Originally Posted by jedison
Air China is mainland, China Airlines is Taiwanese. In my experience Air China is pretty miserable, but I haven't flown them in a couple of years. China Airlines is OK. Their business class product is about equivalent to UA's. I was on a 747 to TPE that had internet access (but no power port). Given that Air China is now *A, though, I would probably take them with that choice. The thing is, though, that I don't think there's a lot of overlap between their routes. China Airlines does not fly to the mainland, for obvious reasons (except Hong Kong and Macau) and Air China doesn't fly much except between China and points overseas.
Well, If you see their records, that of China Airlines is more or less that of a never come back airline, whereas Air China has not lost a single plane yet on international sectors (as to my knowledge). And they are to be in the Star Alliance soon. I always try to avoid China Airlines, but would have no issue with Air China. Having said that, I still prefer Lufthansa on the sector Frankfurt Shanghai. But Air China sometimes sells at half the price, especially when you start the journey from China. But before they join Star Alliance I can't use them.