lsquare

Better than the beef noodle at the Priority Pass lounge?

eneq

Its fairly good. Seat selection can be a PITA though. All of my flights on CI were booked through Delta, and DL elites get the worst seats in the cabin. I don't think you can purchase Y+ seats on CI through Delta (that's been my experience at least). However, if you get the CI flight number from Delta, you can go to the CI site and the whole cabin will available except for the extra legroom and PE seats. I've only been able to upgrade to those seats at the airport. Its normally pretty cheap though. On intra-Asia flights, CI sells their PE seats as an extension of the economy cabin, so I only paid $30 last month to upgrade on my TPE-NRT leg. I don't have any experience as a DL plat flying on a CI-ticket.

As for the actual flight experience, its fine. DL elites can board early. Elite+ boards second (after business class), and Elite boards third. I've been able to use the SkyPriority check-in and the CI lounges with no issues. I've never checked a bag, but I have seen other DL elites check bags and they've received the priority bag tag. Onboard, its a pretty standard Asian airline experience. There's a full meal service even on the shorter flights, and the FAs are cordial and efficient but not overly friendly.

RealHJ

CI A350 also flies on flight CI1/CI2 to HNL.

(CI, like most non-US airlines, usually puts its newest aircraft on the HNL routes.)

lsquare

As others have indicated, it seems very hard to get CI flights from DL's website. It's almost like as if DL doesn't want me to fly on CI metal. I'm assuming I'll earn more MQM if I book a DL-marketed, but CI-opeeatrd flight? CI MQM warning is terrible for the discounted economy flights. 25%? No thx...

Slightly off-topic, but is there a sweet spot for CI marketed and operated flights when crediting to DL?

lsquare

Is CI going to be getting more A350s in the future?

eneq

Yeah they are definitely pushing a lot of those intra-Asia connections onto either KE or MU. The only time I've been able to book cash fares from Delta with a CI segment is to TPE (ATL-NRT-TPE, for example). You can't even book any of the ex-US non-stops on CI to TPE.

As for earning, flying the code-shares is the way to go. On my most recent trip, one leg was a code-share (NRT-TPE) and the other wasn't (TPE-NRT). I earned 100% MQMs on the code-share, and only 50% on the return leg. I can't think of any sweet spots since the max MQM earning is 100%, and the max MQD earning is 20%.

They don't have any more A350s on order right now. They use them on the high-traffic intra-Asia routes, Australia, and Europe. Other than HNL, the 777s are used on all of their NA routes.

drakethecake

Only value is sometimes you can find prem economy for around 950-1100 to Bali or Auckland. My mom flew JFK to dps and earned 20k mqm and 4kmqd for 1k

ab2013

RT? That’s about 20k SkyPesos for 1K - sounds like a steal. How long did it take for the credit to reflect on the account?

drakethecake

5-7 days after return flight

RealHJ

Don't know. Just the CI A350s have been coming to here for a while. MUs 33Es (when it was the newest and greatest in their fleet) also HNL was one of first routes (heavily marketed in China). NH entire A380 fleet is HNL exclusive. And so on...

HNL just tends to get the latest largest fleet of non-US airlines a lot of the time.

lsquare

It's a bit strange that CI wouldnt want their best product to fly to major US cities.

bsagator

When did they stop flying the A350 to ONT? I see now it's a 77W.

Zorak

Not sure when, but there were posts in the main thread in the Other Asian Airlines forum a couple months back attributing this as least in part to PE demand:

China Airlines announces nonstop TPE- ONT (Ontario)

mikesaidyes

Just a pro tip for anyone flying in economy on a 747: You can select the upper deck seats at check-in. Sometimes at booking if your fare class is high enough. They actually list the upper deck as economy seats (not even marked for business). My bf just did this on his flight ICN-TPE (but TPE-ICN was an A333, no such special arrangement). I also did this 3 years ago in both directions on my two 747 flights ICN-TPE-ICN.

wlau

Only EVA and China's lounges are decent, even Cathay's lounge is not decent in TPE. The MORE Lounge (priority pass) is one the worst in TPE. I personally would not use beef noodle soup as benchmark in Taipei, it's such as staple, it's very hard to make it bad. The 4 noodle options offered at China lounges are all pretty decent for lounge food. The only good thing about The MORE, is the high quality ice cream - everything else is just meh. The place is so unbearably warm year round, I had to take 2 showers every time I had to visit it. China kept sending me to The MORE when they were renovating their own lounge and I was so happy when the renovation was finished and the lounge re-opened.