Continuing the Sunday Planespotting Series with our return trip to Los Angeles, just in time for Thanksgiving! While Taiwanese flag carrier China Airlines operates between TPE and LAX once daily with the 777-300ER, on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays, they send an A350-900 on a second flight as well, which departs Taipei in the early evening and arrives in Los Angeles in the early afternoon. Since it’s been a year or more since the last time I did a trip report with CI’s A350, I figured now was as good a time as ever.
Server: Solo
Airline: China Airlines
Aircraft: Airbus A350-900
Origin: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Dayuan, Taiwan (TPE)
Destination: Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, California (LAX)
Flight Number: CI6
Route: RCTP-KLAX
Seat: 16A (Business)
Time En Route: 11 Hours 21 Minutes
Getting ready to board our aircraft in the Golden Hour at Gate D2. China Airlines currently operates a fleet of 15x A350-900s, deployed on routes throughout the Asia-Pacific region and to Europe, Oceania, and North America. Our aircraft for this evening is a 7.6-year-old example registered as B-18917, the third-youngest in the fleet.
Twilight taxi to Runway 05L. First impressions of the business class cabin are extremely favorable. With 32 seats in a 1-2-1 reverse herringbone configuration, the cabin feels very open and spacious, almost cavernous, a feeling compounded by the absence of overhead bins over the center seats. The seat itself feels both private and comfortable, exactly what we’d expect from a business class seat in 2025. The delicious pre-departure blueberry smoothie we were given certainly helped, too.
Taking off from Taipei. We spent a minimal amount of time waiting for takeoff, with the engines spooling up to takeoff thrust as soon as we completed the turn onto the runway.
Cruising east of the island of Shikoku while we finish up dinner, a filet steak served with marsala sauce and cheesy potatoes
Waking up at 41,000 feet over the North Pacific before dawn, with about 4 hours left of flying. Sleeping was extremely easy thanks to the ample bedding and generously-sized pillows. China Airlines’s business class has long been renowned for their hard product, and the bedding and pillows are proof-positive of that.
We’re starting our gradual descent into SoCal near the Bay Area. In the far distance, what we’ve later learned to be an EVA Air 777-300ER is taking off for Taipei from San Francisco.
Got a great view of the San Gabriel Mountains as we turn onto final over East L.A. The rainfall from the past week and a half has translated to some impressive snow on them, which is sort of contradictory for where they are. “Snow” and “Southern California” don’t exactly seem compatible, at least initially.
Arriving into a busy LAX on Runway 24R. The holiday weekend means that last-minute travelers are packing the airport, making getting out of here sometimes an hour-long or more ordeal.
Taxiing to our gate at an almost completely full TBIT Main Terminal
Deplaned at Gate 130. China Airlines’s business class on their A350 was great, great enough that the temptation to fly back to Taipei on them and back here again is almost overwhelming. However, it is Thanksgiving, and that Turkey isn’t going to eat itself. So it’s a see you later to CI, and we’ll be back aboard them soon enough!
