Review: China Airlines A330 Business Class Denpasar (Bali)-Taipei
- Konrad Tillman
- 5 hours ago
- 7 min read
Intro
Just last week, I had the pleasure of flying China Airlines on their A330-300 twice within two days, with exactly the same crew. Originally, I wasn't planning on reviewing this flight, but something has to be said for the exceptional service which occurred on both legs.
Interestingly, this was my first time flying on China Airlines, having flown plenty on EVA in the past. While I haven't been that impressed by EVA (or Chinese carriers as a whole), CI did really flip the script here, albeit with their dated A330-300 product...
Route- Denpasar-Taipei
Flight Number- CI772
Seat- 5K
Aircraft- Airbus A330-300
Date- March 7th, 2026
Flight Time- 5 Hours and 22 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)
Taipei-Denpasar
Ordinarily, I would never usually post a few pictures from the outbound, but this is a critical point to this review. See, the day prior, I was heading back from the Philipinnes, and had to stop back in Bali to catch my flight to New York. I had found award space through KLM (through TPE), and decided to catch this A330 off to Denpasar.
See, why this is critical is because on this outbound leg, I had one of the older configurations of the China Airlines A330-300. 7 of the 16 active A330s feature the older configuration, while the other 9 feature what I had on the return.
How to tell if your flight is being operated by the older configuration? Well, the older config has 6 rows of business class, while the newer one has 5. They are quite similar, but the screen is smaller, and the seats are not as comfortable in my opinion.
Now for the proper review of the return leg...
The Seat/Cabin
Finishing up at the Garuda Lounge, which I decided not to review this time, I stepped down the jetbridge to once again be welcomed by the same purser as yesterday. Both of us laughing, she said, "Long time no see Mr Tillman, the champagne is cold for after takeoff.". 😅
Turning right with a right old chuckle, I was pleasantly surprised to see these all too familiar seats. See, just last year, I had the privilege of flying on the Air Canada A330 in Business, which had these same seats, as well as ex-SQ A330s.
A lot of people aren't a fan of these seats, but if you have no companion next to you (like I did), I am a huge fan of the retro design. There happens to be 2 cubbies for storage, a cubby for a bottle of water, and the seat goes into an angled flat mode of about 140 degrees (is my estimate).
Departure
Polishing up my glass of water, the minor delay has rolled on a little bit, and the purser came on to profusely apologize. I mean, over the top apologize 😅.
As we finally pushed back from Gate 2, 33 minutes behind schedule (late inbound), it was a very short taxi out to runway 27 this afternoon. Once an Emirates A380 had landed, we were wheels up departing West.
Amenities
Once we had hit 10,000 feet, it was still a bit bumpy, but it was time to get comfortable for the next 5 hours. I knew that sleep was not on the menu for tonight's flight, but a cozy movie time was!
Each passenger is treated to a plush pillow, a blanket, and a pair of blue headphones. None of these is what you would expect to find in business class on a long-haul flight, but perfectly acceptable for a short-haul flight.
It was at this moment that I realized that Zootopia 2 had come out! What??? My favorite, and CI had it onboard!
IFE/Wifi
On the inbound the day before, I had failed to look at the IFE options as I had pulled an all nighter, including an 11 hour bus, 2 hour flight, and a 1 hour drive (brutal). So, when I checked out today's options, I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent selection of movies.
Once I finished up Zootopia, I continued on with The Intern, a classic (well, considering I am 24, for me it is 🤣).
Also, can we talk about how cute the safety videos are! Aww...
Now, when it comes to wifi, you are SOL on their A330s. However, no matter in which class you are seated, you can connect to "FantasySky" (interesting name 😉) and view the entertainment options through your handheld device.
Meal Service
Right then, time to feast! Prior to departure, the lovely cabin crew working my aisle came around to distribute menus and take my order for the day. There were separate drinks and food menus, but these were the options for both directions:
Roughly 20 minutes after departure, I happened to be the first one to be served the drinks, without needing to order them. See, the day before, I happened to finish all the champagne assigned to the leg, and it became an ongoing joke 😅.
Ordinarily, the meal service begins at 6 pm; however, I asked the crew if it was possible to eat after takeoff, and my request was met with a gracious smile.
I ordered the salmon with vegetables, which was one of the best salmon dishes I've had on a plane. Cooked extremely well, and paired with some delicious garlic bread!
For dessert, I opted for the mini Häagen-Dazs, as why not?
All in all, my meal (not the drinks) service was wrapped up before anyone else's began. Quick, efficient, tasty, and well presented. Perfect.
Lavatories
Before settling into my cocoon for the evening, I decided to check out one of the three lavatories designated for business class (1 per 10 people isn't bad). While not cutting edge, I was pleased to find some nice soaps, and the cabin crew did make sure these remained clean throughout the flight.
Service
Now for the part that I have been most excited to write about: the service. For me, I personally prefer informal service that is friendly, versus formal service that is robotic, and to do both is very difficult. However, this crew somehow pulled off both.
It started the day before, as we were laughing around in the galley, talking about their plans for Bali, when they said I was crazy for flying to Bali for one day.
The next day, I ran into the crew before check-in at the airport, and they all came up to me and said "hello", asking me if I had gotten some sleep since they remembered I was coming off an all-nighter. We chatted for 5 minutes or so, but that just shows the attention to detail, even if they were off the clock at this time.
Throughout the flight, it was clear that they saw the small things. Before I had even finished my drinks, the lovely FA was coming down the aisle with a bottle of champagne to top up.
They always maintained a professional line while being very friendly, which is one of the hardest service attributes to obtain.
Granted, my next flight to NYC was the opposite: strictly formal and no fun...
Arrival
A touch tipsy (wink, wink), we began our descent into Taipei a little late this evening. The cabin crew came around to pour the last of the champers, and we ended up touching down at 9:30 pm local time, roughly 30 minutes late.
From there, it was a 5-minute taxi into Terminal 1, immigration took about 10 minutes, and I was off to the closest hotel I could find, which happened to be a s*x hotel: who knew 😂.
Final Thoughts
For me, this was almost the perfect flight. People will have their views of these dated cabins, but I actually quite like them if the seat next to you remains empty. There's something "vintage" about them.
However, every other aspect of this flight was out of the top drawer. The service was immaculate, the food was fantastic, and the IFE was far better than expected. If it were up to me, I would easily fly CI over BR on this route, even if BR is operating their A330 with lie-flat seats...
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