China Air Seating

[PenName 1]

Looks like China Airlines has some fairly decent pricing for March / April 2007 for SEA / BKK, so I'm thinking of giving them a try. Not having had their pleasure before, I was wondering about seat selection on their A340 (for the longer leg of the trip, anyway). Is there a date they open the seats to selection (as in "x" number of days prior to departure), or does it have to be done via phone, or is it one big dice roll hoping you get a seat resembling the preference you entered on the website when you purchased? Also, any recommended seats on the A340?

 

Thanks for the input. Counting the days...

 

Pen

[anonsailor 0]

If it is an A340, get the window side seats as they are only 2 up, if you are taking a B747, ask for seats 59+ A or B, starting at row 59 back to about 68 they are two up only. If you are not a Dynasty Gold card member, you can pick your seats only within 24 hours and then from the web site, when you book your ticket on the CA site, ask for window/aisle at that time. If you are planning on traveling a lot on CA, sign up for the flight miles program, well worth it. The airport in Taipei as a lounge with a shower, always nice after a long flight.

[Samsonite 181]

Unless there has been a very recent change, China Air (Taiwan) uses the A340 for the short leg of the journey, i.e., TPE to BKK. From LAX or SFO to TPE they use the Boeing 747-400.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed the TPE - LAX route uses one of their brand new Boeing 747-400s while the SFO route was using an older variation of the same model.

If you are flying Business Class (Dynasty Class) row 10 is, IMHO, the best row on their 747-400s and 10B the best seat in that row.

Edited December 2, 2006 by Scalawag

[PenName 1]

Hmmmmm...

 

Well, according to the China Air website and an independent travel site, they have started using the A340 for the Seattle - Taipei leg, or at least they will be in March for the dates on which I'm booking the trip. Change of equipment assignment, I guess.

 

Anyway, this trip will be economy class as the price is just too good to pass up -- it's even gone down from when I first found it yesterday, if you can imagine. Yesterday ot was $897 round trip and tonight when I'm checking, it's down to $854 (yes, I'll be snatching that one up, thank you)

 

Anonsailor was kind enough to give me a head's up on economy seating in both the A340 and the 747 (for the Taipei - Bangkok leg), so hopefully some of his recommended seats will be available when seat selection opens up for me.

 

Thanks for the input,

 

Pen

[anonsailor 0]

Hmmmmm...

 

Well, according to the China Air website and an independent travel site, they have started using the A340 for the Seattle - Taipei leg, or at least they will be in March for the dates on which I'm booking the trip. Change of equipment assignment, I guess.

 

Anyway, this trip will be economy class as the price is just too good to pass up -- it's even gone down from when I first found it yesterday, if you can imagine. Yesterday ot was $897 round trip and tonight when I'm checking, it's down to $854 (yes, I'll be snatching that one up, thank you)

 

Anonsailor was kind enough to give me a head's up on economy seating in both the A340 and the 747 (for the Taipei - Bangkok leg), so hopefully some of his recommended seats will be available when seat selection opens up for me.

 

Thanks for the input,

 

Pen

 

You're quite welcome!

[Samsonite 181]

Hmmmmm...

Well, according to the China Air website and an independent travel site, they have started using the A340 for the Seattle - Taipei leg, or at least they will be in March for the dates on which I'm booking the trip. Change of equipment assignment, I guess.

Given the cost of fuel that is very interesting as the A340 is a notorious gas hog. Maybe it has something to do with the average number of passengers per flight vs the distance flown, yada, yada, yada.....

If they start doing this out of their other U.S. departure points I'll have to find another airline.

OTOH, they pack their Boeing 747-400s out of SFO and LAX. I was just yesterday looking at fares and there isn't a seat available, at the time I looked, for almost the entire month of December out of SFO. I don't know if calling them direct would result in a different outcome as their web site is not the best.....

Good luck.

I would think out of Seattle the fare would be down under $700.00 before tax for that time of the year, but then, again, it might have to do with a lower number of passengers flying out of Seattle. Who knows what magical formulas they use when calculating airfares.

[wobbly_1 18]

This may help

 

http://www.seatexpert.com/_CI_A340_300_30_246.html