Hello everyone, welcome back to another review! As my time in Shanghai has come and gone, it’s back to the States for me. The journey will begin from Beijing, over to Taipei, then over to Phoenix aboard Starlux’s brand new route which opened only on the 15th of January. I was so disappointed to have just missed out on the inaugural (I guess I experienced all the fun and excitement over their livestream ), but I caught their second ever trip over to Phoenix in J. That review is coming soon, and one I’m very excited to share! As some of you might know, my first ever review here was Starlux, and it holds a very special place in my heart.
To get us over to Starlux, however, we must head over to Taoyuan airport in Taipei. I had taken this route on EVA prior to my flight review days, and I wanted to repeat the journey and share. However, out of the three EVA daily flights on this route, the only one that worked time-wise was sold out, so I had to refer to our good old CA.
One aspect I was looking forward to reviewing in depth is the Air China J lounge in Beijing. A place I’ve visited (or chose not to, due to lackluster offerings) far too many times, but one I finally will get a chance to share today! Anyhoo, lets head over to Beijing Capital International Airport Terminal 3!
I arrived at a freezing cold T3, around -8 degrees Celsius this morning. CA offers a priority check in area which I briefly touched on in previous reviews. I managed to get my documents checked just as a massive line began to form behind me, lady luck was smiling early on. They had to double check and make some calls regarding how Taiwan’s transfer policies worked, and whether I was eligible. After all was done and dusted, I was over to security.
They had some nice decorations set up ahead of Chinese New Year, happy (early) year of the horse everyone!
The routine here at T3 international departures sees us passing through security before taking the tram over to immigration and the gates. Just a fun side story, an old Chinese aunty was behind me in line, along with three of her friends. She was so extremely loud even her friends had to quiet her down. During the 15 minutes or so we waited, she bumped into me at least 10 times, I wish I was exaggerating. I so nearly gave her a piece of my mind when, we were finally at security check, she insisted on grabbing the trays and tossing in al her belongings and placing them ahead of mine. Funnily, she continued to lecture her friends to “let the young man put his stuff first”, whilst simultaneously shoving all her stuff before mine . It was rather ironic when she still had to wait another 10 minutes while her friends’ backed received secondary checks Karma I guess.
Once past immigration, I was back in my happy place of sipping coffee and plane spotting. I had around 40 minutes before boarding and was told my gate was the furthest at E01. I originally didn’t plan on revisiting the lounge that had disappointed so often, but I thought it was due for a thorough review. As you will soon see, this was quite the smart choice.
On my way over, as noon is usually rush hour for CA’s long haul flights, I passed by quite a few A350s bound for Stolkholm and another EU destination I can’t remember.
Also, a LH heading to Munich!
Air China has a F and a J lounge here, and although I’ve only visited the F lounge once in recent memory, I genuinely don’t see any difference between the two in terms of offering. Another issue is that in addition to all airlines sharing these lounges (only Emirates and very recently, Cathay, have their own lounges here), Priority Pass members have access to both lounges.
They can be quite crowded at times. The lounge is quite huge, as expected to accommodate all these visitors.
There’s quite a nice view of the tarmac, a perk of the lounge being up on the second floor.
Now, the food has notoriously been rather underwhelming here, and I usually just pop by to grab a coke and some snacks before leaving. However, today I noticed the food had a significant step up. There has always been a small buffet section and a made to order noodle bar, but the buffet has always been quite poor. Today, we had some great options including curry beef, pork belly, and this barbecued grilled fish that was honestly on par with some restaurants.
The noodle bar still featured the same selections, Beijing style bean paste noodle, beef noodle soup, and an eggplant mixed noodle.
I went with the latter, which might not sound too appetizing on paper but Is one of my favorites, a true Chinese classic. I also noticed more beef cubes are featured than before. Although my rice selection might look a bit cramped, (I blame their small plates), this was by far the best food I’ve ever had here, over 10 or so of experience.
I’m unsure if I came on a lucky day, but this is without doubt a significant move in the right direction. Well done CA!
After my meal, I was suggested by the lounge announcements to head over to E01, an estimated 15 minute walk. I passed by an orange tea offering and the bar area featuring a bartender who just happened to crouch down to find something when I passed by.
I’m unsure if showers are offered here, but I was too busy being impressed with the food to ask around.
A few more birds to spot on my way over. A quite panicked CA agent ran over to me as I walked past this 777-300ER, she thought I might have been on this flight to LA, which was about to shut its doors.
The first time I’ve seen a Philippines jet at PEK, over to Manila.
Unfortunately, the gate’s positioning made it difficult to snap our A321 without the reflection.
E01 and E02 share the same gate and jetbridge, only separating at the end. This was the longest jetbridge I’ve walked down, a full 90 degrees angle with two perpendicular walkways, before turning again to walk down to the plane, quite the journey.
On board we go. All eight seats in J taken today, and I received an aisle seat in 3C. There was a pillow and fleece blanket waiting at my seat, along with a bottle of water and slippers in the front pocket.
A wet towel was quickly offered.
Despite the seat’s age, there’s ample leg space. I was also offered to keep my bags under the seat below, which was appreciated.
Unfortunately, age means no IFE screen. Nonetheless, the big chair was extremely comfortable, and lots of leg space between me and my neighbor.
Welcome drinks were then offered, the choices were champagne, orange juice, or CA’s signature red lantern, orange juice for me.
As always, I immediately opened my fleece blanket and placed it on my legs.
The crew then came around to take lunch orders. She first took the order of my seat neighbor, letting her know that only one portion of the beef tenderloin was available. I was quite glad when she picked the rice, meaning one last beef for me. There was no drink menu offered, but I requested an iced coffee to come with my meal.
The old-fashioned TV screens then came down to play the safety video. Oh boy, I still remember being 10 years old or so flying from Beijing to Vancouver, and everyone watching the same one movie playing on the screens.
During the video, the air marshal took his place at the front of the cabin and stood quite menacingly in the galley. I understand air marshals in the US or Europe or so are usually dressed like everyone else, but at least here in China they make themselves well known. I does make me feel safer when I see them around.
We then began to taxi out, and quite a queue was formed waiting for takeoff. We left 16 minutes late at 13:56, on our way to Taipei! Quite a bit of turbulence later, the crew jumped into service. 2 hours 55 minutes was the flight time shared on the PA, and they wasted no time.
As always, a pack of trail mix was offered, the same one that’s given in abundance at the lounge.
. I’m pretty sure MU’s nuts offering has gotten smaller. This was followed by another round of wet towels, then with my iced coffee.
You really can tell this is an old plane with these recline controls that look like they came right out of the 2000s
My neighbor ordered a hot tea, and it gave us a chance to bond when some heavy turbulence later hit and her tea spilled all over my shirt. Narrowbodies always scare me a tad more than widebodies during turbulence, and today was no different, genuinely some of the hardest I’ve experienced.
Tablecloths were then offered, before our meals were brought over all on one plate.
First looks, not bad! CA have the same salad on pretty much all flights, but the beef looked quite good. As we probably all agree, beef is difficult to cook well in the air. Although it was more well-done than anything else, it tasted decent, quite an upgrade to the tenderloin I had on CA a few years back. With the lounge food and higher quality in-flight Western meal, I guess CA are putting in an effort here.
The crew they came back around with a bread basket, offering garlic, whole wheat, and white bread.
After my (quite solid) meal, the crew quickly picked up my trays and asked if I wanted fruit/dessert. Knowing the infamous CA cakes (the same ones no one ever wants in the lounge and so they bring on board), I went with only the fruit. She was insistent on me trying both, so both came over. The fruit was fresh, but cake as bad as I remember. Kudos to the crew member for her positivity, hopefully CA's improvements on the hot food both in the lounge and onboard can extend to their cakes one day.
There wasn't really anything noteworthy that happened after the meal. As always, CA's crew are incredibly professional and efficient with everything.
One complaint I had, which is the same across almost all CA flights, is the "WiFi". I put quotations around it because the crew always advertises, before the flight, that CA offers WiFi but it's literally just an online IFE system on your personal devices. There is no actual access to the internet. Only on their new A350s is there actual internet. The same lack of WiFi is present even on long haul routes (including ones over 13+ hours to JFK), so if you want to access the outside world on CA, you MUST take their A350s.
We landed in Taipei at 16:55, 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Well done there! All arriving passengers must do a quick bag check (only for carry on) in the terminal before exiting through immigration, that's the same for all flights inbound to Taoyuan. Luckily for me, T2 today which is where my Starlux flight would also depart. Stay tuned for that!
