Review: China Airlines 777 Business Class Taipei-New York
- Konrad Tillman
- 1 hour ago
- 9 min read
Intro
Following a delightful flight from Bali, and an interesting stopoff at the flagship lounge in Terminal 1, it was finally time to board the longest flight in China Airlines network, to New York Kennedy.
Seeing the terrific service onboard their medium-haul routes, I was very excited going into this flight to experience the elevated dining, nicer seats, and excellent champagne. Overall, it was a pleasant experience on many fronts, but I found the service to be more "formal" and less friendly. Of course, everyone views service standards differently, so this is entirely my POV.
Route- Taipei-New York (JFK)
Flight Number- CI772
Seat- 23K
Aircraft- Boeing 777-300ER
Date- March 8th, 2026
Flight Time- 14 Hours and 45 Minutes
Price Paid- 2400$ J (DPS-TPE-JFK-TPE-DPS)
How I Booked
Roughly three weeks ago, I was browsing the internet on ways to get back to New York for my root canal, when I came across a ticket in Business for 2400 on China Airlines round-trip. Now, the ticket would only ticket through booking.com, and usually I would never do this, but I took the chance and 5 minutes later had the PNR! Not bad.
Now, this seemed to be a special discount, as flights from Denpasar to New York usually sit around 3500$ RT in J. For 2400$ I booked the following:
Denpasar-Taipei (A330-300 Business Class)
Taipei-New York (JFK) (777-300ER Business Class)
New York-Taipei (777-300ER Business Class)
Taipei-Denpasar (A330-300 Business Class)
Boarding
Finishing up at the Terminal 1 Lounge, I made the roughly 15-minute walk over to Terminal 2, where our jet this afternoon would be departing from. More specifically, we would be departing from gate D5, which is a 1-minute walk from the CI Terminal 2 Lounge.
While boarding was slightly delayed, I made my way downstairs around 5:00 pm for our scheduled 5:35 pm departure.
Boarding commenced with those needing assistance; business class (and status members) were invited to board right after. With more than 50 people in this queue, it took a minute before I finally made it down the jetbridge.
Funnily enough, all passengers seemed to board through door 1L (labelled business class), even if they were seated in the mini cabin behind door 2L/2R. Good for me, as that meant I was on board in no time.
Stepping onboard, I was greeted by a crew rushing to complete their pre-flight duties. I understand there's a lot to do, especially due to how long these ULH flights are.
As I crossed the aisle into my seat, it was another few minutes as one of the passengers had brought a carry-on the size of a real suitcase onboard and couldn't lift it. How these rules aren't enforced is beyond me...
The Seat/Cabin
Laid out in a 1-2-1 configuration, the China Airlines 777-300ER features 40 business class seats, with 24 seats in the forward cabin, and 16 seats in the rear cabin. All seats are created relatively equally, so I recommend window seats for solo travelers and middle seats for couples. Personally, I tend to prefer the rear cabin, but to each their own...
The cabin on CI's long-haul aircraft is gorgeous. Wow. With the beautiful faux wood finishes and the dark finishes, it creates an ambient atmosphere.
If this seat looks familiar, it should. Why? It's incredibly familiar (Aerospace B/E Aerospace Super Diamond Seat) to the American Airlines 787-9 (Aerospace Aerospace Super Diamond Seat) business class product. With the two side cabinets that pop up (along with charging ports, headphone jacks, and more inside), a larger footwell, and the seat controls on a small touchscreen, it makes for a very comfortable seat as a whole. Not the most private, but comfortable.
No overhead air vents, by the way...
Departure
Settling into my seat, the crew came around offering to place a mattress pad on the seat, offer a PDB (no alcohol on the ground btw), and distribute menus for the flight. I opted not to have my mattress pad placed, as I enjoy making up my bed properly before bed 😅.
With passengers flooding through the aisles on this completely full flight, it wasn't long before the cabin doors were closed, and it was time to get underway. No over-the-shoulder seat belts by the way...
Interestingly, this EK plane had just landed from Dubai. As they are once again beginning their operations, cool to see these birds around.
As we taxiied out, it seemed that the crew was on the hunt to find those not in airplane mode. Look, I understand it's the rules, and all they had to do was ask. Instead, they stood over my shoulder until they saw that my phone was in airplane mode. 😅
Yeah, yeah, I know, they need to be in airplane mode, I guess I am just used to it not being enforced. No excuse, though...
Roughly twenty minutes late, we were wheels up out of Taipei, departing Northeast.
IFE/Wifi
Once airborne, I figured that it was time to check out the IFE on today's flight. At the end of the day, what else am I going to do for 14 hours?
I'm pleased to say that the decent selection from yesterday carried over onto today's flight, albeit with a much more high definition screen. Beautiful!
To make matters even better, even though I usually don't plan on connecting to wifi, I was pleased to find that those flying business class get free access to wifi!
The wifi was relatively good throughout the flight, even good enough to watch highlights of the F1!!!
Not bad, China Airlines, not bad at all...
Amenities
With a movie on, seat reclined, and all ready to relax during the meal service, it was time to check the decent amenity offerings on this route. Not only has China Airlines partnered with Moschino for their amenity kits, but a comfortable duvet, a nice pair of noise-cancelling headphones, and a plush pillow made for a relaxing 8-hour sleep later on.
The bed all made up with the amenities. Expert tip: They keep extra pillows above 16K & 23K.
All in all, it was about average for long-haul on an Asian carrier, but I was a huge fan of the Moschino amenity kits with the luggage tags. I keep a collection on my bag of luggage tags, so with this, I can flex a little Moschino on my LV bag, although that's criminal in designer fashion 😂.
Meal Service
We all know how good EVA is when it comes to catering on this route. With excellent meals, top of the line champagne, and a divine wine list, I was excited to see how CI held up against them.
While I could have preordered online, I was living on a remote island in the Philippines with no wifi, so that idea sort of flew out the window. With that, the menu became important for the flight today:
Now for the more important part: the drinks list 😉. While some fantastic options were on the menu, such as 2015 LP Brut, as well as Blue Label (yum), I was sad to see that they didn't stock as much as US/EU carriers. Roughly 4 bottles of champers for each direction, which equates to 20 glasses of champagne for 40 J pax. Granted, not everyone drinks champers, but I know UA stocks 6-7 on TPACs.
Yes, they ran out midway... Definitely of no fault of mine, definitely 🥴.
Okay, enough tomfoolery, let's move on to the actual service. Roughly 40 minutes after takeoff, the FAs came around offering the pre-ordered drinks, as well as packaged nuts (docking points here for not using tableware).
About an hour and 20 minutes after takeoff, my main course arrived. I opted to skip the appetiser, amuse-bouche, and soup course due to filling up plenty in the lounge with the Taiwanese pork: yum.
My beef tenderloin was relatively good. Not quite SQ F or EY F, but one of the better business class steaks I've had on a plane, so props here to CI.
I inquired about a glass of Chianti, which was brought to me promptly. It wasn't great, but I always love a red with a steak, so I guess it's better than nothing...
A lot of people give s**t to US carriers for underperforming in terms of catering, but I've gotta say, the wine lists on US carriers are now better than almost any other region in the world.
Finishing up the tenderloin, it was time for a quick cheese course (no crackers were provided), another glass of vino, and of course, a Blue Label before bed.
After sleeping for about 8 hours and watching a couple of films, it was time for breakfast about 2 hours prior to landing. With an arrival time of 8:20 pm, this was a touch confusing, but the Western meal was decent, as well as the chicken pops I had from the snack menu.
All in all, I would say that the dining onboard was better than American/European carriers (not the wines), but not as good as EVA on this route. A lack of individual plating was the letdown...
Lavatories
Throughout the flight, I visited 1 of the 3 lavatories designated for business class passengers. Well, I say that, but there were passengers streaming up constantly from premium economy frequently.
Aside from the few nicer soaps and the loo with a view, there wasn't anything that stood out as "premium". No proper towels or extra amenities...
Service
Now here is where it really gets interesting, as the flight was good but not exceptional up until this point. Was the service good on this flight? Not exactly overly friendly, but the crew were very professional. If you are looking for an airline that has great crews when flying long-haul J TPAC, CI might not be the move. Here are a few of my thoughts:
About an hour before landing, I spoke with the crew as I was waiting for the lavatories, and they didn't exactly seem like they wanted to talk. Granted, it's not their jobs at all, just found it interesting as I can usually chat with crews for hours as I fly as much as them lol.
Never once was there a welcome on board, being addressed by name, or any of that.
During the meal service, drinks were never proactively refilled, but instead, I had to ask for them. Yes, first world problems, but for those who fly J a lot know that this is one of the signs.
Don't get me wrong, the crew were not unfriendly, but they didn't go out of their way to be friendly either. That's the message. And after the flight the day before with the most amazing crew, it's a shame.
Note: When I spoke with the crew the day before on the medium-haul, it seemed that the CI crew don't actually enjoy working these ULH. Maybe that was just that crew, but it seemed to be a collaborative decision.
Arrival
Anyways, after quite the flight, it was a blessing when the captain came on to announce that we would be descending into Kennedy shortly. We were treated to a simply gorgeous sunset during descent...
After a few twists and turns, we touched down on 22L at 8:20 pm...
From there, we had a short taxi ride into Terminal 4, where we arrived 8 minutes late. Bidding farewell, bags came out quickly (including my oversized fishing rods), and from there it was a short 2-hour drive out to the Hamptons.
Final Thoughts
I guess at the end of the day, it really boils down to two questions. 1: Would I recommend China Airlines business class on a TPAC, and 2: would I fly them again?
The answer to both is this: if the price is right, there is value to be had here. For 2400$ RT to New York, this is an incredible deal. However, if the price were the same as EVA on this route, I would definitely recommend BR over CI, as the wine offerings are better, the crew are friendlier, the meals are better, and the seats are vastly similar. The other caveat is the lacklustre lounge...
Let's see how the return fares, perhaps better!
