Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky!

Any plans to review China Airlines new a350-900 Premium Business Class? It was supposed to only be used on direct flights from TPE to Europe but i just received and equipment change (from 777-300ER to the a350-900) for my flight on July 17 from SFO – TPE (CI 3). Would love to hear your thoughts!

Jason Kramer

[USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] The China Airlines A350 is incredible. Enjoy your flight!

[URL=’http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg’]www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg[/URL]

Nice review Mark! Any idea why China Airlines starts at row 10 for business and 31 for econ? Seemed random, just curious!

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25517, member: 2121″][USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] The China Airlines A350 is incredible. Enjoy your flight!

[URL=’http://www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg’]www.rewardflying.com/report-blog/2017/1/2/china-airlines-a350-900-business-class-regional-tpe-hkg[/URL][/QUOTE]

Thanks Mark! This is a great review. I see this a350 has over the shoulder seatbelts in Business Class. Does this impact comfort at all? Is it bothersome when the seat is flat for sleeping? Any thoughts?

Thanks [USER=1436]@rickyw[/USER]. Actually it’s not random. Many carriers number their cabins:
1-9 First
10-29 Business (Many eliminate row 13)
30 up Economy
or some similar categorization to distinguish the cabin

[QUOTE=”Jason Kramer, post: 25535, member: 2736″]Thanks Mark! This is a great review. I see this a350 has over the shoulder seatbelts in Business Class. Does this impact comfort at all? Is it bothersome when the seat is flat for sleeping? Any thoughts?[/QUOTE]

Just for take off and landing. There is a 2nd clip for the harness. All the B/E super diamond seats have them. It’s a non issue for comfort.

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25537, member: 2121″]Just for take off and landing. There is a 2nd clip for the harness. All the B/E super diamond seats have them. It’s a non issue for comfort.[/QUOTE]

Great thanks Mark!
[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25537, member: 2121″]Just for take off and landing. There is a 2nd clip for the harness. All the B/E super diamond seats have them. It’s a non issue for comfort.[/QUOTE]

Thank you Mark! Another question for you:

I am flying the following route:

SLC -> SFO (Delta paid with cash)
SFO -> TPE (China Airlines paid with 80k Delta SkyMiles)
TPE -> DPS (China Airlines paid with cash)

I booked each leg as a 1 way trip.

Do you think i will be able to check bags in SLC all the way through to DPS? If not will i have to collect them in SFO and re check in with China Airlines?

I have called Delta to ask this but they have not been super helpful.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

[USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] I’m not a Delta expert but I would think you shouldn’t have any problem. The only alliance that doesn’t do this all the time is Oneworld, and they are stating to back off that silly policy. Personally I’ve done it a few times with Star Alliance. Maybe a Delta flyer can chime in here and give better guidance but my feeling is you should be fine.

If you are checking it all the way through why didn’t get get an award ticket all the way? Availability?

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25540, member: 2121″][USER=2736]@Jason Kramer[/USER] I’m not a Delta expert but I would think you shouldn’t have any problem. The only alliance that doesn’t do this all the time is Oneworld, and they are stating to back off that silly policy. Personally I’ve done it a few times with Star Alliance. Maybe a Delta flyer can chime in here and give better guidance but my feeling is you should be fine.

If you are checking it all the way through why didn’t get get an award ticket all the way? Availability?[/QUOTE]

Great thanks Mark. These 3 legs are part of a larger trip for 2 people. I had 400k SkyMiles to use.

SLC -> SFO -> TPE -> DPS -> HKG -> TPE -> JFK

FOR SLC to SFO Delta wanted 32.5k SkyMiles per person so the value was not good and i would not have had enough miles for the rest of the trip.

I think the 80k SkyMiles for SFO -> TPE in Business is a good value (about 4 cents per mile). So 80k x 2 = 160k x 2 (for TPE -> JFK) = 320k SkyMiles.

Then for TPE to DPS and DPS to HKG i had to decide which one to pay in cash and which one to use SkyMiles. Both flights were available for 40k SkyMiles per person which is good value but I did not have enough miles. So i went with paying cash for the cheaper option (TPE to DPS) and using the 40k SkyMiles per person for Garuda Indonesia new A330-300 Business Class. Additionally, we just had an equipment change for TPE to DPS from an older China Airlines a330 to the newer 777-300ER which is great.

For the short leg between HKG and TPE i was out of miles so paid cash for China Airlines Regional Business class.

I understand Delta can be difficult on the SLC-SFO providing a saver fare with their stupid dynamic pricing, but my question is the Asian connections. For 80K you should have gotten SFO-TPE-DPS on China Air assuming there was availability and you didn’t stay in Taipei for more than 24 hours. And DPS-HKG-TPE-JFK could be a single ticket as well for 80K, again assuming availability and no stopovers. Did you price these as a whole trip or just individually?

[QUOTE=”MarkS, post: 25542, member: 2121″]I understand Delta can be difficult on the SLC-SFO providing a saver fare with their stupid dynamic pricing, but my question is the Asian connections. For 80K you should have gotten SFO-TPE-DPS on China Air assuming there was availability and you didn’t stay in Taipei for more than 24 hours. And DPS-HKG-TPE-JFK could be a single ticket as well for 80K, again assuming availability and no stopovers. Did you price these as a whole trip or just individually?[/QUOTE]

Right i agree with you. That was the original plan. When I called Delta they could not find these routes in the system and the only option was to book 1 way routes for each segment. I fly SLC all the way to DPS then stay 8 nights then fly DPS to HFG then stay 4 nights then HKG all the way to JFK. Also the combination of paying partly with cash and miles complicated matters. Additionally, Delta was quoting me ridiculous cash rates so i booked through China Airlines in TWD and HKD which was much cheaper. It is frustrating that Delta cannot create a route route across partners and figure out how to allow customers to pay part with cash and miles and have the same pricing as partner airlines.

Delta is difficult for sure. The only thing that was a paid ticket for you was the DPS-HKG leg (and maybe the SLC-SFO). SFO-DPS and HKG-JFK should have been on a single ticket, or 2 one-ways. For next time understand many Delta agents are poorly trained in awards and that is a common excuse they give, not a valid route. In fact SFO-DPS is a route readily available as the attached photo shows. In matters like this you have to hang up and call back repeatedly until you either get an agent who understands or is willing to move the call to a mileage specialist which Delta has and can book the connections into a single ticket. I always arm myself with examples of the route with connections of other carriers (for example KE from SFO-ICN-DPS) and if I can find it examples of the carrier I want from other city pairs, such as LAX-TPE-DPS on China Airlines. I booked a DPS-ICN-NRT-DTW-ATL on Garuda, Korean, Delta by doing this as well as some European routes that didn’t show up on a search. Lessons learned….

Also you are right, buying partner fares on Delta, American, United, etc are typically WAY more expensive. It’s easier to go to the source like you did.

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I agree with the DL frustration about pricing but not sure I’d blame them for the cheap fares. My understanding was that if the ticketing carrier and operating carrier are different then they have to split revenue so the operating carrier may not make its cheapest fares available for partner booking.