Review of China Airlines flight from Taipei to Fukuoka in Economy

Background/Routing

This report will cover the second leg of our trip from the Minnan region (Quanzhou/Xiamen) up to Fukuoka to spend a week in Kyushu. Fukuoka is the largest international airport in Kyushu thus making it the easiest point of entrance/exit. CI offers 2x daily service on this route.

The tourism bonus at the end of this report will be of Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Mt. Aso for those that are interested.

Transit Experience

With only a 70-minute layover, my wife was a little concerned when I booked it, but TPE is one of the easiest airports for transfers and given its compact size makes the process very quick. From time stamps, we spent less than 2 minutes from entrance to exit of the transit security area. Leaving, we take the escalator back upstairs.

FIDS exiting transit security. Our flight is now marked as a 14:40 departure, 10 minutes earlier than planned. With only ~30 minutes until boarding was due to start, we didn't bother going to the lounge and went to a kid's play area instead to let our son burn off some energy.

The pass through the duty free area making our way back over to the C gates.

Since the renovations, TPE has quickly become one of the nicest airports.

C1 is the Woodlands themed gate.

Though the theming is only on the upper level with the lower gate area a very utilitarian waiting room.

Our plane awaits us outside. We will get B-18112 today, a 1 year old A321neo and one of the newest of their 17 planes of this type. It has CI's standard C12 (2-2) and Y168 (3-3) configuration.

Boarding

Boarding was called on time and we boarded with the SkyPriority group.

There were earphones available on the jet bridge and we had a warm welcome on board. A quick shot of the J cabin featuring Stelia Elysium seats in 2-2 configuration. With all of the window shades closed and the mood lighting on, it is hard to get good pictures.

Making our way into the Y cabin with a very common Collins Meridian product in the standard 3-3 configuration.

It is really hard to tell with the lighting, but the seats are actually a baby blue, pink, and taupe palette, which I'm not too sure about.

Here are the seats on arrival to show the actual coloring with day light.

Seat Tour

Obviously the first thing you notice sitting down is the massive 13.3" 4K screen that is probably more than 3x larger than what had on the A333.

Seat pitch is listed as 31", but feels better than that.

The seat back has a literature compartment and 2 pouches for storage of small personal items.

Seat back contents: duty free catalog, airsickness bag, and safety card.

Under seat, there is only minor interference of foot space. The screen had a USB-A port integrated and under seat had a 110V outlet, but surprisingly no USB-C included despite how new these cabins/planes are.

The seats have fully adjustable head rests, but the fabric is all faux-leather and quite smooth meaning I constantly felt like I was sliding down the seat while seated and made it slightly uncomfortable since you constantly need to reposition.

We were immediately approached by a FA after sitting down and were offered pillows and blankets.

They then gave our son 2 gifts, a puzzle with coloring set and a cool little cube with different countries served by CI.

Push Back and Taxi

Boarding wrapped up quickly and the plane would be quite full except for the exit rows in front of us that would be empty (CI charges a pretty penny for these).

BR A321 next door.

The new safety video played as we awaited our push back.

Pushing back as we start our taxi out.

The humidity of the A321neo's air conditioning is quite impressive on this hot 38C day. The flight crew came on to inform people not to panic.

JX A321neo.

CA A333 departing.

CI A333 in SkyTeam special livery.

Take off from Taoyuan

The winds changed since we arrived and we will now take off on runway 23R at 14:56.

Leaving the coast of Taiwan to start the trek up to Kyushu.

It would be cloudy almost the whole way.

Entertainment

CI's IFE interface is okay and the content is above average.

No menus are handed out, but they have everything on the IFE screen.

The A321neos have Wi-Fi, but it is on the pricey end of the spectrum so I did not use it.

Meal Service

Just 15 minutes after take-off, the CHML was delivered.

The meal unpacked, which contained a starter, main, fruit, dessert, bread roll, and apple juice.

The starter was a corn salad and accompanied with fruit.

The main is a chicken patty with pasta and vegetables. Our son had almost finished the meal on the previous flight just a couple hours earlier so just picked at this sparingly.

My wife and I both pre-ordered the VOML. CI, like the other carrier Taiwanese carriers, offer a lot of collaborations ex-TPE with local restaurants for special meal pre-orders and the VOML is done in collaboration with Yang Ming Spring.

Our special meal as delivered.

The tray unpacked.

In the back we have the starter that was mixed vegetables along with fruit cup.

The main is Coconut Cream Shell Pasta Gratin with Teriyaki King Oyster Mushrooms. My wife and I both found it very bland. Seeing the other options, I likely would not have picked this.

A jelly for dessert.

Drinks were offered as the carts passed with the regular meals. I just took a cup of tea.

Meal service concluded fairly quickly with over an hour to go.

As the trays were starting to be cleared, the purser stopped by to talk to us thanking us for flying with CI and for our ST loyalty. He asked us if we wanted anything else to drink. Hard to say no, so some Passionfruit Lemon cocktails were soon delivered to us. I had the Oolong Blackcurrent one on my last trip and found these BLAH BLAH Bar collaboration drinks to be quite good since not sweetened.

Mid-Flight

Immigration documents were then distributed along with a coffee/tea service.

The bathrooms on the A321neo are nice and clean, also featuring the business class products.

The cabin was prepared for landing as we approached Kyushu with a fly over Gotō (Shameless plug for this report).

The first sight of land as we take up a holding pattern south of Iki Island.

Arrival into Fukuoka

Leaving our holding pattern, we head into the city.

Flying past FUK to land from the south.

Hakata.

Beautiful views over Fukuoka as we make our sharp u-turn to land.

The airport is nestled into the urban area and just minutes from Hakata station making it one of the most convenient airports.

We land on runway 34 at 17:55 ahead of schedule despite our holding pattern.

The domestic and international terminals are on opposite sides of the runway and we turn off towards the Hakata side.

We take a stand next to a UO A321.

Last look at the cabin as we deplane.

Our plane on stand prepping for its return to Taoyuan.

FUK is undergoing renovations so there are areas that still look rough.

Welcome to Fukuoka.

Downstairs to the baggage claim, bags were already circulating by the time we used the bathrooms and walked over. Priority bags were respected and ours were some of the first off.

While metro is the easiest/fastest/cheapest way to Hakata Station. With 4 suitcases, we opted for a taxi to our hotel.

We were at our hotel just 8 minutes later staying at the Miyako Hotel Hakata for one night before taking the Railway Kitchen Chikugo the next morning and picking up our rental car to drive down to Kumamoto.

I'll leave off this series here as we start our stay in Kyushu. The bonus for this report will be Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Mt. Aso.

Flight Information

China Airlines, CI128
Equipment: Airbus A321neo [B-18112, delivered March 2024]
Departure: 14:40 (ATD: 14:56)
Arrival: 18:05 (ATA: 17:55)
Flight time: 2:00