Review: China Airlines Business Class (777-300ER)

I’m not quite sure how Taiwan evolved into one of the world’s top aviation markets, but it’s remarkable that the small island nation is home to three airlines that are not only highly regarded in Asia, but arguably among the best in the world.

Based on my excellent business class experiences with fellow Taipei-based carriers EVA Air and Starlux Airlines, I was eager to try China Airlines and complete the trifecta for a full comparison.

Although China Airlines may not quite match the exceptionally high standards set by EVA Air and Starlux, which have continued to raise the bar, China Airlines business class remains a reliable and solid option for crossing the Pacific.

Booking China Airlines Business Class

I booked our China Airlines flights through the Air France KLM Flying Blue program, which is one of the best options for Canadians looking to redeem miles on SkyTeam partner airlines. I used 160,000 Air France KLM Flying Blue miles and paid CA$221 in taxes and fees for two people. 

Flying Blue miles are relatively easy to earn in Canada. The bulk of the miles I used for this booking came from the welcome bonus I earned on the Brim Air France KLM Flying Blue World Elite Mastercard. To top up my balance, I transferred points from Chase Ultimate Rewards during a 20% transfer bonus, which helped lower the overall cost of the redemption.

Brim Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard

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Brim Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard

The Brim Financial Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard offers Flying Blue Miles on purchases that can be used for flights around the world, along with a way to increase your status with Flying Blue.

Check out our Brim Financial Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard review for more details.

BONUS
0 Flying Blue Miles

MINSPEND
$0

EST. VALUE
$0+

ANNUAL FEE
$132

FOREX FEES
Yes

EXPIRY
–

China Airlines is often an underrated option for redeeming miles on transpacific flights. As Taiwan’s state-owned carrier, its name originates from the country’s official title—the Republic of China (ROC), which is more widely recognized in North America as Taiwan. Despite this name, the airline has no connection to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), or what is generally referred to as mainland China.

This may lead to some confusion about where China Airlines operates, and contributes to its relatively low profile in the points and miles ecosystem. However, this often leads to award availability being quite plentiful, with multiple award seats available on each flight. As it has become increasingly difficult to find transpacific business class award space, China Airlines is definitely worth considering as an excellent option.

Ground Experience

China Airlines operates multiple lounges at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE), and we had the chance to visit two of them. Both offered a similar selection of food and beverages and were nearly identical in overall experience.

However, I particularly preferred the lounge in Terminal 2, thanks to its striking design featuring large calligraphy-style Chinese characters that added a unique touch to the space.

The seating featured typical airport lounge furnishings, including armchairs, dining tables, and bar-style seating. Nearly every seat was equipped with its own power outlet and USB charging port.

As for the views, there wasn’t much to speak of; one lounge overlooked the interior of the terminal, while the other was located below ground level with no windows at all.

As our flight was departing at midnight, I wasn’t in the mood to fill up on a bunch of lounge food knowing that we would be served a meal after departure. Though if you’re hungry, there is a ton of food and drinks available. 

The buffet included items like fruit, salad, noodles, sandwiches and both a pork and beef hot dish.

Lounge guests can use an iPad to order from a selection of hot dishes, including soups and noodles.

Some light snacks like mixed nuts, popcorn, and ice cream are also available.

A self-serve station offers alcohol, including beer, as well as soda, milk tea, and a variety of other beverages.

Overall, the China Airlines lounges at Taoyuan International are rather unremarkable, but offer a decent selection of food and drink along with a quiet setting and some comfortable seating, which is about all you can reasonably expect from an airline lounge.

Cabin Arrangement

China Airlines’ business class cabin is equipped with 40 reverse-herringbone seats arranged in a 1-2-1 layout, ensuring direct aisle access for every passenger. Each seat is identical, offering the same level of privacy and comfort throughout the cabin. The choice of seat you select comes down to personal preference: a window seat or one of the center pairs to sit beside your travel partner.

The business class cabin is split into two sections: a larger forward area with 24 seats and a smaller cabin located behind the second set of doors with 16 seats.

I would recommend avoiding row 16 if possible, as the seats are located directly in front of the mid-galley lavatories.

While selecting our seats, I noticed that the rear business class cabin had very few passengers, so I opted for seats 21A and 22A. It turned out that only one or two other passengers were seated in the rear cabin for the flight, which likely helped minimize disturbances.

The light load may also have contributed to the exceptional service we received, as the flight attendants in our area had only a handful of passengers to attend to.

It’s worth noting that China Airlines also operates Airbus A350-900 aircraft on many of its North American routes, and most of these jets feature the same reverse-herringbone seat and cabin layout as the airline’s Boeing 777-300ER fleet. Therefore,  you can expect a fairly consistent in-flight experience onboard regardless of which aircraft you’re on for transpacific flights.

Seat

You might instantly recognize the business class seat China Airlines has chosen to install: the popular Collins Aerospace Super Diamond seat, which is used by numerous airlines including Air Canada Signature Class, WestJet 787 Business Class, and many others. While the seat itself is most certainly considered a somewhat generic and mostly ready-made product by today’s standards, China Airlines has introduced a number of custom touches to elevate the overall look and feel of both the seat and the cabin.

The cabin features a blend of metallic elements, textured gray tones, and faux wood accents that come together to create a very distinct atmosphere.

Although this particular model of seat and its design are beginning to show their age, it still offers ample storage space and a decent level of privacy. One downside of the seat is the bulky tray table mechanism, which further limits the already narrow footwell.

Next to the seat is a flat surface that holds two storage bins. The larger bin contains the handheld entertainment controller, a universal power outlet, two USB-A charging ports, and a headphone jack. Before boarding, the crew placed a bottle of water and a pair of slippers in this bin.

The smaller bin is fairly shallow and only suitable for a few personal items. The business class amenity kit was stored here.

One of the most noticeable additions to the seat is the accent lamp in the side console. Although it’s a small detail, it adds a touch of style to the seat.

The control panel for the seat is also located in the side console, where you can control all the seat’s recline and lighting functions.

On the aisle side of the seat is an adjustable armrest that can be raised or lowered and also contains a small compartment where you’ll find the provided noise-canceling headphones.

Directly in front is an 18-inch HD touchscreen display. I found the resolution and responsiveness of the screen to be very good, and I had no issue with navigating the entertainment system.

As you can see in the image below, the tray table sticks out quite far and doesn’t fully stow under the display. This results in a slightly more restrictive footwell in certain sleeping positions, which is a common complaint about this particular seat design.

The tray table slides out from beneath the display and then unfolds. If you’ve sat in other versions of this seat on different airlines, you’ll know that it becomes a very sturdy surface when fully extended.

The footwell does get rather tight toward the back as it narrows significantly, but I usually have little trouble finding a comfortable sleeping position, and this seat shouldn’t present any constraints for most people.

Overall, this is a standard and widely used reverse herringbone seat that frequent business class travelers will likely recognize. There’s a reason so many airlines have opted for this design, as it offers a reliable and consistent experience. Additionally, China Airlines has made several cosmetic and functional enhancements to improve an already solid product and still meets most of the marks in terms of personal space, storage, and privacy.

Bed

China Airlines offers a turndown service for its business class passengers following the meal service. The airline provides a bedding set that includes a pillow, duvet, and seat cover. While most airlines that provide a full set of bedding also include a mattress pad for the seat, the one provided by China Airlines does not offer any additional padding. It’s simply a seat cover and does not significantly enhance comfort.

The rest of the bedding was fairly substantial, with the pillow providing good support and the duvet being lightweight yet dense, without feeling overly warm. However, as I mentioned, arguably the most important component of the bedding, the seat cover/mattress pad, needs immediate improvement.

China Airlines doesn’t provide a set of pajamas to its business class passengers. While this is generally to be expected since most airlines don’t offer pajamas, both of China Airlines’ Taiwanese rivals—Starlux and EVA Air—do provide pajamas to business class passengers on long-haul flights.

Amenity Kit

The amenity kit was provided by the Italian luxury fashion house Moschino and included all the usual items one would expect to find in an international business class amenity kit.

The contents of the amenity kit included a hair comb, a dental kit, earplugs, an eye mask, skin lotions, and a unique item I don’t think I’ve ever seen in an amenity kit: a luggage tag.

Lastly, a pair of slippers and a shoe bag are provided as part of the amenities and were more or less the standard issue slippers commonly offered by most airlines.

Dining

Shortly after our midnight departure, the meal service began. An initial drink order was taken which was delivered with a dried fruit and nut mix.

The food and beverage menu for our flight was as follows:

The cabin crew quickly served the meals in a fairly rapid fashion, aware that most passengers would want to go to sleep as soon as possible.

The meal started with a lobster salad that was accompanied by some bread and a garden salad. 

This was followed up with a cup of chicken soup.

I ordered the filet mignon for my main course, which was served with seasonal vegetables. I’m usually wary of having steak on an airplane since it often ends up overcooked, and while it might not have been the best choice, I found the filet to be prepared quite well.

I finished up the meal with a plate of fresh fruit and a Häagen-Dazs ice cream.

Overall, a generous amount of food was served, and I found most of it to be excellent. When it comes to service, while it was efficient and clearly well intentioned, it didn’t quite reach the same level of polish and attentiveness as what I’ve experienced on Starlux.

After the meal, the cabin lights were dimmed and most passengers settled in for sleep. In the meantime, the crew arranged a selection of drinks and packaged snacks in the mid-galley for business class passengers to enjoy at their convenience.

For those wanting something more substantial, items like a wagyu cheeseburger were available from the snack menu and could be ordered directly from a crew member.

About an hour before landing the second meal service began. Business class passengers had the choice between a Chinese or Western set menu. 

I chose the Chinese set menu which was a bowl of plain congee and a selection of accompaniments. This also came with a bowl of fresh fruit.

A bowl of congee on an Asian airline is usually a reliable choice since it’s generally quite difficult to mess up. This turned out to be the light meal I was looking for at the time, and I enjoyed most of the sides along with the fruit bowl.

Entertainment

Entertainment Console

Each business class seat features an 18-inch touchscreen display. I found the screen size and touch responsiveness to be adequate, and the resolution was also sufficient. The menus were easy to navigate, and the library of movies and TV shows offered a good selection of both new and classic Hollywood releases.

The library also included a wide selection of complete seasons of many HBO series, which is always a favorite of mine as a way to pass the time on a flight.

Since I spent most of the flight sleeping except during meal times, I left the screen on the map for the majority of the flight and found it easy to use and responsive.

Business class passengers are provided with a pair of over the ear noise canceling headphones. I always bring my own set of headphones when traveling, so I didn’t have a chance to use the ones offered by the airline. However, they appeared to be the standard complimentary headphones commonly provided by many airlines.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is available for purchase on all China Airlines Boeing 777 and Airbus A350 aircraft. Complimentary Wi-Fi isn’t provided to premium cabin passengers. Packages start at US$3.25 for 15 MB of data and go up to US$21.95 for a 24-hour session.

This is somewhat of an omission on the part of China Airlines, as both of the other full-service Taiwanese carriers, EVA Air and Starlux, provide at least some complimentary Wi-Fi. Many other airlines are also beginning to roll out at minimum free messaging to all passengers, so this is an area where China Airlines could definitely improve.

Conclusion

I found the China Airlines business class experience to be overall quite favorable. The seat, food, and service were all solid. The airline has installed a very standard reverse herringbone seat, though with some added features and touches. The food was generally acceptable, and I thought the service was the highlight of the flight. However, everything felt just a step below what is offered by EVA Air and Starlux.

That being said, China Airlines is still a great option for crossing the Pacific, as award availability is often good and frequently includes more than one seat. While this may not be the most premium option, I would happily fly on China Airlines business class again if the opportunity presented itself.