Review of China Airlines flight from Taipei to Koror in Economy

I should note that ROR airport is in Palau and more specifically Airai state, on Babelthuap Island as flight-report.com says had said, and is near Koror. Signage in Taipei uses both Palau and Koror while in ROR it mainly says Palau International Airport. The most technically correct name geographically would probably be Airai but for this report I will be using Koror as that's the major town it's near.

The background for this flight is pretty much all in the LHR-TPE flight report. There wasn't much of a choice for this flight, as the Taipei-Koror service is only a few days a week and it had to match up with the United service to Manila.

I'm happy to present the first English flight-report of a flight to/from the Republic of Palau!

This flight would leave from T1 at Taoyuan International Airport.
There was a super long line right at the entrance to the terminal which scared me for a second, but that wasn't for China Airlines, or at least not for Koror which along with some southeast Asian departures had dedicated counters. There wasn't much of a line there.

Despite a generous 2x 23kg baggage allowance, they were very strict with the weight of individual bags - 23kgs for check-in, 7 for the carry-on, so the process took a little while to shuffle things around and meet the exact specifications.
Security and immigration were quite fast, though, with barely any wait in security and none at all for immigration.
It was a long but pleasant walk to the gate. The airport was full of nice designs and information about Taiwan. It was my first time flying out of TPE and I've decided I quite like it.

The pre-gate area was cool as well, and I believe others had their own special designs.

The plane was visible from the waiting area: B-18111, a 3.5 year old A321neo. It had landed about an hour ago, operating an early morning departure from Jakarta.

A look at some of the international departures later this morning.

The automated announcements were a bit funny, the voice seemed really unsure about the flight numbers so it would be like, "Passengers traveling on EVA Airways flight 3…1?…5?…"
The actual gate area was downstairs, and I went there five minutes before boarding was meant to start.

Nothing was happening yet.

It was a massive waiting area for one little A321neo (this isn't even all of it) which made me appreciate TPE more.

The plane could be seen quite well from here too.

A few minutes after the scheduled 9:10 boarding they announced it would be delayed to 9:25, though the message started out very regretfully and made me start worrying it would be a far more serious delay. It ended up being earlier than that anyway and was quite relaxed, with an organised zones system.
Fuselage:

And here's business class.

And economy. I couldn't get many pictures here as despite being in row 41, I was actually in the second row of economy and the first without extra legroom as the row numbers jumped from 12 to 40.

My seat.

Headrests were adjustable.

Definitely a great cabin, better than their A350 which itself wasn't bad at all. Besides the colours and design, it had personal vents which the A350 didn't, and the screens were enormous. At this stage they were playing videos about Taiwan and China Airlines, as on the flight from London.
Pillows and blankets were available on request.

And the crew handed out earphones.

The seatback pocket had a Pikachu sickness bag, a safety card, and plenty of shopping catalogues.

Unsurprisingly it wasn't a very full flight; boarding was completed in just about ten minutes and we pushed back soon afterwards, passing a moderately large group of international aircraft.

Again as on the previous flight there was a bilingual safety video, after which the entertainment started working.

There was entertainment and plenty of information about the flight.

The selection was similar though not exactly the same as the A350, with maybe a few more options overall. Plenty of content even for a long haul flight.

Unlike on the last flight the e-reader section worked, but it was a little underwhelming.

There was a Disney+ section that the A350 didn't have, but it was unnecessary with just a few movies and TV shows that were also in their respective sections.

The menu was also available. 

Phones could be used as remotes for the screen.
During taxi the crew confirmed I'd ordered a vegetarian meal, and just after I finished going through the IFE we took off.

The wi-fi became available once we were in the air. Prices were the same as the flight from London, meaning the whole flight package which had been quite reasonable then suddenly seemed like a comparatively poor choice. I just connected to the free messaging which worked well but also as it was meant to; it didn't give me free internet access as it had on LHR-TPE.

Nice view of the Taiwanese coast as we flew towards Palau.

Meal service began not long after we were in the air.

Decent quantity, and metal cutlery though (again) no spoon. There was a cup of water, rather than the bottle the first meal on the last flight contained. I'd have preferred a bottle again but that's a minor thing.

It was a good meal except for the salad which I couldn't finish. The main was especially tasty, though slightly more bland than it could have been.
There was a beverage service with the meals and I got an apple juice.

And a sprite when they offered drinks again while clearing the trays.

Economy cabin view a little later into the flight.

As we neared Palau they played a (long) video about the country but the sound was too soft to hear so I'm not totally clear on what the message was, though it seemed to be about protecting the environment and ended with the Palau pledge.

Everyone entering Palau has the pledge stamped into their passport and must sign it.
As per palaupledge.com:

Then there was a biosecurity information video… but for Taiwan, not Palau. They both have strict biosecurity laws but showing the Taiwan one when we weren't entering Taiwan seemed pointless.

And there's Palau!

Some of the famous rock islands, and some regular islands.

Nearing the airport.

The grand Palau International Airport.

Welcome to Palau.

After we got to the gate the videos from the beginning of the flight started playing again, but it wasn't long before we were leaving the plane.

Rushed view of business.

Bye, China Airlines.

Obviously no one else in ROR, not the busiest of hubs.

It was a nice little airport though a bit slow with the immigration, thankfully I was pretty much at the front of the line.

There was just one belt at baggage claim - and one flight - so the lack of screens with flight information was no issue. Bags started arriving just as I got there and I only had to wait a couple of minutes for mine.

Customs was just a couple of questions about the onward flight and if there was any fruit etc in the bags, they didn't even check anything.
Nice enough airport.

Closer look at the arrivals. Greater Bay Airlines from Hong Kong is a charter, as far as I know.

Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll end it here.