China Airlines Reviews 133

I hate this company no clear conditions to flight

Absolutely horrible service, This airline will leave you in a foreign country with no help at all. Customer service representative offered no help and would not honor our flights. They sent no email that they had cancelled our tickets back home to the America from Bali, and when we tried check in to or flight the booking was not there. The tickets were paid for and we did not get to use or flights at all. Their service rep said we can do nothing to help you write to corporate, and you should get a reply in around two weeks. Horrible Service. Avoid this airline at all cost.

An attempt to claim mileage for a past trip was denied due to a discrepancy between the name on the ticket (including a middle initial) and the frequent flyer account (where the middle initial was missing).
The process to adjust the mileage account to include the middle initial was followed.
This request was then denied because the submitted documentation (the passport) showed the full middle name instead of just the initial.
This circular logic, where a name change was first required and then denied based on the document that clarified the name, is an example of a rigid and unhelpful approach.
Broader Issues Reflecting Poor International Customer Service:
This experience aligns with numerous online reviews that detail frustrating encounters with China Airlines regarding name discrepancies on tickets and accounts. This indicates a systemic issue with how they handle common international naming formats, where customers may have multiple names or names with different structures than typically found in Chinese names.
The representatives appeared more focused on enforcing strict policies than on understanding and resolving the customer's issue.
Gate agents also cannot answer “what is the customer service line number you are asking me to call?” When confronted with this simple ask they say “go look it up online”.
This is reflective of their attitude to paying customers who spend thousands of dollars with them.
Refusing to accept a passport as verification of a name when a name change is requested reflects a lack of critical thinking and a willingness to be flexible.
Conclusion:
This experience and numerous online reviews from other international travelers suggest that China Airlines falls short in providing effective and empathetic customer service to non-Chinese speaking customers. While they may be responsive to feedback on their official channels, their handling of issues like name discrepancies on mileage claims reveals a deeper problem with understanding and adapting to the complexities of the international travel market. The airline could significantly improve its reputation by training staff to be more flexible, empathetic, and knowledgeable about international naming practices

My daughter and I were on flight CI32 from Taipei to Vancouver on May 24, 2025. This is normally scheduled to be an 11 hour flight, but due to a passenger medical emergency, we had to unexpectedly land in Osaka. While it is very positive that the airline is addressing medical emergencies, there were some issues associated with this unexpected detour.

First of all, there was no communication about what was happening other than “We are making an emergency landing in Osaka. The weather is overcast”. No communication whatsoever was provided regarding how long it was expected we would be on the ground, whether we would be off boarding, or whether the flight would be stopping here with passengers having to make other flight arrangements. When we asked a flight attendant whether we would be getting off the plane, they said “yes”. However, this turned out not to be the case and we sat on the plane for 5 hours with no communication and no service at all.

The worst part of this flight was that after the initial meal right after takeoff, NO food or water was provided until the last hour of the flight. This ended up being a 16 hour flight with no water or food whatsoever for 14 hours!! There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of poor service on any flight, let alone such a long haul one.

You may be stranded in a foreign country with no help.

May 2025 – Flew from Australia to Taiwan. The onward flight from Taiwan to London was cancelled due to Pakistan-India conflict.
What did China Airlines do?
Nothing.
No help at all.
No replacement flight.
No help with arranging a new flight.
No accommodation.
No assistance at all.
I eventually got a partial refund after many emails. It does not really compensate for the lost money for accommodation in London, having to pay for accommodation in Taiwan, having to pay for a new flight (with a different airline) which departed several days later.
China Airlines let me down.
If you have a problem with China Airlines you are on your own.

But wait, there’s more…

In June 2025 I flew from London to Malaysia with Qatar Airways with a transfer in Doha.
When we got to Doha the onward flight to Malaysia (along with a number of other flights) was cancelled due to the Iran-Israel conflict.
What did Qatar Airways do?
In the middle of the night they arranged a transfer to a hotel in Doha and a new flight the following evening. Efficient and no hassle despite the challenges of dealing with several flights and dealing with this at 1am.
Well done Qatar Airways. China Airlines, not so much.

We didn't get the boarding pass of the second flight of SAS from TPE airport service desk, and China airline told us that we can get the boarding pass in AMS airport, but in fact, there's NO SAS service desk there, we were also told that the ticket were not listed in the system, therefore it was not possible for them to print the boarding pass by the gate. We learned that it was not possible to print the boarding pass 20min before departure and China airline/SAS service NEVER picked the phone.

We claimed this to China airline and they claimed that they've done all the proper steps for this issue which means they have done nothing wrong. They're not willing to refund the ticket we bought for flying back to Oslo and also the loss of extra 4 hours staying in the airport. We took all the cost due to China airline's system bug.

Taking serious consideration before you buy any service from China Airline, they're the supplier who can't take responsibility of anything caused by their selves.

The service response is sooooo slow and very hopeless.

My suitcase was damaged at Haneda airport, I was told by the staff to call customer service. They said to send and email. Ive sent several emails and they send you round in circle's nobody knows how to handle complaints. My suitcase was soo damaged I had to pay for an uber, which i didnt want to do initially because I was planning to take the metro into the city. However that changed due to having 2 broken wheels on my suitcase. Its nice taking cheap flights, but when it comes to customer service I have to say its very poor and unprofessional, im disappointed with how they've dealt with my complaint. now im out of pocket of £100

Staff was great (especially at Narita airport who helped us when we were late), planes very comfy, flight really good, flights were on time, easy booking system. All in all fantastic experience, would recommend!

Dairy in my confirmed dairy free meal - can be a hazard for the passanger's health.
I had dairy in my confirmed vegan dairy free meal. Instead of apoligzing, the airline's customer service ignored my complaint, lied in writing about what I pre-booked and then again ignored my complaint. I'm surprised that an airline cares so little about passangers' health.

Just completed a return flight from Heathrow to Sydney via Taiwan. Very happy with the whole experience, good food, free drinks, polite staff. Plenty of room on the long flights (I had all 3 seats to myself on the 16 hour return leg to London). For the price it was excellent, very close to being on time, easy transfers in Taiwan between terminals. Good connections, great price.

Terrible service, paid a standard fare from London to Tapei and did not let me select a simple aisle seat without paying extra. It is ridiculous after spending over a thousand pounds on a ticket. customer service is useless and unhelpful, even careless attitude. it used to be a good airline it is now awful.

I fly from melbourne to china shenzhen, good service and new plane, I love the airline stewardess, they all have lovely smile and attitude, not as Cathy Pacific with nasty faces

I had a flight from Prague to Tokyo and back and I have almost no complains. The stuff was nice, food was ok as well. Did fly into a lot turbulences but that wasn’t the company’s fault of course. Once we didn’t get to choose from the two dishes that was about to serve so we had what left, but good. Paid wi-fi is probably not worth it, didn’t load more than some messenger chats.

On a recent trip to Taiwan I had to change my return ticket date due to illness, although it was easy to change the flight date but my seat was downgraded from premium economy to economy class. I assumed that this was probably because there were no seats in premium economy but to my surprise there were quite a few empty seats in premium economy when I got into the aircraft.
Once the flight had taken off I spoke to the staff on board and showed them my return premium economy class tickets but they told me I will not be offered the premium economy but gave no reason.

Very disappointed and bad experiences. I book 2 air tickets on 24 July 2024 and was inform on 4 June 2023 that the flight was cancel. I can change my flight for the next day 25th of make a cancellation!
Please notice:
1. We already made hotel reservation.
2. We have to work on the 25th.
3. When we purchased the air tickets, we already paid and there are extra charges for conversion fee(currency rate) from NT to Sin. *these ticket are no cancellation allowed for consumer!
4. When we cancelling the flight, there will be another conversion fee charges from the bank again.
5. We book another airline to travel back home on 24th, there will be another conversion fee from bank again and the air fare should higher!

* i had already purchased Taiwan sim card limited to the days of my travel.

May I know who is paying for the lost that we encountered?!

Horrific customer experience after being left in the queue by the airline.

We arrived at Taoyuan Airport in Taiwan to check into our flight back to London 2 hours before departure. The airport was extremely busy and, in each section, it was nearly impossible to move between the lines of passengers zig-zagging away from the check-in desks and up the corridor. Our own set of check-in counters (Area 11) appeared to be handling 8 flights, most of which were departing at around the same time.

We managed to reach the check-in desk around 7:30am (30 mins before departure) and was told that the flight was closed and we could not check in. During that time, nobody went past us with a sign, changed the signs over the check in counters or called our flight loud enough to hear, and there were no staff members available to speak to. We were aware of the time, so we were looking for staff holding signs; neither of us left the line or wore headphones as we were trying to be vigilant. There was nothing to suggest we should do anything other than just stay in line with everyone else.

At the customer support desk, the supervisor tried to help by suggesting he could put us on the Monday flight (2 days later). However, there was no offer to cover our costs (two nights accommodation in a hotel (plus expenses)) and it would mean missing a day of work and my wife’s pregnancy scan. He then suggested that he would speak to the duty manager to see if there were any other solutions.

When the duty manager (Liao ChiaRu) arrived at 9:30 am (1.5 hours after we arrived at the support desk), he refused to offer any solution. He claimed he had made the announcement himself, but we never saw him (in connection with our flight or others). He acknowledged that his voice might not have been loud enough (to which we pointed out the need to use a microphone or the screens at the counter to display messages on such a busy day. Where the supervisor had tried to find a solution, the duty manager made clear that it was our fault that we were stuck in the line at the counter. When we told him that my wife was pregnant and needed to get home, he laughed at us and then walked away, and we never saw him again. To be clear, my wife is Taiwanese and spoke Mandarin to him, so there was no miscommunication.

The supervisor then discussed alternatives with him in the back room and told us that the duty manager had refused to move us onto another flight and left us with the choice of (a) flying out two days later, or (b) cancelling the flight and finding an alternative (with a fee of £181 per person applied as a late cancellation fee). This was clearly not helpful as either option would cost us a fortune and we had not done anything wrong.

In the end, we were refunded a small amount of the initial cost and spent £1200 to get a Thai Airways flight home. This is an appalling way to treat customers who have complied with their obligations and no way to act as an airline.

I loved my experience, kept getting given food and sandwiches, and the food was actually great. Staff was really nice. Will fly again.

China Air won’t replace my damaged bag as it is OLD (2016 only used 4 times).

CHINA AIR, YOU SHOULD REPLACE THE LUGGAGE BAG WHICH YOU HAVE DAMAGED even if it is OLD. In addition, the STRESS and HASSLE you provided to your passenger.

Pay extra for their mistakes on the website
I couldn’t fill out an infix, which is part of my Dutch last name. When contacting the company they told me they would cancel my flight and that I had to book another flight. They could not change is for me. They told me that they would contact me at 9 am on the morning of my 11 am flight. I did the check in and asked three different people from the airport staff if it was a problem, they all said no, because my last name was correct. Relieved I was waiting when China Airlines called. They told me that they cancelled my check in and had to pay 200 euros to still get on the flight. At the beginning of my holiday it cost me 200 euro just because I couldn’t fill out an infix on the site for booking. Wouldn’t recommend.

My friend recently encountered extremely rude and mean behavior from ground staff and check-in counter employees. As a member of your frequent flyer program, it was disappointed by the unfriendly attitude. This experience was unacceptable, and I urge you to address this issue to prevent it from happening to other passengers. Until improvements are made, I will be advising others to avoid flying with this Airlines.