#16 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
107 reviews
It comes to the last part of the flight from NRT to HKG : from TPE to HKG. Things go a little bit wrong with the experience of China Airlines, which is the Taiwanese airline for this short haul flight. But it is fine and expected, as the flight time is not long at all. I love the lounge experience more than the flight experience.
From the last report, I got to the departure area of TPE through the transfer counter. Immediately I head to the lounge of China Airlines at terminal 1 of TPE.
A snapshot of the corridor at Terminal 1 of TPE.
The entrance of the China Airlines Lounge at Terminal 1 of TPE.
First of all, you would need to pass through a corridor. If you are with first class or level of status I guess, you could enter another room through a door in the middle of the corridor. But for me, as a normal business class passenger, just go to the end of the corridor and then you could find the business class section of the lounge.
Wow, the interior design of the business class lounge really surprises me. The design looks so elegant, and relaxing.
The sofa was arranged in a cubicle setting, and I guess it is really nice, if the whole set is shared with a family. There are some display areas mounted on the wall for each cubicle, and mainly they are about books, or some artwork. I guess it is a way to show the culture of Taiwan, showing respect to the book culture etc.
The food selection at the lounge is nice. With hot food like fried rice, fried noodles, dim sums, Chinese soup, etc. At the middle, there is a noodle bar and you could have a choice of four kinds of famous noodles in Taiwan.
I feel very full after the lounge, I am satisfied with the food selection of this lounge. But I think that they could add more choices of fruit at the lounge, as Taiwan is famous for its fruit.
It is time to get on the plane. The waiting area is quite nice.
Here is the information of the plane:
CI921
Registration No. : B-18305
Model : Airbus A330-300
Years: 18.7 Years
For A330 of China Airlines, they keep with the regional business class setting. The business class seats are arranged with 2-2-2 configurations. For a short flight with just around 1.5 hour flight time, it is normal that airlines will just use flights with regional business class settings.
Some photos of the seat. From the seat features, you can see that there are some ages for the hardware. The monitor size is not big, and with a strange remote control. But the legroom of course is very sufficient. Apart from the overhead compartment, there is not much extra storage space available. There are some drawers under the monitors and I guess they are large for passports or smartphones only.
Today the business class is not full. There were only two passengers. Of course, I guess if people really travel from Taipei to Hong Kong they will not spend so much on the flight that only lasts for around 1.5 hours.
As the welcome drink, it is blueberry juice. The juice really brings some refreshment.
Here comes dinner. You can preselect what to eat before boarding the flight. I pick the following choices:
Main Course: Pan-fried Chicken Thigh in Cream Mushroom and Seaweed Sauce with Spaghetti
Bread: French Bread with Cheese and Basil
Dessert: Seasonal Fresh Fruits , Premium Ice Cream
The food comes with a single tray. It is reasonable as the flight only lasts for around 1.5 hours.
But I feel a little bit regretful of picking this set of dinner. Personally I don’t quite like the taste of the sauce provided, i think only creamy sauce could match with any kind of spaghetti (just some personal preference). And it seems that the spaghetti is overcooked (?) and that the shape of the noodles is not retained (or if it is the style of this kind of noodles? I don’t know). Anyway, I still completed the dinner, as I don't want to waste any food. Luckily I had enough food at the lounge. I love the drink, the peach tea, so I ordered them again for this flight.
The inflight entertainment system seems is another version compare with the last flight. The interface is simplified but it is clever, as if the system is the same as those newer model, i guess that it will lag and hang. Still, the screen is responsive throughout this flight.
Seems Taiwan has some relationship with Japan, maybe popularity, and so Japanese is a choice of language on the flight entertainment system.
Time flies and it is time for landing. Unfortunately, it was so cloudy near Hong Kong and so I could not have a chance to enjoy the night view of Hong Kong from the sky.
I am not sure if it is due to the priority of business class passengers, or at that period of time the flight schedule is not that packed at Hong Kong International Airport, it was fast for me to pick the luggages. After I passed through the immigration counters at Hong Kong and reached the luggage belt, I could see my luggages immediately. Previously Hong Kong International Airport is not that efficient in handling passengers’ luggages.
Stay tuned for next two reports, featuring CX flights HKG<=>KIX.
Overall speaking, I quite like the lounge of China Airlines at Taipei Taoyuan Airport. The design, and the wide variety of food in that lounge really impresses me. Yet, the flight experience is not that good comparatively. This is a business class flight but I think previously the meal from economy class setting of the CX flight taking me from HKG to TPE wins.
The seat is comfortable but the hardware seems to have room for improvement. I guess for hardware it is still acceptable for such a short flight, taking the consideration that after you finish the meal actually it is about time to prepare for landing.
The staff is polite, proactive and nice despite the fact that it is just a very short flight.
Les contributeurs de Flight-Report ont posté 61 avis concernant 4 compagnies sur la ligne Taipei (TPE) → Hong Kong (HKG).
La compagnie qui obtient la meilleure moyenne est Cathay Pacific avec 8.4/10.
La durée moyenne des vols est de 1 heures et 50 minutes.
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2 Comments
The business class hard product is antique by today’s standards but perfectly good for such short regional flights. This business class seat is much better than CX’s regional Business class for example.
Thanks for sharing!
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