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.
Enchainement de vols
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5CI128 - Economy - Taipei → Fukuoka - Airbus A321neo
- 6
- 7
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
The size of the IFE screen is simply amazing!
A full meal in Economy on a 2h25’ flight in Europe is something of the past, sigh…
Thanks for this greet report and for the bonus (Japan is a paradise for manhole cover geeks like me ^^ - Japan’s creativity when it comes to trains design is also endless). I take note that Kumamoto’s castle is (nearly) back to its original condition.
Hi Marathon, thanks for stopping by, Asia indeed is still one of the few places where economy travel is still an enjoyable, full-service, and low-stress experience.
It it usually the first thing I look for walking in a city, though probably get a lot of interested looks walking around photographing them^^
The renovations and retrofits on the keep are complete, which unfortunately give it more of an Osaka/Nagoya feel inside versus Matsumoto. There are still years of work to do to repair all of the rock slides throughout the complex so visitors are still required to access through the raised walkways.
Nice to see a report on the CI 32Q--it looks great!
That's very cool! And the airport in general looks very nice.
Interesting to see the Elysium seats (I guess Equinox 2D rebrand?) on a narrowbody. They seem to offer a little more privacy than the typical Collins Diamond Parallel on more narrowbodies with 2-2 full flat J (minus the v-shape creating close foot proximity).
Huh...from the photos I kinda like it, but maybe IRL it looks weird. Either way kudos to CI for having some non-boring colours in the cabin.
Overall the cabin looks very nice and the 31" pitch does indeed look like more, likely because of good seat design. I was recently on a flight with 29" pitch that felt like 31"...it's pretty great how seat designs have evolved to give more space...unfortunately at smaller and smaller seat pitch, but you honestly can't tell the difference these days most of the time.
Wow, I love this! I really love how Asian carriers take such good care of kids, and the CHML is adorable! I remember getting the little gifts on flights as a kid, now kids don't even get that flying J and F on long-haul these days!
It's just crazy to me to see this level of service on a 2h short-haul flight! I know that this is the norm for Asian carriers, but it never ceases to amaze me...Western carriers have really lowered our expectations to ZERO hah
This is making me look really forward to our next Japan trip in October for fall break.
Hope you had a good Kyushu trip! I imagine it was nice to break out the Japanese language skills again after being back in the US for so long!
Hi Kevin, thanks for stopping by!
TPE has invested a lot in the renovations of T1/T2, which is good to see versus letting it rot away until the opening of T3.
Interesting to see the Elysium seats (I guess Equinox 2D rebrand?) on a narrowbody. They seem to offer a little more privacy than the typical Collins Diamond Parallel on more narrowbodies with 2-2 full flat J (minus the v-shape creating close foot proximity).
Surprised that you like them given your distaste of their B77Ws cabin patterns. CI definitely has the most unique cabins I have ever seen and it does provide something that distinguishes them from every other neutral cabin out there. I find the color palette on these seats to be a little busy, but at the end of the day, I'm not going to pick an airline based on their seat colors^^
We still have old Continental, Eastern, and Pan-Am decks of cards that we still use^^ The days of those are long gone except maybe on inaugural routes.
On Western carriers we are resigned to comparing airlines based on the size of their cups and the weight of their chocolates. On <2h flights in Asia, it really is hard to justify spending 3-4x more for business when the economy experience with status is almost identical. I went back to the screenshots I took of booking and it was 2,100 RMB ($290) for economy and 9,500 RMB ($1,300) for business on the XMN-TPE-FUK routing.
A good time to visit with the maples changing colors and not oppressive heat
Yeah, as I said, it looks good from the pics, but may look weird in real life. I don't like the 77W camo-ish design specifically
Okaerinasai!
This is a purely subjective matter but I kindly disagree with Kevin's intake on the seats...
My senses had a hard time trying to come to terms with their design and their colour scheme. Even the big and crisp screen seems odd, outsizing the seat frame!
Sorry to read a about the bland meal. Surprising for a Taiwanese company departing from Taipei!
CI does better than its East Asian counterparts concerning IFE content?
Being in Kyushu and choosing Italian, you didn't go for the Mentaiko Spaghetti?!?! :-)
Thanks for this great report.
And happy flights!!
Ohisashiburi desu ne!
I would have to agree with your CI assessment, a very sporadic corporate image with different cabins across their newer fleet (77W, A350, and A321). There is no "CI" feeling when you walk into different cabins on every flight.
The bland meal is excusable since it is likely a one-off. Food quality remained high, which is more important.
I find their content to be better than NH/OZ/BR and the mainland carriers. I cannot comment on JL/KE since have not flown too much recently.
Our son has not developed a palate for mentaiko yet, but likes sujiko/ikura so likely only time. Shirasu carbonara it was! Italian and French are two cuisines Japan generally do well, so it was a good chance to take a Western break on the trip.
To be fair I did say that it looked good from the photos only and that it may look weird in real life...
Bonjour et merci pour ce magnifique FR. Je suis vraiment impressionné par la taille de L'IFE sur un A321neo CI. Ça se voit que l'avion est jeune !
Bon vols
Merci pour vos commentaires. CI offre un bon produit, à bientôt!