At least to/from Mainland China, pricing is higher (or at least no better) than other options (e.g. Japan, Korea, LAX, SFO, DFW, DTW, SEA), and the transit experience is less pleasant IMO. Canada (i.e. YYZ + YVR) is the only transit that I rank below TPE in terms of overall convenience.

Is pricing really higher? In Y or J? TPE isn't HKG, in terms of facilities, but is it really any worse than those you listed?

It's unfortunate that I always go to visit my relatives in the Taiwan region after stopping first visiting mainland China (the main airports are amazing there), because my experiences at TPE have been subpar, at least on arrival. TPE doesn't have enough gates and doesn't do any bus gates, so I've always been on planes that have to wait for a gate to open up. Then there's the screening of carry-ons upon arrival, then the delivery of bagages which isn't very timely. The airport just doesn't feel very spacious and the CI lounge I've been to has no natural light or outside windows.

TPE T1 and T2 are too old and way under capacity. T3 is taking a long time - bidding issues, corruption, cost overrun related design changes, etc. Taiwan is not as good as Mainland China when it comes to hardware/infrastructure for sure and all the other neighboring airports HKG, ICN, NRT/HND are much nicer.

T3's North Concourse is open with 8 gates. That will help. Some flights use it but you still have to do all the processing in T2.

Inbound carry-on check is limited to certain countries that have agriculture related issues. From North America, for example, there is not that check. In fact, if you start from the US and connect in TPE, you don't even have to go through security again.

Yes.

I have a somewhat different take on this for several reasons:
1) I'd rather have a connection in Asia than in the US on the way back from Asia to avoid having to collect and recheck my bags in order to clear customs.
2) For international-to-international transfers, TPE has free airside skytrain between terminals that the other airports in Asia and the US generally don't have (some airports have shuttle buses but they tend to take much longer).
3) Lounges at TPE aren't great, but they aren't, generally speaking, any worse than those at the other listed Asian or US airports.

For visiting (rather than transiting) Taipei, I generally choose to fly into/out of TSA instead.

I agree with you on point 1, but everything else about SFO, ORD, DFW, DTW blows the doors off of TPE in my opinion. And, of course, other Asian cities have good airports, so #1 isn't an issue either in these cases. TPE is worse than all but MNL and maybe LAX.

I don't quite get the negativity on TPE for its facilities, either.

Yes, if arriving from China or another country on the quarantine list you have to get your hand carry screened before immigration. But transit passengers are not subject to this and only go through transit security which is reliably fast and efficient. I don't think that can be said for any of the other airports in question. I've spent 45 minutes going through transit security at ICN, a long wait at TPE is like 6 minutes.

As mentioned, if coming from the US you even bypass security. Japanese immigration pre-clearance is coming to TPE though not sure if this will apply to transit passengers, but definitely a plus to avoid immigration in Japan.

Granted the exterior architecture of T1 is an abomination and T2 is uninspiring but this does not impact transit passengers. The interior has been updated multiple times and only lacks the open, soaring space you see at newer airports. The lounges are neither special nor terrible. HKG 's lounges are better, ICN's are similar to worse, and NRT or HND depends on your preference. So middle of the pack.

None of these airports come close to SIN for things to do on a long layover.

I have not yet seen the inside of the new T3 yet but people who have say it is unique and nice. The good thing is that all gates are connected airside so you can walk anywhere or take the train. At ICN once you get to the remote terminal you're stuck, you cannot return to the main terminal. I don't spend a lot of time exploring airports but my staff say there is more to do (because they are IG fanatics and take tons of pictures) in TPE than HKG, NRT or HND. They do like the Korean parades at ICN but TPE has a lot of themed gates. Not my thing, but it does make an impression.

For me, speedy transit security is where TPE stands out. The rest is middle of the road, not the best, but definitely not the worst.

If his destination is mainland China, then TPE is definitely on the bottom of the convenient list with the restrictions China set up for transits. Chinese passports are not allowed to use TPE for transit on the way back, those with foreign passports but were also Chinese citizens in the past had to go through heavy scrutiny before they can leave directly from China to TPE except 3 airports (which no one serves those 3 airports at the moment).

I do want to point out the airside skytrain is only available on the arrival level and does not let you go across the wings. It's not available on departure level once you go past security (and transit passengers likely won't exit). The layout of TPE is a big H so it can get very far if you are connecting from one end to the other. When Terminal 3 is finished this should be addressed to a certain extent, but unknown at the moment.

Lounges at TPE are terrible for transit passengers cause everyone and their mom are transiting at the same time in the morning. It's almost impossible to find a seat in all the EVA lounges except Garden. EVA simply did not address this issue except the Club that was opened more than 10 years ago and this is partially TPE's problem cause there are literally no spaces. The same situation applies to all other lounges except maybe Starlux T2, whether airline or 3rd party. As for other periods, it does get crowded in the afternoon bank of departures as well.

With all that said, I do want to say that I would avoid transiting in the USA like a plague cause of the bag re-checks and domestic inflight service. I am not too sure if I can quantify domestic inflight service as a plus for TPE, but I will try to avoid is as much as possible.

Selfishly, I don't consider that to be a negative. The outbound flights from China to TPE are less full as a result of this restriction on Chinese passport holders. Many Chinese citizens also don't know that they can transit via TPE on their way back to China from their oversea trips.

JL/NH lounges (other than their first class lounges) in HND, for example, also have this issue. Too many have access to these lounges.

I agree. Besides, if you are on J or F TPAC award flight, you're almost certain to be flying in coach on that US-domestic segment nowadays.

I don't really find the transit experience at TPE that different from NRT or HND. Never used ICN so I can't say. HKG is slightly better but mainly because it is a CX megahub so you are just staying within the CX ecosystem. I may have a different take if I ever try to do CX to non-CX transit.

Immigration at TPE is pretty efficient and the experience is good. Never really had any problem when entering Taiwan. The experience in general is better than entering Japan at HND which has horrible lines and very bad way-finding signs.

TPE CI or BR lounges are decent or fair... have not been to JX lounge. I'm used to the pathetic lounges at LAX so I think TPE lounges are pretty nice But clearly, it is not SIN. But compare to HND JL or NH lounges for example, I think the crowd size and amenity are about the same. CX lounges have better food choices for sure, especially at HKG.

Exterior of TPE is... unimpressive to put it mildly. Typical of a lot of infrastructure originally built in the white terror KMT authoritarian era, they were strictly functional and not allowed to have any design aesthetic or flourishes that could be deemed politically sensitive or provocative.

I don't get the hate for BR J lounge in TPE, I look forward visiting it - and yes, I've been in the Oriental Club Lounge - no issue going there when I'm not flying J out of TPE but would not choose it over BR

Cathay would provide excellent onward connectivity for AS if the latter commenced SEA-HKG. BKK, SGN, SIN, MNL, KUL for a start.

My theory would be the Mainland Chinese carriers on the west coast, or the lack thereof.

From JFK, CX/NH/JL/KE all have good coverage via their respective hubs, let alone the services by ME3. The only missing ones are CA/MU perhaps by 1x daily freq. Even PR have established MNL nonstops.

From LAX/SFO/YVR/ORD, the mainland Chinese carriers are no longer what they used to be. CA/MU/CZ have significantly reduced their services. That gives BR/CI a leg up, either for pax connecting from SE Asia or from mainland China - since the supply is lower now.

I doubt it, transit to/from Mainland China via TPE isn't the easiest to do actually.

I instead notice the Japanese carriers are taking most of those passengers. ANA has started printing their business class menus on US flights in simplified Chinese in addition to the original versions that just had English/Japanese, this pretty heavily implies to me that a lot of their customers are transit customers flying to China.