China Airways -v- Airfrance

Royal Irish

Am planning on booking flights later thisevening. Its longhaul from Dublin to Bangkok. Both flights within my budget are with China Airways and Airfrance.

They are much the same in terms of cost, and arrival times. China Airways first leg from Dublin to Schipol is operated by Aerlingus. First leg from Dublin to Paris is operated by Cityjet, then switching over to Airfrance.

I have never flown with either airline, as I would normally go longhaul with Singapore or Etihad Airways, but they are alittle out of my price range this time.

My querie is has anyone flown with either of these and can recommend who is good in terms of inflight service and such?

Cheers

H2G2

I have used the City Jet - Air France combination several times and think its good. Easy transfer in CdG Terminal 2 between flights and AF are good enough on long haul.

Don't have personal experience of China Airways, but as its an EI flight to AMS on way out, you may not have a thru ticket to BKK. On AF you will.

number10a

Have a look at seatguru.com and put in the details of each of the flights you're looking at. It will tell you what planes are assigned to those flights and what facilities will be on board.

Royal Irish

Thanks for the replies folks. I looked at seatguru and read a few reviews of both airlines and ended up booking with China Airlines for €659 which is great value.

They both seemed very much the same on reviews, mostly good, but each one had about the equal amount of bad reviews. Main factor for going with CA was 32'' seat pitch compared to 31'' to AF and it was €55 cheaper.

Cheers

whatsyourquota

Bad choice!!! you def should have gone with airfrance. China ailrines are fairly awful, I flew with them that route last year and am actually flying again this year but thats only because im a cheapskate and there was no other choice.

You wont have AVOD so will be sitting on the plane having nothing to do for 12 hours. Bring a book. They feed you at the start and at the end so about 9 hours between with no food! Also when you arrive they dont give out those cards you need to go through customs like every other airline does so dont forget to get one at the desks before going through customs.

number10a

whatsyourquota wrote: »

Bad choice!!! you def should have gone with airfrance. China ailrines are fairly awful, I flew with them that route last year and am actually flying again this year but thats only because im a cheapskate and there was no other choice.

You wont have AVOD so will be sitting on the plane having nothing to do for 12 hours. Bring a book. They feed you at the start and at the end so about 9 hours between with no food! Also when you arrive they dont give out those cards you need to go through customs like every other airline does so dont forget to get one at the desks before going through customs.

Bit late, aren't we. :rolleyes:

Hopefully it was just a bad one-off experience and ye'll both be alright this time. As the OP says, the reviews on SeatGuru are as good as Air France's. And people generally don't hold back on SeatGuru!

whatsyourquota

In fairness the thread had only been up a couple of hours!!

Well they AVOD wont be there all of a sudden and i think they do the meal thing to let you sleep in the middle but it is annoying having to go that length of time without eating!
Before I went with them last time i looked up reviews and in general they are good for first class and business class but are fairly bad for economy. But I suppose since they were the cheapest maybe it was the best way to go.

number10a

whatsyourquota wrote: »

In fairness the thread had only been up a couple of hours!!

I wasn't jumping on you or anything for that. It just kinda seemed like something that would happen to me. I'd book a long-haul flight and five mins later someone would say something like that. :pac:

At least everyone gets a personal TV anyway from what SeatGuru says, so you can change channel. Nothing worse than having those communal TVs. :mad:

whatsyourquota

No they dont thats what I meant by no AVOD! That was the worst thing about them an 11 hour flight with just a commmunal tv whch is in chinese and has subtitles in English, which you mightnt neccesarily see depending on where your sitting!
I had 3 seats to myself on the way out so that wasnt too bad but that was only because of the riots were on in Bangkok and then on the way back I was so wrecked from travelling I slept the whole way. Dont know how il cope this time, might have to learn chinese so I can watch the tv.....

whatsyourquota

Oh another thing I just noticed another poster said you mightnt get a ticket which your bags checked all the way through with CA but you will

Royal Irish

whatsyourquota wrote: »

No they dont thats what I meant by no AVOD! That was the worst thing about them an 11 hour flight with just a commmunal tv whch is in chinese and has subtitles in English, which you mightnt neccesarily see depending on where your sitting!
I had 3 seats to myself on the way out so that wasnt too bad but that was only because of the riots were on in Bangkok and then on the way back I was so wrecked from travelling I slept the whole way. Dont know how il cope this time, might have to learn chinese so I can watch the tv.....

Thanks for pointing that out about the AVOD. I actually thought there was one available on that flight, but I made a mistake between the different actual aircraft. The AMS to BKK flight is operated by a boeing 747-400, which does not have AVOD.

Oh well you live and learn

Chris P. Bacon

I done the AMS to BKK flight with China airline a few years ago its not bad as you only have one stop from Ireland,but for around €700 you would of got a better flight with Turkish air and that only has one stop in Istanbul,ive done it a few times,but these days i pay a bit more to fly with Etihad they are a great airline.Im in Thailand twice a year and the last two years i have flown with them.

Badgermonkey

I'm not a fan of Air France though as a frequent flyer, Flying Blue and Skyteam alliance is a decent program.

I would ALWAYS choose Schipol over CdeG for ease of transfer.

Cityjet/AF to the States involves a bus from plane to terminal at CdeG then a walk to an often severely congested security check. There have been several occasions where I've cut it mighty fine to make a connection.

Schipol by comparison is a doddle.

Royal Irish

Thanks for all the info.

Good point about AMS compared to CDG Badgermonkey. The layer over time in Schipol is 2 hours, and in Paris its on 1.5 hours. I thought that it might be tight making my connecting flight in Paris, and I think Aer Lingus might be that bit more reliable than Cityjet.

finbarrk

I used Air France to Beijing. Good service, food and entertainment good.

H2G2

Badgermonkey wrote: »

Cityjet/AF to the States involves a bus from plane to terminal at CdeG then a walk to an often severely congested security check.

I did it [transit from CityJet to AF Tokyo flight] recently and it was easy. no no bus, no long walks and no long security queue. Maybe I had a good day, or maybe you expereince a bad one? Other??

Lollymcd

Unless you love Chinese seafood bring your own meal with you... I personally wouldn't eat seafood on a plane... just wouldn't risk it!

geecee

As others have pointed out you have made a BAD choice
(sorry!)

Having flown DUB-BKK at least 25 times in the last 10 years I can honestly say that AF are the best airline that i have ever flown on that route.

Next according to this site:
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Worst-Airline-Safety-Ratings-Revealed/360481
CI have the 2nd worst safety record in the world


CI via rome has a really nice Airbus with great seat back video... but the flight via Amsterdam usually has an old 747 that even Aer lingus would not use:p

Granted i have only flown AF twice and CI ~ 5 times but i would rate CI and Lufthansa to be the worst....

Have also flown SAS (good), Swiss (good), Qatar (poor), BA (OK), Qantas (OK-good), EVA (Good)

On the other hand when i get a return flight from CI @€;520 I book it without any reservation!

Sorry if my post causes any apprehensions for the OP... but i guess this is what these forums are about...

Royal Irish

Bump.

Just got a email from China airlines who I ended up booked with that maybe some of you more experienced travellers might be able to shed some light on.

Hopefully it doesnt involve me forking out extra cash, or changing dates drastically as I was hoping to be there on my birthday

Dear passenger,

This email to advise you that unfortunately your reservation with China
Airlines has been affected
by schedule changes.

Please contact your local China Airlines office at the earliest
opportunity to discuss rebooking options.

Many thanks

China Airlines UK Branch Office

3rd Floor, West Wing, Hyde Park Hayes 3 (HPH3), Millington Road, Hayes,
Middlesex, UB3 4AZ
Tel: 44-20-85873688

whatsyourquota

It could just be your flight time has been moved, im flying Ams to Bkk in the summer with them and the flight out has been moved forward 20 mins so hopefully its just that with you too

Royal Irish

whatsyourquota wrote: »

It could just be your flight time has been moved, im flying Ams to Bkk in the summer with them and the flight out has been moved forward 20 mins so hopefully its just that with you too

Just got off the phone with them. Departure flight was cancelled and am flying out the next day instead. No extra cost so was happy with that, just dissappointed am missing a day of hols.

Cheers for the reply.