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Distraught, Galy asked if she could be with her cat, who by that point had already been locked up for the 13 hour flight, but was told it wasn’t possible.
“They said they covered her cage with a blanket, so she’s trapped in the dark, for what would be 25 hours, before boarding the return flight,” Galy said, adding that the staff at the airport lacked “empathy” for her situation.
I’m not an influencer, and that wasn’t a thing then, but I took a dog from Taipei through LAX to the east coast, and everyone, and I think it was China Airlines, was perfectly empathetic. They were very nice when I checked her in as luggage, and when I got to LAX I was entering from abroad and couldn’t bring her food, meat, from abroad, but they let me feed her a tin of dog food in the customs line before properly disposing of the tin. I don’t think they had to do that, but they were empathetic.
There are a lot of protocols to follow and I didn’t have to pass through a third country, but my travel agent, Maria, who used to advertise in the newspapers when they were on paper, arranged everything. It’s hard to find service like that anymore. Anushka got the proper shots and chips and I picked her up at LAX which had a sort-of pet and smoking area where we both relieved urges until I had to leave her whimpering in the cargo office. But she got loaded on the plane east and waited until she heard my voice, barking until Uncle Bud arrived in his pickup to haul us all away. If I was pretty, that could have been worth 400,000 followers. Not much of interest followed, though, dog-wise.
You have to be really careful when moving an animal from one country to another, especially if you are not either a citizen or resident of one or both. If you’re moving on a whatever visa for nomad influencer reasons, good luck to them and whatever pet they drag into their brief camera shot. Pets are infinitely replaceable to every narcissist. Also, a cat? Just give it away. It won’t notice.
I’m surprised the influencer didn’t also try to board the plane wearing a bikini and then complain about getting body shamed upon refusal to board. She missed a trick there.
How is her being an influencer with 400,000 bots… sorry, I mean “followers” relevant? Does that make her inconvenience more important and noteworthy than some dumpy shut-in with 5 Facebook friends?
CI is NOT my first airline of choice, but I do need to point out that a) they seem to have, since the early 2000s, stopped having their planes fall apart mid-air or crashing regularly; and 2) they have acquired some pretty nice A350s in their fleet. Baby steps, at least in some good directions . . . .
The thing about the cat is pretty f up though. Just leaving that cat in a cage for 18 hours ish.
That’s a bad image.
I used to fly with them ,but that airplane “Just before death” photo always stays in my mind when I think China Airlines.
Definitely not bad, but imo Singapore Airlines has the best looking FAs in the world. It’s like they genetically breed them in a lab.
CA is fine. EVA is the one that sucks, as their strike in 2019 screwed up my travel plans for that summer. The last summer before the pandemic would screw them up for another 3 summers. Thanks, EVA.
Anyway, I’d rather take CA than a United flight in the US where my flight will get delayed a day, my luggage will get lost, the flight attendants look like Rosie O’Donnell, and the other passengers have a fist fight in the aisle next to me.
I think of that Singapore Airlines that crashed and killed passengers in Taiwan on takeoff on the wrong runway. If you want to judge airlines by the ones that haven’t crashed and killed passengers in their flying history then we would all be flying Qantas.
I am happy enough to fly China Airlines. I am not beholden to one airline or another. Sometimes Cathay Pacific would have such good prices on business class I would fly them through HK. I would arrange it so I had 4 or 5 hours in their business lounge, take a shower, enjoy some creature comforts before next flight. Now with HK being ruled the way it is I will skip that and just stick with CI for the time being. Sometimes if diving in Bohol will fly Cebu Pacific as I don’t mind the early AM night flights…
UA gets a lot of shit, but I’ve actually never had any issues with them. Yeah, the food is terrible and the flight attendants aren’t exactly eye candy, but they’ve always treated me right. Maybe it’s because I’m jaded and middle-aged like they are.
Are you saying you don’t know anyone that’s tried to bring their pets back to their home countries from Taiwan? Or moving their pets from other countries to Taiwan? There are whole threads on here about things to be aware of with moving pets. Knowing that some airlines don’t check your paperwork until you’re halfway to your destination, especially after you think you’ve done all your research and properly prepared for the move, is really good to know. I’m not a fan of influencers either, but if that happened to one of us, we wouldn’t have anyone listening to our complaints, not even United.
I’m looking to book a flight from Taiwan to New York on China airlines and was wondering if anyone has flown on their economy and premium economy seats. Is there a big difference in comfort? Was it worth it to you?
In the past I’ve really only flown economy but as I’m getting older I’m finding it a bit more uncomfortable for that long of a flight.
Check the equipment being used for your flight and then go to Seat Guru or a similar site and pick a “good” seat as soon as the website allows you to choose.
Thing is with Prem Eco is there is a physical bar between the seats you cannot move. So you cannot spread out and rest like you can if you can get a row of eco seats. Prem eco is worth the extra cost though.
Otherwise I suggest business class where you can lie down and get a good sleep. I book with China airlines directly and choose the seats I want. I often find I can get a 2 seat row next to the window for myself. I now book the aisle seats so I don’t have to climb over anyone to get to the toilets.
I also use seat guru to check the flight configuration of the plane being used and it’s normally the A350 on long haul flights.
I don’t fly China Airlines much, but I would choose premium economy over economy each day. The seats are wider, so that you don’t have the armrests squeezing your kidneys on both sides. And you can take your legs on the flight rather than having to check them in, because there’s actually some space to place them.
yep, but of course depends on cost delta. I’ve flown it at at 25-50% increase over economy, and easily worth it. it’s , to me, subjectively just about in between US domestic coach and business class seats.
I mean, yeah, that’s much better. but now you’re at 5-10x cost delta. good product on CI though.
