China Airlines Excellent Business Class Taipei-Singapore with Brand New A350-900
 

I've always wanted to try China Airlines medium haul business class product. I've experienced their short haul product from Surabaya-Singapore last time and supposedly this is the right time, given the fact that May Day holiday is on, plus they offer a very tempting price for two-way ticket, and moreover, this will be my first time ever trying A350-900. So hop I go for this miles-hunting trip.

This is one of the four flights for the trip. I chose it to showcase how China Airlines performs in their own hub, plus some insights of their outstanding Dynasty Lounge in Terminal 1.


Taoyuan airport is quite confusing for first timers, especially during transit since it lacks proper signs on where to head to. Immediately after arriving from Singapore flight, I headed down to transit counter which is quite easy to find to get boarding passes for upcoming flights. I told the lady that I wasn't going to clear immigration and just wanted to go straight to Dynasty Lounge to stay overnight, and I was met with a strange and bemused look from her. It seems like she's never met lots of aviation geeks like myself.

Boarding pass in hands and she told me to pass through security check where she pointed to an unmarked area just across her transit desk. There's only me in that check point so just in couple of minutes, I got back to departure area again.
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Some shots of TPE during night time and one area which attracts me the most, they call it The Green Gallery. It's basically a corridor with vertical plants on one side and beautiful Chinese calligraphy on the other side, complete with soothing lighting.
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There's a clear signboard to guide to airlines lounges, one one them is China Airlines Dynasty Lounge which I'm about to use. TPE Terminal 1 has several lounges, including two Plaza Premium Lounge, Cathay Pacific lounge, and former Thai Airways lounge. This TG lounge is under maintenance when I got there.
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I believe China Airlines has improved a lot since the launching of their NexGen plan. We can find one of the most obvious improvements in their own hub, which is the so-called China Airlines Dynasty Lounge. It has a unique design with lots of wooden and earthy tones, huge dining and lounging areas, dim lighting, and great amenities. It's too bad they don't open 24 hours though. They close at 23.00 and open again at 05.00, so be prepared to move to free-24 hour lounge just next to it if you want to spend overnight and catch the flight in the next morning.

Some shots of the lounge:

The lounge entrance and eligible Skyteam partners:
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Cozy room for napping:
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A long corridor with free newspapers and magazines that leads to business class dining area:
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Business class lounge area:
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The shower room itself is quite spacious; amenities such as towels, shower cap, hair dryer, soap and shampoo are already prepared inside.
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Some light dinner and breakfast:
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After spending a night in the two lounges together with some strolls around the empty airport, I had to catch my flight back to Singapore in the next morning. Apparently, this would be quite a full flight.
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Boarding commenced and it was put in orderly manner, although some people just started to make line in spite no call for boarding was done yet.
This is the gate for First/Business Class passengers.
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In my opinion, this China Airlines business class cabin in their brand new A350-900 has one of the most soothing and inviting ambiences compare to others. It is exactly harmonious with their lounge design, with brown and earthy color and faux-wooden panel here and there. The cabin is also equipped with sophisticated B/E Aerospace Super Diamond seat in reverse herringbone configuration that enables easy aisle access for everyone. This is important for today's business class product.
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My nest seat for the next 4 hours:
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Some features of the seat:
Faux-wooden storage with AVOD remote control, power cord, USB port and mirror inside:
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More storage and wide monitor:
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Seat controller and noise canceling headphones:
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Business class blanket:
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One feature which I like the most, a sleek small lamp on each corner of every seat. It really adds up to the soothing and warm ambience.
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China Airlines did not offer amenity kit pouch for this sector, however, they did provide a pair of slippers in a black pouch. The slippers are of good quality though.
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As soon as I was seated, a flight attendant came around to offer some welcome drinks. The choices were water, orange juice and apple juice. I think it's the norm for China Airlines not to offer any bubbles before take-off. I chose orange juice this time and it came with a pack of mixed snack contains almond, rice crackers and stuff.
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And then, another flight attendant came to distribute menu book. As for China Airlines standard, they only allowed you to browse the menu for some time and then take it back with them once you have made your choice. I know that some travelers in some flight reports complained about it. But this time, when I asked if I could keep the menu book just in case I wanted something mid-flight, they happily obliged and let me have it for the entire flight. So the key is just say and ask politely.

Here's the menu for this flight:
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And drinks list as they call it Dynasty Lounge:
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About 20 minutes after take-off, the first service begins with traditional Chinese savory pastry of stir-fried turnip cake with XO sauce. It was a very delicious turnip cake for my Asian taste bud.
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After this, nothing was on served. I found it quite odd. The flight time is about 4 hours, but lunch was just served almost 1.5 hours before landing. That means we had nothing to eat after snack service, but probably drinks still can be served when we ask. This also happened during my outbound flight from Singapore. Perhaps they have to review this again because it's not a good thing to let passengers hungry for two hours.

About two hours post take-off, lunch was finally served. They offered three choices as in the menu, and this time I opted for the Grilled Balsamic Honey Chicken Thigh with Jade Rice and Pak Choi. The starter, bread and main were served together in one tray.
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A closer look to the starter: Smoked Turkey Rolled with Apple with Crab and Cucumber Salad. It was excellent.
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A closer look to the main. The rice was quite overheated so some of it became dry and stuck onto the plate. But overall, this was very delicious and I really liked it a lot. It has big chunks of chicken thigh and very tender.
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As usual, Bailey's is my choice for drink.
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After they cleared off the tray, it was time for dessert and China Airlines offers a decent Haagen Dazs ice cream.
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It came with choice of tea and coffee, jasmine tea was my pick.
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I spent the remaining time listening to music in their radio list. They have extensive collection of movies in this aircraft, enough to keep us entertained. But since I'm not fond of those, I just kept listening to the radio while watching the moving map.

The seat itself can be adjusted to a fully flat bed and very comfy. But as usual with Super Diamond seat which I also found in Garuda Indonesia, you cannot raise up your leg during sleeping mode because it will surely bump into the folded table.

One last shot of the aircraft:
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Not bad but can they compete with EVA

Thanks for the report , I specifically enjoyed your video on you tube ! ;)

Thanks for the TR ^ Those seats looks really good.

I haven't tried EVA but seeing from this kind of service, this is quite a promising and solid product in my opinion. Maybe they should improve more on the crew.


Thanks.


It was really good actually, but one hitch appears when in flat-bed mode like I said in the report ;)

Great TR! The new product looks really great!

Wow! Impressive!

Thanks for sharing!

Looks like they are certainly trying.

Thanks again.

Thanks.

Thanks for a good report, especially the photos.

The cabin interior does look nice.

How full was the flight? The cabin seems to have overhead bins only at the sides; were there any problems with either space, or people rummaging in the bin above you for their things?

I think it was around 70%. From what I remember, folks sitting around me did not carry much luggage, only some backpacks and they can be stored under the ottoman. But I do agree with you that some people might just put their bags on the side overhead bins.

Nice! the reverse herringbone is the best seating layout. Plus I like that lamp, gives it a nice antique touch.. that calls back to the Old Shanghai days.

Thanks for the TR. That's a beautiful cabin, especially for such a short hop. I dig the lamp.

The lamp looks like the BA F lamp. A high point of that seat too.

Agree with you about the lamp, it adds to a more chic cabin ambience.