Hi

I was considering flying with China Airlines from Australia to Japan. Can anyone who has flown with China Airlines give me some feedback on what the airline is like?

Thanks

We flew China Eastern from Sydney to Shanghai last year - I think they're both owned by the same government agency and wouldn't expect standards to be much different. They got us from A to B efficiently enough, but as regards cabin service, let's just say that Singapore Airlines has nothing to worry about just yet.

China Eastern may not be the only carrier that does this, but I was seriously annoyed when, as soon as lunch was over, the cabin crew closed all the window blinds. What is this, a bloody flying kindergarten, I wondered - nap time for the kiddies? I managed to talk a couple of non-Chinese passengers into opening their blinds, but this only succeeded in alarming the flight attendants, who clearly worried that it was a precursor to even bloodier acts of civil unrest. It also bothered a few of our fellow passengers, who seemed to have been trained to obey anyone wearing a uniform.

Other than that the flight was OK.

China Airlines is a reliable carrier and not to be confused ith 'Air China'.

China Airlines is from Taiwan. Air China is from 'mainland' China.

I have flown China Airlines to Taipei and Hong Kong over the years and found them fine.

JamesA - you're quite right. Geenie, sorry - please ignore my rant.

Of course flying up to Japan you have a multiple choice on offer, also depends where you are flying 'from' and where 'to'.
Singapore Airlines / Malaysia / Cathay Pacific / Thai / China Airlines, also others like Vietnam Airlines, Royal Brunei.

One of the big factors through is your 'origin' airport. You don't really want to have to fly to a somewhere else to pick up your flight, also ultimate destination in Japan important, you likewsie don't really want to have to change flights or even airports within a city in Japan to get to another place, Singapore Airlines covers a lot of destinations in Japan and of course fly from lots of places in ANZ.

It should be quite competative so worth shopping around.

China Airlines is also not to be confused with China Eastern

China Eastern is one of the 3 major mainland Chinese carriers (along with Air China and China Southern) and based in Shanghai.