cynnie53

Does anyone know anything about China Airlines &/or Air Pacific?
Thank you

Gardyloo

Haven't been on China; Air Pacific is decent enough (despite its moniker, "Air Pathetic.&quot Going to/from Fiji lifts ones spirits regardless of the airline.

Al_B

If you mean China Airlines as in the one based on Taiwan with the purple paint job, I personally won't set foot on one of their planes, even if given a free ticket. Nothing to do with service (which I hear is okay) more to do with their very bad history and cockpit culture.
Air Pacific is okay - not great, but nowehere near bad either. Casual relaxed friendly - just like the "homelands" they represent. Their 747's have personal TV in each seat which helps greatly as well.

esm

I have no experience with Air Pacific.

Flew with China Airline (the one based in China)from Beijing to Shanghai and Shanghai to LA and did not like them much.

Older planes and horrible food; I didn't eat much but I can live with that. I was more concerned about safety. We went to Beijing via Hong Kong, after a visit to Taiwan in Summer '04. We managed to get out of Taipei right before the typhoon hit and most flights were cancelled. We heard that China Air continued with their flights when others were cancelling.

rkkwan

The airline based in Beijing is Air China International, or Air China for short. Do not confuse with China Airlines (or Taipei).

hipvirgochick

Our experience on China Airlines was great. Free movies, drinks, wonderful service. Other airlines have more recent problems than China and check out the incidents for United, American, China and others on www.airsafe.com.

esm

rkkwan, I stand corrected. I checked and the actual name of the airline was China Eastern. At least that was what we were booked on but I think the only name I saw at the Beijing airport was Air China.

We flew LAX to Taipei on Eva and they were very good even though we were in coach and the plane was full. Great service and decent food. They also had small goodie bags and slippers for all which was nice for the long flight.

rkkwan

esm - This is getting off-topic, but China Eastern is a different airline from Air China.

For the longest time, there was only one airline in the People's Republic of China - CAAC. But it was broken up around 1988 into three main carriers:

Air China, based in Beijing
China Eastern, based in Shanghai
China Southern, based in Guangzhou

There are other smaller airlines, but most are now associated with one of the above, or the independent Hainan Airlines and Shanghai Air.

Popolo

Don't forget that you can get miles in AA or Qantas programs when you fly Air Pacific!

http://www.milemaven.com/airline/27/