Review: China Airlines Business Class Ontario to Taipei to Hong Kong

On my recent trip to Hong Kong with my daughter, we had the pleasure of flying in business class both ways thanks to this miles and points hobby (see Beginner’s Guide: 7 Steps to Free Travel with Miles and Points). I booked a flight on China Airlines from Ontario, California to Hong Kong with a layover in Taipei for 86,000 Air France Flying Blue miles (thanks to a 25% transfer bonus from Chase). Air France and China Airlines are both SkyTeam alliance members, which is how I could book the flights with my existing miles and points stash.

On the Ground in Ontario, California

When I booked the flight, I had the option to fly from LAX or Ontario. I chose Ontario because LAX is a traffic nightmare! Ontario airport is small and much easier to navigate.

We only brought carry-on luggage, so we just stopped at the check-in counter to get our passports verified. Security was a breeze, and we headed to what I believe is the only lounge in Terminal 2, Aspire.

We used our vouchers from China Airlines to enter, but the lounge is also open to Priority Pass members. However, on the night of our flight, the lounge limited the number of Priority Pass members to just 27 in order to accommodate all of the business class passengers on the China Airlines flight.

Aspire lounge is fairly small.

The food selection was decent, with several protein options that I appreciated (eggs, cheese, hummus).

There was a refrigerator full of drinks and a serviced bar, as well as the pancake machine:

I knew I wouldn’t be overly fond of dinner on the flight, so it was nice having these included food options to fill up before the almost-15-hour flight to Taipei.

At the gate, the boarding process was very organized. Every boarding group had a separate line, with airline employees directing everyone to the correct place.

Business Class Seats

Our aircraft from Ontario to Taipei was an Airbus 350-900 with 32 business class seats.

We sat in seats 11D and 11G, the center of the second row of seats.

Seat 11D:

Before the flight took off, the flight attendants fitted our seats with mattress pads.

The seats had a few different storage bins. This section had a bottle of water:

Headphones were stored in the side armrest:

And more storage near the floor:

The seat’s footwell had plenty of room for my backpack.

The amenity kits had the standard offerings: Slippers, eye mask, ear plugs, dental kit, lotions:

The IFE screen was large and had a huge selection of Chinese movies. The selection of U.S. movies wasn’t huge, but it was enough.

The tray table was large and had several positions:

The most important part of the seat was the lie-flat position. No, it’s not like sleeping in your own bed. But, the bed was comfortable enough for my daughter and I to get at least 6 hours of sleep on this flight.

Food and Service

Upon boarding, flight attendants offered water and juice. Shortly after takeoff, we got these fruit and nut snacks.

We pre-ordered the Western meal before our flight. Dinner was served about an hour after taking off, so it was almost midnight at this point.

Appetizer:

Followed by chicken soup (my favorite part of the meal, to be honest):

The main entree was steak. It was chewy and I only ate one bite.

I was really glad that I had my real dinner in the lounge before the flight.

Dessert was fruit, cheese and ice cream:

Service was attentive, but we really didn’t need anything since we were trying to sleep after dinner. When I woke up to use the restroom, the flight attendant offered me a hot dog. I declined.

About an hour before landing in Taipei, breakfast was served. Again, we pre-ordered the Western breakfast, which was a quiche:

Overall, I give this long flight in business class two thumbs up. Getting some decent sleep made the time fly by.

Layover in Taipei

We arrived in Taipei at 4:30 a.m. for a 2-hour layover. The airport was totally deserted!

We simply had to show our next boarding pass to get through to the transit area and bypass immigration. We made our way to the China Airlines lounge, stopping to view several gates that were themed for different areas of Taiwan:

China Airlines lounge in Taipei:

We weren’t really hungry since we had breakfast late on our last flight, but the food offerings were just so tempting that we had to try some.

Many dim sum dumplings, sandwiches and desserts were available. No one goes hungry!

Final Leg to Hong Kong

Our final flight from Taipei to Hong Kong was just 2 hours on a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. There were only 8 seats in business class, with just 3 seats occupied.

Oddly enough, we were served a full meal, even though it was only 7:30 a.m. Since we feasted in the lounge, we weren’t hungry at all.

I guess it’s never too early for ice cream!

Overall Thoughts

Using miles to fly on China Airlines in business class was a great way to fly across the pond to Asia. Finding award availability in business class seats to Asia isn’t easy, so I’m glad I jumped on these tickets 12 months in advance. Getting sleep on the long journey helped us to hit the ground running after we landed in Hong Kong.