Ben777

Nope, I don't think I flew CI at all over the past 3+ years. Any mileage I have with them came from Skyteam partners, and is probably less than 10000 miles per year.

My history is that I was Paragon from 2007-2012, then Emerald after that. Was supposed to drop down to Gold this year, but they extended Emerald for another year.

I originally left CI due to no alliance affiliation (pre-Skyteam), their nebulous at best upgrade policy at the time (officially no unpurchased upgrades for any status) and to chase a lifetime status on Star Alliance.

Now that they are a part of Skyteam, if they introduce a lifetime status, I'd come back.

tris06

I think they will bring you down to gold as they only gave you 1 year extension i heard from coolfish they do this to encourage loyalty.My account was extended by 2 years and i was sent a letter explaining that i just renewed.

"Their nebulous at best upgrade policy at the time (officially no unpurchased upgrades for any status) and to chase a lifetime status on Star Alliance."

Upgrade policy you mean with operational upgrades? Well i know 5-10years ago i heard they had problems with giving upgrade to people with connections. Thankfully it seems that has been stopped. I heard some people on flyertalk saying it was sad that their uncle who was a pilot could not get them the upgrade or knowing the CI ground staff. I get 1/10-1/15 upgraded for my flights.

Ben777

Upgrade policy meaning that your status does not officially entitle you to any upgrades. For example, every year, UA gives you 6 Global upgrades, 4 Regional upgrades and unlimited (as space permits) complimentary domestic upgrades for being a 1K - which is UA's equivalent of Emerald. CI gives you nothing in the way of upgrades for status.

Unofficially, however, if you are a Paragon or Emerald, traveling in Economy, and CI has overbooked, and/or need to get every last seat filled, they may bump you up to make more room on Economy to get as many people on board as possible. That's the only kind of unpurchased upgrade CI gives.

Information for the above was current as of 2010 - not sure about now.

As to upgrades for knowing someone, that's been gone for years, at least since 2001, as far as I know. I used to know many cabin crew and pilots who worked from 2000-2009, and still know a few. Basically, what you described got so out of hand, that they clamped down on that. So, now, there's an informal system of checks and balances among the various internal groups. If anyone is given an upgrade who hasn't purchased one or under the conditions I described above, it has to be documented, and a good reason given. So for what you describe to happen today, if an upgrade is given by the ground staff, then they are accountable for explaining why. If someone knows a cabin crewmember and they give an upgrade, the other cabin crew and cabin chief have to all be in on it and look the other way. If someone knows a pilot, then the cabin crew has to be in on it and look the other way. So, basically pretty difficult to get that done these days, as crews are selected at random, and the likelihood that the entire crew know each other and would look the other way is pretty slim. and it's been that way since at least 2001.

And, speaking of upgrades - at the time (2010), CI's Business class wasn't even lie flat - this was another reason I left, albeit a much smaller one. This may be changed today though, as I hear the cabin's have been refurbished.

tris06

I understand where your coming from and if your based in USA then UA may be the best way to go. Concerning the upgrades this is almost specifically a US thing only a few other international carriers give upgrade passes and thats for like upgrading in membership which is what CI does. If you upgrade from Emerald to Paragon they will now give you 4 mid-hual segment upgrades(30,000miles each)and 10,000miles gift.

Emerald gets 2 upon upgrading.
Back to upgrades international certs given to elite members is mostly only done by US carriers and domestically only US carriers have this policy. But nothing special about first in US unless its east-west coast.

Right now.. Conversion of the fleet the state of affairs is CI now has some fully flat seating for business class (B777's and long hual a330‘s (B-18356/57/58/59/60/61) and the rest is considered lay-flat(angled) CI got rid of the silly recliners on the 747's in 2011/2012.

I never had trouble between HK-TPE getting upper deck flights so assured upgrades (minus the service) plus some bonus flights upper deck to Bangkok and Brisbane when they fly the B747.

Lounges are also much better than say 2010 in Taipei so its all be changing.
I would say though now with reduced business cabins to and from TPE-SFO/LAX people probably wont be able to expect really low prices for business class as first is now gone. 4500-6000usd to TPE/HKG is my guess by this time next year.

I know BNE-TPE business class is always nearly full with 30seats and its by far a much smaller destination than LAX with 42 business seats.

coolfish1103

You basically get Emerald for 3 years because they will extend a year.

I basically stopped crediting to China Airlines on long haul because the FFP suck and have been flying whoever is cheaper. Like you said not much reason to stay loyal to CI when everything sucks except how much they charge.

lolstebbo

I'm pretty sure they just keep bumping people up to fill as many seats as possible in general, even if they've run out of elites to bump up. I've been bumped up without status before (along with a friend on the same booking record who never flew CI before).

tris06

I think you also need to compare the carriers program to the rest of the region. There are many programs that dont offer yearly upgrade certs. So i would say CI is not bad and yet not great. But in some respects they have benifits like gold membership allowing unlimited lounge access where others only offer a few allowance entrys per year.

BR i cant remember offering yearly upgrades and CX i dont remember them offering upgrades here and there and everywhere from what i read. Qantas and BA also are not great givers, Thai i heard does give some upgrades, but i cant remember if its yearly or just when moving up the elite status ranks.

Ben777

Ironically, I was based in USA when I was flying CI. I'm based in Asia now, but mostly fly Star Alliance carriers. The region I'm in has a strong Skyteam presence for regional flights, but a fairly weak Star Alliance presence (except for long haul) - so if CI started offering lifetime status, that would be enough to draw me back.

So, it looks like the upgrade policy on CI has slightly improved since 2010. Sounds like now they give you 4 Regional upgrades upon change in status to Paragon, and 2 Regional upgrades upon change in status to Emerald. Are they given at each renewal cycle (every 2 years) or only the first time? Still no Global upgrades though.

Under the previous policy (2010 and before), as a Paragon, I was getting the upgrades due to needing to squeeze more people into Economy maybe 3-5 times a year. It almost always happened on long haul to the US, almost never on regional or short haul.

The 10000 miles gift was in place before, and I remember getting a Mont Blanc Pen from the duty free catalog personally delivered to my office by CI customer relations staff at my home base when I ascended to Paragon.

Also, is there still the requirement to fly paid business class in order to get Emerald or Paragon? That was a requirement that CI had, that most others don't. At the time, I would purchase regional flights in business to satisfy that requirement.

As for upgrades on US domestic, sure it's nothing special, but it sure is nice that they are unlimited and automatic for UA 1Ks, as long as there is available space in the premium cabins after paying customers and upgrade certificate users are seated.

So 744s still don't have full lie flat business class? Those are the ones that need it as they fly long haul between TPE and the US West Coast daily.

I couldn't appreciate the CI TPE lounges until I started experiencing the rather spartan UA lounges. Sure, the TPE lounge was kind of poor for a flagship lounge at an airline's homebase, but over the years, of the ones I've been to so far, I think only the Qantas lounge in SYD definitively beats it. Wonder what the updated TPE lounge is like - I may have to pop in sometime, as my Emerald status can still get me in.

Ben777

Probably fuller capacity these days causing this...back in late 2000s, I never started getting bumped up regularly until I hit Emerald. I got it maybe 1-2 times as Gold, but never as a no status.

Ben777

I've heard from friends who fly CX (but don't hold any upper tier elite status) that they will often get a complimentary upgrade at the check-in counter, even if Economy isn't full. From what they tell me, it happens fairly regularly, to the point that they will fly CX even if it isn't the best routing.

tris06

I hear you. I have heard all different things. I have my gf's company has all their bosses flying with CX and like mid range members and i dont hear them being upgraded so much. I think one place that scores a good percentage of upgrades is PE as its not hard to overbook due to the limited seating.

Lounge wise the best lounge i went to was NZ Auckland. Qantas lounge was okay, the highlight was the showers.

West coast flights will be partially B777 fully flat from the 1st of December as all flights to and from LAX. New York from 1st of February 2015 and SFO is planned to go B777 from September 2015. First class service will officially end to USA from this point. Only first class will be on the old B747's and they will be short hual flights to Beijing,Shanghai and Guangzhou.

A350's going to service Europe and Ocenia will be fully flat seating as well and they will come in in 2016.

coolfish1103

Best lounge in Istanbul for Star Alliance

The requirements for Business/First sectors are no longer there if you try to qualify with miles. In Asia-Pacific I'd say the Tokyo lounges for ANA and JAL are better, and then the Hong Kong lounges for CX and others. The good SQ lounges are too difficult to get in so not on the list.

tris06

Thats right coolfish. The star aliance lounges i have little experience but CI invites passengers to use the NZ lounge and it always has a good food a drinks selection. View wise it was not that great. I love the KLM lounge position. I can watch all thats happening outside from the lounge and feels lovely when you know its really quite cold outside. Food is probably an issue though for most.

The 2/4 upgrade certs can get you flights between Tokyo-HNL, DEL-Rome, TPE-BNE/SYD/AKL/CHC.
The last 2 destinations AKL and CHC (seasonal) is a good 13-14hr combined flight time which makes it a long hual. TPE-BNE (8hrs), TPE-SYD (9hrs), DEL-Rome (10hrs?).

coolfish1103

I used it on TPE-LAX, easily the best you can use and it has no black out periods. However, it sucks that they only give you two.

tris06

I didnt know they could be used on such long hual.I was told or heard that could only be applied to medium haul flights.

Next time i get upgrade awards (Gold-Emerald or Emerald to Paragon) then i will definitely use for the TPE-AMS flight or if they bring in London flights in the far future.

Interesting they sent you something when you was upped to Paragon did Cool-fish have the same experience that they sent something to you?
The only thing i got sent to my address apart from the new card was a calendar which i am sure was because i fill out the customer survey questionnaires.

The best thing recently (fingers crossed they dont change it) Is that you can still upgrade from economy to Business class for 30,000-40,000 points where i heard you have to book PE to upgrade to Business.

I asked the airline if i could get the same deal from BNE/SYD to LAX or New York for the PE/Business class flight but unfortunately not. Still some pretty sweet deals for US based flyers. Its crazy from HKG they ask like 5500/6000usd to fly to AMS/LAX when i was last looking at November/December pricing a few months ago.