mapleg

Have flown through TPE a number of times in the past, and always was fairly impressed with the airport and the amenities offered.

My opinion has gone downhill after finally using the airport to arrive and depart.

Arriving-far too long to get through immigration with many desks not open

Departing-terrible. Same long line ups for security, then more for immigration. Basically a waste of one hour. No Star Gold fast track.


Certainly does not compare favourable to SIN/HKG/HND/NRT/ICN and others for the Star Alliance business class traveller.

akalra1187

Also had a pretty poor experience departing TPE. Long lines even flying Royal Laurel. Over crowded BR lounge, went over to the SQ lounge which was spartan.
Arriving wasn't too bad.
LHR blows it out of the water, and LHR isn't exactly good. LHR T2 & T5 for sure, and dare I say T4 with the excellent QR lounge, pretty good EY lounge and quick waiting times throughout the terminal.

mapleg

I went over to the SQ Lounge after a shower at the EVA Infinity. It was just so overcrowded with loudmouths yakking into their phones.

Went to SQ lounge--I was the only person in it and finally one other person came in as well. I did not think it was spartan...seemed quite nice.

I have an upcoming trip where I was going to stay just one night in TPE as a break on the trip. Think I will change it and forget about that plan as looks like a big waste of time. About 40 minutes to clear immigration on the way in, and probably 50-55 minutes on the outward journey with security and immigration. All of this was on a paid business class ticket. Poor showing.

akalra1187

Have you been to EY (F), EK, QR, LH (F), LX, or CX lounges?

The SQ lounge in TPE looks like a prison compared to them.

mapleg

Been to some of them. Of course I don't expect a regional star alliance lounge (that is not served by SQ first class flights) to be the same as EY F or LH F lounges designed as flagship lounges.

I was only comparing it to the EVA lounge I had access to at that particular airport, not all lounges in the world.
All I said is it was quite nice because it was:

1. Uncrowded
2. No uncouth people practically screaming into their phones
3. Food was "ok", but that's my opinion of EVA's as well.

It wasn't the lounge experience that gave me a poor impression of the airport (although it did not help), it was the ludicrously long lines ups to enter/exit.

hayzel7773

It's sad to see that after all the space TPE airport took away from CI and BR to expand immigration halls and security checkpoints, they still have not alleviated any of the crowding issues that have been affecting them. I hope that the newest "expansion" will help to fix this very serious issue.


EVA lounge food for Infinity and Star are terrible. Only Garden has a somewhat improved offering.

As for Gold track(and it's sky team equivalent), TPE airport refuses to make space for this. I know a couple of people on the TPE team for BR and they have asked and asked before, the answer was always no due to space constraints.

mjcewl1284

I travel to TPE about 50+ times a year. I’ve written countless times and pretty much nothing has changed.

The facilities, while T2 stands out in terms of appearance, I echo the previous posters opinions. If given the chance that an immigration officer is willing to listen, I point out the masses of Taiwanese passport holders in line while the automated departure/arrival stations are all empty! It is simply a waste of money to not educate Taiwanese people to go through those automated stations, not to mention a total waste of time upon arrival (departure is not far off). My record for waiting upon arrival from start of line to passport stamped was 72 minutes, no joke.

Beyond that, I just try to make things bearable. Usually adding 30-45 minutes at the airport solves this.
I find the SKL to have the best catering. All the EVA lounges are pretty much pedestrian, coach level food which I avoid altogether. Everything else seems to be slop they found leftover from economy meal carts. At least with SKL, they have a couple of dishes that they keep rotating and their dim sum is passable. The surroundings are drab, but tolerable, and most importantly, are quiet.

If I have the time, I will stop by at EVA for Haagen Dazs or Movenpick, which is really the only acceptable food there. The worst part of the EVA lounges in my opinion is they have no differentiation of service. Everything is self serve, food and beverage the same. Why separate into 4 different lounges if there is no differentiation?

For as long as I've been traveling to TPE, which dates back to when there was only T1, at that time, they said T2 would alleviate overcrowding issues. I do understand that Taiwan probably did not account for mainlander traffic but it really lies in the automated gates. It baffles me to no end how many Taiwanese people don't use them and instead line up, maybe it's ignorance or lack of education from officials, I don't know. But this is an issue that's going to keep repeating itself and unless they start funneling Taiwanese passport holders to those automated gates, crowding is still going to be an issue, imo.

ProleOnParole

As far as I recall, lines increased the most when they started taking everyone's fingerprints and mugshots on entry and exit. It just takes way longer than before to process each passenger. And the traffic has been growing in parallel as well.

Citizens have their own separate lanes, even if all of them started using the automated gates, it would not relieve the congestion for non-citizens directly. It's possible the immigration agency would just reduce staff numbers instead of reallocating them to process non-citizens.

The easiest improvement that could be made is getting rid of the arrival cards for visitors. It's not as if they serve much meaningful purpose anyway.

yrs

I have a trip planned on BR from JFK-SIN. I will only be transiting through TPE. What issues face transiting passengers?

ProleOnParole

Will you be staying airside? Generally none, it's really not a bad airport at all, although compared to Changi there isn't so much carpeting.

pigx5

My record for waiting upon arrival several US airports from from start of line to passport stamped was more than 120 minutes, no joke.

The lines for Taiwanese people might be long but they move fast so does the security check point.
That might be the reason that many people don't feel in need of applying for using the E-gates. They do need to improve for the visitors tho.

mapleg

They do the same in Japan, but with line ups a lot shorter. When you exit the country it's very fast in Japan (and they don't take fingerprints again). Japan is relatively quick, TPE is glacial in comparison.

Jut put more agents in the booths..there were enough of them but many were unstaffed.

kpottermn

My last trip through transiting through TPE, getting through transit security took about 45 minutes. Skip the BR lounge and go to the Plaza Premium Zone A lounge in T2 -- I thought it was great.

ProleOnParole

In my experience, on arrival it's comparable to TPE and can be more of a hassle whenever there's bird flu, pig flu or some other health scare circulating. On departure Japan could indeed be faster for visitors, not so much for residents though. On a general note, I don't really think Japan is a good example to learn from for any other country with regard to immigration bureaucracy.

mjcewl1284

Comparing TPE or for that matter any Asian destination, to a US airport is apples and oranges. I've had even longer than that going through ORD during peak traveling in the summer.