mikelazaro

BACKGROUND:

My fiancé and I recently went to the Philippines early in September. We booked Premium Economy tickets with the routing of SFO-TPE-MNL. We used miles we’ve accumulated to upgrade to Business Class.

I know most people try to avoid China Airlines since there are so many other great options to cross the Pacific. We’ve actually gained status from just 3 trans-Pacific flights so inevitably our loyalty is with China Airlines when traveling to the Philippines.

I have found service on China Airlines nice but not excellent. They are not very proactive, but this could be because the flight takes off at 1:40am Pacific time. The food on China Airlines is average at best. What really annoys me is that SFO-TPE is approximately a 12-hour flight, but they begin breakfast service 3 hours prior to arrival, YES, THREE HOURS prior to arrival.

Now I just sound like a negative Nancy… but there is good to China Airlines as well. They have a very new long haul fleet with their 777’s and their brand new A350’s. I have always been a Boeing fan but I think I actually like the A350 more. Our flight would be on a A350.

For this trip, we spent around 2 weeks in the Philippines with our time spent in Coron, Palawan for the first 4 nights. We also spent a few days in Boracay. We then spent a few days in Tagaytay for my cousins wedding. The remainder of the time was spent in Manila. My fiancé left 5 days before me. On a whim, I went to Hong Kong for 3 days, which was great.

I apologize for the lack of airplane pictures, but I’ll let the pictures do the talking.


TRAVEL DAY - SFO-TPE-MNL


Entrance into the lounges at SFO



Signs pointing towards the lounges


Inside the depressing China Airlines lounge at SFO. We immediately left the lounge and went to the Air France/KLM lounge which was better.


Bar at the China Airlines lounge with no one there…


Onboard seat 15K. I thought the Business Class cabin was actually very nice.




Water and storage space




Nice little table lamp


I think it’s a great looking cabin














Pol Roger to start




Lobster starter












Fiance wasn’t hungry so I got her protein


Dessert was the best part of the meal service


Some Johnny Walker Blue Label to wash it all down



Snack area set up in between Business Class and Premium Economy cabin


Cabin after the meal service


Oolong tea with Pineapple cake


Clean lavatory






controller or touch screen


Hot towel before breakfast service


I opted for the omelette


Mood lighting turned on 3 hours prior to arrival into TPE






Seat control




Overall, I think it was a very relaxing flight. The crew was friendly but wasn't over the top. They did address me by my last name. I don't know if it was because of a full cabin, but the meal service was very slow and they were't exactly great in refilling drinks. The seat was very comfortable and managed to get about 6 hours of sleep.

Entrance into the lounge at TPE




I apologize for the quality. I initially used my Canon G7X for photos but these were taken with my iPhone.



DESTINATION PHOTOS:

I didn’t take any more photos of the flight from that point on. Here’s a few photos from Coron, Palawan, Philippines.



























A few photos from Boracay.



First to board the Cebu Pacific flight from Manila to Caticlan


Boracay




Transfer from plane to boat


Our boat awaits












I highly recommend the Coast in Boracay which is rated #1 on Tripadvisor












Fresh squid


Crispy Pata (pork knuckle)


Onwards to Hong Kong





CONCLUSION
Again, I apologize for the lack of airplane pictures. I initially didn’t plan on writing a trip report. It was a great 17 days in Asia. September is the end of the rainy season for the Philippines so I feel we were extremely lucky that it didn’t rain much while we were there. I think Philippines is a very underrated destination and I think it’s definitely worth a visit. Thanks for reading my trip report!

hlee628

Nice report. Rare to see a CI report on here for longhaul business class. I use to fly CI a lot before my company switched over to BR for our corporate travel. If the early breakfast annoys you, make sure to tell the FA before you go to sleep. I usually ask to have breakfast 1.5 hours before landing and they usually don't have any issue with this. If you use a good sleep mask and earplugs you should be able to maximize your rest time this way.

ExpatSomchai

Thanks for the report. We are thinking of Palawan so can I ask your routing for that sector and transfer details?

MRTY

Some hardware changes spotted here. The champagne is now Pol Roger, new menu book, and the tableware are new too. They look very different compared with my previous J flight with them in May 2017 SIN-TPE vv.

I'm not sure if this is typical for their long haul flights, or maybe they did change it by now.

CommentatusMaximus

I recently had a roundtrip flying CI on both their new and old hardware. The new one was the same as the OP's and is quite nice, an above average reverse herringbone layout. The old product is terrible. Totally agree that the food could be better too.

tennislover9

The hard product and lounges in Taipei look top notch.

Probably one of the last solid redemption's of Delta Skypesos left in the system.

Thanks for sharing.

mikelazaro

Thanks for reading my report! There are three main airports you can fly into Palawan. First is Puerto Princessa, then El Nido, and lastly Busuanga (Coron). I believe only Philippine Airlines, Air Asia, Cebu Pacific, and Swift Air fly into Palawan. To get to any of those cities you'll need to connect via MNL. Leave yourself plenty of time for a connection because MNL is a nightmare. There are 4 terminals at MNL and they are basically different airports. I would leave at least 3 hours for connecting. Hope that helps.

mikelazaro

I believe their Intra-Asia flight service is downgraded because we flew J from TPE-MNL and their menu and service is very different compared to the long haul service.

frobozzelectric

were you there when the talipapa in boracay burned down (again)? big fire last last week when we were there.

mikelazaro

No, I was there early September. Where did you stay in Boracay?

injian

happy to see that they fly an A320 to caticlan now. what was the baggage weight limit?

mikelazaro

Yes, no need to fly all the way into Kalibo unless you're coming from a different country. I believe its 30 kilo's.

djjaguar64

China Airlines look nice!

Bretteee

i wanted to go to the Phillipines but I read some travel warnings even for Palawan.

hkskyline

For your SFO-TPE sector, seems the J seat enclosure is not high enough and there isn't too much privacy for your pod. Even in Y, you won't be able to see so much of the folk ahead of you's head!

The dinner menu looks quite good. I've never had lobster in any of my CX J transpacific flights! But the presentation of the actual product leaves much more to be desired.