Review of China Airlines flight Singapore → Taipei in Economy

changi airport 9.5/10

As expected, my experience at Changi was nothing short of wonderful. It was fast, clean, efficient and the staff were always friendly and helpful. My flight departed from the newer Terminal 3 which meant that it was less cramped than the other terminals. Check in was fast and efficient and immigration took less than 30 seconds to clear. Security at the gate is something I always find more pleasant than going through the more typical centralised security checkpoints found at many other airports. I then went to the Singapore Food Hall for some noodles. However, seats were few and far between and they were not in the best state of cleanliness and I found it quite unpleasant. I even stopped over at the beautiful butterfly garden as I had arrived early and hence had little else to do.  

However, my time at Changi Airport would soon come to an end as departure time drew near

Boarding soon commenced with Skyteam members and business class passengers boarding first followed by premium economy and then economy. Economy passengers boarded by zones; from back to front.This took about 20 minutes to complete with flight attendants quickly ushering us into our seats despite the chaos. Soothing music was also played during boarding, making it a little less stressful

This is the plane that took me to Taipei; B-18903. It was 7 years old at the time of writing. The economy cabin is arranged in a 3-3-3 layout

flight 9.0/10

Following taxi and takeoff, which took approximately 20 minutes, the plane climbed to 40000ft. The flight attendants then started handing out snacks and drinks followed by a full meal service. 

As I did not take a picture of the in-flight entertainment (IFE), I will simply describe it here. It had a plentiful selection of music and movies; both English and Taiwanese. The system was fast and responsive although there was no remote. The only way to interact with the system was through the touchscreen although this wasn't much of a gripe and I actually prefer this to having a remote.

This is the spicy beef with rice. It was appetizing and was more than adequate for a 4 hour flight. 

The most disappointing thing by far was the bathroom. It was dirty; the toilet seat being covered in urine, the bin was full and there was a strange smell. If not for the toilet, this flight would have been near perfect.

The rest of the flight was uneventful as we descended into Taipei. We landed slightly late as we faced some turbulence coming in but overall the flight was really good. Poor point being the bathroom

taipei taoyuan airport 7.3/10

Once we landed, we made our way to immigration. We had to pass through a health and biosecurity screening first however. This was a very chaotic process with queues all over the place and seemingly no order. Following this, we went through the e-gates which were quick and hassle-free. The worst part though was the baggage collection process. The baggage claim area was packed with people and it was difficult to navigate. Furthermore, the conveyor system stopped multiple times, delaying the process of bag collection. We then had to pass through a chaotic queue to get to the arrivals area. Poor experience overall and definitely not comparable to Changi