Review of China Airlines flight Taipei → Naha in Business

The departure gate was pretty packed with Taiwanese families on their summer holidays.




The mighty Queen of the Skies performing the short hop to Okinawa. Another Queen taxies by. CI sure have quite a number of B747s still flying around. Boarding was delayed by 20min due to the late arrival of aircraft.





09 August 2017
China Airlines
CI 122
Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) - Naha Okinawa (OKA)
B747-400
B-18210
Economy Class (Business Class cabin)
Flight Time: 1H02M


If you have noticed my boarding passes earlier, I would be flying on the upper deck of the Queen, and in the Business Class cabin too even though it was an economy ticket. For certain leisure-oriented flights, CI is allowing economy passengers (with the exception of certain fare classes) to select seats in the Business Class cabin, but of course with Economy service. First Class cabin would be used of Business Class instead. With luck, my fare class is eligible for selection of the Business Class cabin during online seat management and hence immediately I selected the Upper Deck cabin! This would be my first ever flight on a B747 Upper Deck!

Boarding commenced and was again orderly.




Boeing-liveried CI B773ER




Newspaper cart at the door before boarding. Mainly Taiwanese newspapers offered.






Welcomed and directed up the stairs to the hump! Stepped into the upper deck Business Class cabin, which is a haven compared to the mass Economy cabin below. This aircraft was still fitted with the older recliner seats though the overhead bins has been fitted with the larger new ones. There are 24 Business Class seats in the upper deck, and even though it was economy service, we were still served by 2 dedicated crew in the upper deck. Business class pillows and duvet were placed on each seat. Surprisingly, upper deck was not full.






Tons of legroom!




Seat controls




Large pillow and a duvet.




Inflight magazines were packed in a clear plastic folder. Retro-looking noise-cancellation headphones were availabe at each seat as well.




With the very spacious seat, I had almost 3 windows to myself!




View from the upper deck.




Boarding was completed swiftly, doors closed and safety video was played.




Taxi to the runway.






Competitor's Queen which is retiring very soon.




KLM just behind.




With this being a lightly loaded short-haul flight, the takeoff run from Rwy23L must be one of the shortest ever takeoffs I experienced on a B747!




Climbing








The bulky and retro IFE handset, which also functions as a phone.






On this 1hr flight, I was actually surprised that a hot dinner was offered. Meal trays were swiftly distributed shortly after takeoff. According to the cabin crew, the meal would be a fried vermecilli with minced pork and fishcake. The tray came with a dessert cookie and a cup of water. The hot meal was delicious and the white chocolate cookie tasty as well. Coffee and Oolong tea was also offered.








Visit to the lavatory, which had the Business Class amenities stocked.






Full recline of the seat, though not flat, was still pretty comfortable.




Spent the rest of the short flight catching up with the movie I was watching during the previous sector. The IFE system is similar to the A330.




Dusk




Very soon, we were already descending into Naha. Landing into Naha Airport Rwy18 in the night was uneventful.




Parked beside the competitor's aircraft.




Disembarking and getting more shots of the upper deck cabin.








Going down the stairs of the Queen.




Business Class cabin at the main deck. Seemed pretty empty with the unused pillows and blankets on the seats.






Being seated in the upper deck, we were the first few to disembark, which helped to avoid the very long immigration queue at the small immigration hall. Guess those seated at the back would take quite a while to clear immigration.

There was a slight wait for the bags, but not too long.




Arrival hall meeting area at Naha Airport's International terminal. The terminal is way smaller than the major Japanese airports.