I use to take China Air for many trips over to Asia especially Bangkok from LAX as Eva and China Air almost always had the best deals, however for the past few years I have been getting good rates on Star Alliance Partners, either with Asiana, which if you are going to Bangkok, routes through Pudong Airport in Inchon, or United going through Hong Kong & Saigon Vietnam.
At the last minute I had to make a change to my flight reservation and move it up 6 weeks, and when I called United to get my cheap flight changed on one leg, they wanted almost $100 more for the change than I paid for the whole round trip! So I hopped online to see what was available. The best deal that I could find to get to Bangkok at the last minute...China Air, which was the only game in town, everything else was a couple hundred dollars more on a one way ticket.
I remember that the thing that I really hated about the China Air flight schedule was that there was a 6 hour layover at Chiang Kai-shek Airport in Taipei, which is besides LAX in my opinion, the worst airport in the world, back in the day there was no internet and the food and drink was horrible, and to add insult to injury they were charging 5 star prices. I use to bring a pool mattress and an alarm clock and sleep on the terminal floor it was that bad. Well they have made some improvements to the airport, but thankfully the layover now is only 2 hours, which after a bathroom break and stretching your legs was an easy one to do.
On Cheap Bangkok flights I always have a problem sleeping in the cramped positions back in the sardine section, so I was surprised when I actually slept a lot of the flight to Bangkok do to the new chairs on the updated China Air 747 that they use from LAX to BKK, the new seats slide forward giving the felling, if not an actual increase in the angle of the recline, and it really felt much better.
The other thing that you will notice this once again the cheapest flight to Bangkok, I find much in the last minute, Boeing aircraft, the selection also has a large entertainment system with large, who probably at least 10 films, and then a lot of TV shows, and a very cool interactive map that can be manipulated, and can also send text messages via SMS if you have a credit card or debit card with you.
The only thing I would say that my expectations would be lessbe the food, it was good, but I was hungry soon after, to be fair they did have sandwiches and fresh fruit available, but on long flights I like to get myself into a food comma, which is usually when I will get a short cat nap in.
The other thing that I am noticing is that none of the international flights that I have been on in recent memory are offering OJ with the water when they come around the cabin. When I am in the big tube, I max out the vitamin C to hopefully ward off any nasty bugs that are confined, re-circulated and amplified in the small space of a pressurized air cabin. Along the same line, I would also like to see some sort of sanitizer wipe given out at the beginning of the flight, even leave them on the seats so that you can wipe down all the surfaces that you are likely to touch, like the TV screen, the tray table and the arm rests,
All in all for a really cheap flight last minute LAX to Bangkok, I would give China Air a 9 out of 10 experience and will look at using them again in the future.
