refreshment. Neither of us is a "difficult" customer - we were generally buried in our books, the IFE and sleep - I reiterate that *none* of this behavior was provoked by any action by us or by anyone around us. There are just some people who should never work in occupations requiring direct contact with customers, and regrettably we...found a pair. There are currently a dozen major airlines available as alternatives to Asia, and we will not be using China Airlines until we've cycled through all of them, or until we hear that CA has suddenly become a model of exemplary customer service. Which means that in the next calendar year alone those two employees will have cost their company close to US $5000 from just these two customers. For the near term I advise avoiding China Airlines at all costs.