taitai

I am trying to book a one way from HKG to TPE on Good Friday. It is the beginning of a huge 4 day weekend in Hong Kong and I am not hopeful of finding good fares. I did find a fairly decent one on China Airlines but, well, it is China Airlines. All my adult life of flying to and within Asia, the one rule I have always been taught is "Don't fly China Airlines." I know they have not had an accident since the 2002 plane breaking up over the Taiwan Straight, however, as that is the route we are booking.....

So, what would you do? Fly CI and pray? Pony up an extra $100US/ticket and get on EVA? Blow a ton of miles for Cathay?

I need some opinions.
Taitai

chepar

There is China Airlines and there is also Air China. I had always heard that one was ok and not to fly one the other, but I can't recall which was which.

Sorry, no opinion or info to give to your question, but I am interested to see what others have to say.

taitai

CI is the one people say to not fly on. It is a Taiwanese airline.

DonTopaz

You ask a very good and important question. I think the flight will crash. I would not take it if I were you.

justshootme

Would I fly China Airlines, NO.

Last year I was in immigration in the US, the lines were long and standing in front of me was a Taiwanese exchange student, her and I started chatting, and she had flown TPE - HKG to connect to a transpacific flight. I'd asked her if she'd ever flown China Airlines, she immediately say, NO, they are not safe. (BTW, my ans NO, would have been the same answer even without having had this conversation).

Last passenger plance crash at Kai Tak, CI.

First passenger plane crash at HKIA/Chep Lap Kok, CI.

China Airlines is from Taiwan. Air China is from China and often people get confused and think that they are the same airline since their names are so similar.

Check, TG, KA and CX for HKG to TPE fares too.

I would buy a CX ticket to TPE from the US with a stopover in HKG.

justshootme

opps, typos, sorry, should read ....last passenger plane crash at Kai Tak, CI.

taitai, I just saw your other thread that you already have your transpacific tickets, my suggestion to buy a CX transpacific ticket will not work for you.

Check local HK agents HKG - TPE is a competitive route and sometimes you can get good discounts on flights. I don't have any local HKG agents to recommend but hopefully somebody on these boards can recommend reputable HKG agents. If you can get a copt of the SCMP you'll find lots of travel agents advertising in the newspaper.

rkkwan

Would I fly CI? I would. CI seems to have solved its chronic safety issues.

As for saying it was the last airline to crash at Kai Tak and first to crash at Chek Lap Kok, I should also remind everyone that CI also operates more flights into HKG than any airline other than CX and KA.

mrwunrfl

Yes, I would save the money and fly CI. The prayers are free. It is only about a 90 minute flight, gate-to-gate. 501 miles.

I see that they have 12 HKG->TPE flights on Good Friday this year.

Took a look at some stats and see that their accident rate is high compared to other airlines. But it comes out to 1 in 150,000 flights.

The last fatal crash was in May 2002. That is about 90 months ago. Suppose they flew that route 10 times a day since then. That's about 27,000 safe flights in a row, just on HKG-TPE.

When was the last fatal accident on the highway from Hong Kong to HKG?

susncrg

I have flown China Airlines the last 2 times I've gone to Bali and the last time I went to Bangkok - all within the last 3 years. The flights have been fine, much cheaper than on Singapore (which I used to fly) and with a shorter overall flight time. The 747 doesn't even have individual monitors on the long haul portion from SFO to TPE, which is a bummer, but other than that I've been happy with it and it saved us a lot of money.

bookchick

Rizzuto

taitai, have you asked this question on the Asia board? The (mostly) helpful folks there may have some experiences to share, and I think casting your net there would garner more responses. (Just a suggestion.)

BC

taitai

Thanks for all the advice. I will ask on the Asia Board. After reading these posts and some on Flyertalk, I am ready to try CI but my husband just isn't there. I even used mrwunrfl's useful 27K flight statistic but he remains unswayed. He is the most frugal human alive but still would prefer to pay 2x to fly pretty much any other airline.

taitai

rkkwan

Well, if your husband is so against flying CI, then definitely go with another airline.