Review of China Airlines flight Taipei → Seoul in Economy

Hi again,

After arriving from my previous flight out of Amsterdam in Terminal 2, we had about a 50 minutes left or so before boarding was called again for our flight to Seoul. After a short, but relaxed security check we were already in the correct terminal as our departure flight was departing from the same terminal we arrived on. Given the time limit and the duration of the previous flight, me and my wife didn't really bother to explore the terminal, but it seemed somewhat basic to me with a few overpriced stores you can find in any other airport across the entire globe :)

Walking down the terminal, we found our gate for today's flight, which would depart from Gate A2.

Unfortunately Gate A2's seating section is shared with three gates (A1 to A3) and had three aircraft departing within a timespan of 90 minutes and was sincerely overcrowded as tons of people were standing around. It's also pretty dull with limited to no activities around you.

It felt like the airport tried to spice up the atmosphere in this departure hall by adding a decorative plum blossom tree, which is the national flower of Taiwan, but failed miserably in my opinion as it was too ugly and too fake. 

Despite the limited view over the tarmac, I managed to spot B-18307, An Airbus A330-300, which will bring us over to Seoul Incheon. This 18,3 year old bird (at time of flying) has solely been in service to China Airlines since September 2005.

Boarding was called right on time by the flight attendants with adherence to your zone. The ground attendants were quite strict in this matter and did not allow you to board until your zone was called upon. This resulted also in a pretty swift and quick boarding process. Upon embarking the aircraft, we were kindly greeted by some of the flight attendants and me and my wife made it up to our seat. It was a pretty surprise to see that China Airlines is still using a very old cabin in their A330 birds as the picture displays below.

The padding was obviously very comfortable with the seat and the legroom for a 2.5 hour flight was very generous.

The seat was also equipped with a mirror (left side of the IFE), a very small and outdated IFE system, a holder for any small device and/or drinks and a coat hanger. A remote control was available in your arm rest, but the IFE system was also a touchscreen if you opted to use it, however the pixel quality of the IFE was poor.

Once again a view of the cabin, which was layered in a 2-4-2 configuration. A configuration I absolutely endore as it is just so much more comfortable travelling as a couple. You could also see the mirror in the picture below as the person in front of me opened it.

Once again no personal air vents were available.

The same complimentary earplugs were provided as on my previous flight. Once again I didn't bother to use them, so I can't really judge them, though no high hopes.

The view from our seating row with an Airbus A320 of Tigerair Taiwan pulling into stand.

Legroom is generous, however keep in mind that the legroom is somewhat reduced by having the IFE box being placed below the seat of the person in front of you. Didn't really bother me that much, but I guess it could annoy some people.

Pushback happened about three minutes past our scheduled departure time and would see us departing from Runway 23L about five to ten minutes later.

After departure, a quick turn into northerly direction gave us the last view of land including the airport until we were reaching South Korea. So far Taipei Airport wasn't massively interesting, but it definitely was a breeze through to pass as a transit passenger.

Also my wife took this shot before of the Business Class seat on China Airlines' Airbus A330-300. I'm not entirely sure whether it is worth to buy if you are only doing a 2.5 hour flight, but the product they used on their A350 was definitely one of better qualities.

While still in the climb to our cruise level, I checked the literature in our seat pocket which contained a sick bag, a duty-free magazine, a safety card & a card stating certain regulations about entering Taiwan.

Reaching our cruise level of 37.000 ft.

Not much later after reaching our cruise level, the flight attendants came out to provide us with a complimentary meal. The options were fish with Rice or chicken with noodles. Me and my wife both opted for the fish options, which was decent in taste, tho the sauce was a bit on the thicker and sweeter taste than we'd liked. It was also served with a bun and butter, a salad, fruit, a cookie & a drinking package of Oolong Tea. Despite most galaxy carriers in Asia, China Airlines did not opt for real cutlery and provided you with hard plastic ones. 

Coffee and/or Tea was served afterwards and I opted for a cup of coffee. They weren't generous with the pouring of coffee as the picture below indicates all the coffee I received on one serving. I guess I received some Dutch stinginess as a return ;). Also no normal drinking service was provided during meal service, which I found kinda odd.

After the clean up by the crew, I decided to pay a visit to one of the toilets on board, which was as of yet very clean with limited amenities available. A liquid soap to clean your hands, a perfume to kill any nasty smells and a moisturizer to keep your skin moisturized, duh?

South Korea is in sight!

Shortly before beginning our approach, the Captain, although barely audible, checked in with us to inform us about our descent into Seoul and informed us with somewhat of a mumble about clear skies and a temp. of approximately 12 degrees Celsius. Shortly before landing we had a nice overview of the Korean islands before making our landing at Runway 15R

Touchdown in what seems to be a quiet airport.

Disembarkation via Terminal 2 went smoothly with a pretty long walk to customs. Even though using the people mover, I found to carpet parts to be annoying for my trolley to move. Never really understood why carpets are being used on airports.

Immigration took more than a hour to clear as it was very busy. On top of that the immigration counters were reduced from seven stations to just four…. By the time we were done with it, our luggage was already removed from baggage belt 8 and was collected by staff and placed on the floor to make space for more luggage.

Luggage was collected and we were off by train to the city center of Seoul!