Other Asian, Australian and South Pacific Frequent Flyer Programs - Horrible EVA experience yesterday

I took an EVA flight 067 from BKK to TPE in Y at 6:15am yesterday (September 17th). This was my first time flying EVA, and from other posts on this board, I was expecting a service level between UA and SQ. The Y cabin was full, but mostly filled with Thai blue collar workers importing to Taiwan, they all wore red shirts with logos in the front. They were quite organized and orderly as a group.

The first sign of trouble was the safety demo tape not working properly, so the purser asked FA to get in manual demo position. But the FA walking back and forth for a few minutes (some with their demo kits), nothing happened. Then came the voice reading from the demo book over PA, with no FA showing, and the reading FA could not complete one single English sentence without mispronouncing or withouth pausing and struggling. After that, the demo tape finally works and was displayed successfully.
I have taken KLM and TG for this same route, both gives a drink service before meal service. But not on EVA where they only give you meal service. Two choices were given: potridge or omelete. The portridge came with two SMALL side dish: dried pork shred and vegetable. The omelet came with two little squares of honeydew, and one yugurt. Each person were given one dinner roll. None of the FA showed any enthusiam, let alone smiles. Among the FAs, there are two Thai speaking FAs, one without smile, the other smile rarely, which is so out of the norm from their Thai cultural background.
Now is the horrible part. After the meal service, I heard some female argueing in a high pitch tone in the back. The voice was quite loud, almost to the degree of shouting. It turned out the voice came from two FAs as they appeared from the back and walking towards the front. While walking, they continued their loud quarrel with each other, and with their angry faces prominently displayed, as if they don't care we passengers witnessing their drama. Upon entering the front galley, these two FAs continued their quarrel behind the curtain and even louder. Then, another FA walking from the back of the other isle and another FA appeared from the front of this same isle showing a grin, these two started a discussion in a low voice, one FA points her fingers to the arguing FAs several times during the discussion. Then these two FA disappear behind the curtain too.
Throughout my flying experience of 500K flying miles on StarAlliance (UA, SQ, NH, Asiana, TG) and once in AirAsia, CI, and CX, I have never seen FA quarrel out in the open in front of the passengers. Not even UA FAs!! I actually felt this kind of FA drama could post a hazard to flight safety itself.
This was my first time on EVA. I am afraid it will be my last time. :td:

I see someone from Malaysia Airlines actually responded to the messages posted on this board. Let's see if EVA will give any explaination on this board too for this flight, in particular, to address the FAs quarrel dramma in front of passengers.

Edit: the flight number is BR76, not BR67....my bad.

Yep = certainly more entertaining than the average morning flight.

It is pretty common to offer a full breakfast on the morning flight on EVA and actually this never really bothered me as they always walk up and down the aisle offering tea and coffee a few times each after breakfast is served.

As for the unsmiling flight attendants. Yeah - I guess they feel like they lose status by serving blue collar workers but this is no excuse in my books as all customers should be treated nicely. These young girls put on their aprons and start slinging food trays - hard to get overjoyed on that task in my opinion. I dont suppose they will meet their next hubby in seat 34D either.
They march on the plane in military order, everything is scheduled and they have little fun in their job.

Anyway - give them another try - I am sure you just had a bad mix on a bad day.

Oh dear! I'm a bit confused about the flight. You said: "EVA flight 067 from BKK to TPE in Y at 6:15am yesterday". Usually BR67 is TPE-BKK and leaves around 9am. Was that it? [OP since clarified, see above]

Anyway if it's BR67/68, I know these flights well. I have always been disappointed by EVA's breakfasts. IMHO they don't measure up to their other meals in terms of quality and that goes for all classes.They tend to be "egg centric" too, and I'm not an egg fan.

Whether you get a drink before the meal seems to be rather ad-hoc. Seems you usually do in Elite, seems you usually don't in Economy except as part of the second meal service LHR-BKK on BR68.

The real problem here seems to be the big falling out amongst the FAs which I have never seen before - and this attitude permeated all aspects of the service. Sometimes their English pronunciation is a bit dodgy - English just isn't as well spoken or taught in Taiwan as some other parts of Asia - but I've always found it good enough. Especially the more senior crew are usually pretty fluent. Also the foreign FAs - Thais, Vietnamese usually have excellent English. And as you say, the Thais are usually very smiley.

Did you get a comment card? If not you can give your feedback on a particular flight via their website. I think you should do this. Perhaps cut and paste from here!

Sounds like a right 'ole nightmare. I wonder how many other first time EVA flyers were put off the airline for good.

I wonder how many other first time EVA flyers were put off the airline for good.
I've taken one EVA flight in my flying history and will do whatever possible not to again in the future.

My flight was LHR-BKK. Just not a good experience overall. I thought the FA's and the seats were subpar. The food nearly as bad. My thoughts might be different if I weren't in Economy Deluxe, but I doubt it. BTW, Economy Deluxe... one big :rolleyes:

Yeah, that seat was quite deluxe.

NO doubt EVA will fire those two FA who are arguing on the plane if they found out. But they are people too, and sometimes people get into other peoples faces. With all female crews EVA has more of a chance of getting someone on her monthly period with its resultant bad mood. I wonder why one of the FA didnt advise their leader. I am sure she will quiet them down posthaste and separate them.

That said, if you dont understand Mandarin, it can sound serious when really it isnt. They could be complaining about something else and not directly arguing with each other perhaps? I dont know as I wasnt there. But I guess it cant be perfect each flight for everyone.

I wouldnt judge an airline with only one flight. But if it was bad enough an influence I would avoid that airline. And if you choose to do so, its certainly ok with the rest of the travelling public.

With many airlines running in the red, I would think food service would start to suffer and EVA is probably not immune in this respect.

Many airlines are bleeding a lot of red ink, this makes things tough for everyone, crew and passengers. Crew get their benefits cut and dont feel good about it and passengers get benefits cut too.

Sorry ... did not mean to hijack this thread.

Please follow this post here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian-south-pacific-frequent-flyer-programs/996734-maltreatment-eva-ground-personnel-lax.html#post12406527

Traditionally Taiwanese companies would never reply on public discussion boards...etc even if they read it. I had never ever experience that kind of service as you mentioned on BR. I always find BR's FA very helpful and polite. The FA argument part...ummm...interesting enough.
I also found that all the food complaints were on inbound flights into TPE. Are those meals prepared in TPE?

I also found that all the food complaints were on inbound flights into TPE. Are those meals prepared in TPE?

I think all the meals are loaded "fresh" for each flight. But bottles, snacks etc... they seem to keep some of those from flight-to-flight...

EVA food certainly seemed to take a dip 3 or 4 years ago. But things seem to have improved again in the last year or so. I was amazed to see scones, Rodda's Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam given out on an Elite flight out of London about a year ago. Really sad to see so much of it completely wasted.

I think all the meals are loaded "fresh" for each flight. But bottles, snacks etc... they seem to keep some of those from flight-to-flight...

EVA food certainly seemed to take a dip 3 or 4 years ago. .



Hey - its a true adventure on EVA. I love the airline. Last week i got to taste a purple bready bun thing. Pretty cool when washed down with red wine out of a box. Of course, the omelet has no other ingredients except egg rolled up. Now that is cutting costs.

That said, I love the pitch in economy, their jukebox system is pretty good and the express meal service is great. The flight attendants whiz down the aisle so fast with no fake smiles, fake talk or anything. They just get the job done. Believe it or not, I like that kind of service. Just be real and serve fast. Obviously, if I was riding in the front of the bus, my expectations would be different. But in the back of the bus, just get me there safely and pass me another one of those purple chewy bready bun things. ;)

But things seem to have improved again in the last year or so. I was amazed to see scones, Rodda's Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam given out on an Elite flight out of London about a year ago. Really sad to see so much of it completely wasted.

Compare to AC's catering...BR is so much better(doesn't matter what class).:D

But I'm kind of sick of the congee breakfast served in Elite for several years already:o. Yes I do enjoy going to those congee restaurants early morning(Taiwan insiders will know what I talking about;)), and yes again it is a nice touch to serve on the flights, but I've been having those on EVA for breakfast several years already lol. something else will be nice(definitely not the omelette), how about soy bean milk, EVA?:p

but I've been having those on EVA for breakfast several years already lol. something else will be nice

Spot on.

But the Taiwanese seem to love it. I had a moan at my TW colleague about this once. He told me Taiwanese appreciate breakfast being completely predictable. Hmmmm......

First flights on an airline are so key; you can fall in love with a new carrier or avoid them for the rest of your life. Examples for me, Markair (anyone remember them?) was absolutely horrible, a dirty plane, surly flight attendents and horrible seat pitch. Virgin America seemed nothing special even though people rave about them. Air Asia gave me a great first experience thoughl.

But EVA was the winner for me in first flight experiences. On my very first flight with them, I was booked in Super Business SFO-TPE-SIN, but I signed up for the Evergreen Club a few weeks before I left. When boarding at SFO I was upgraded to F class. That cemented loyalty for me...

First flights on an airline are so key; you can fall in love with a new carrier or avoid them for the rest of your life. Examples for me, Markair (anyone remember them?) was absolutely horrible, a dirty plane, surly flight attendents and horrible seat pitch. Virgin America seemed nothing special even though people rave about them. Air Asia gave me a great first experience thoughl.

But EVA was the winner for me in first flight experiences. On my very first flight with them, I was booked in Super Business SFO-TPE-SIN, but I signed up for the Evergreen Club a few weeks before I left. When boarding at SFO I was upgraded to F class. That cemented loyalty for me...


hi AK333,

Just looking at your FlightMemory link. Holy *rap - thats a lot of miles. I thought I had a lot but you are 2 times me. It is also incredible that you have never made it down to the Southern Hemisphere in all of your miles. Not criticising you, just making an observation - that is one statistically weird flight pattern. Well done! Better your back-side than mine.

NO doubt EVA will fire those two FA who are arguing on the plane if they found out. But they are people too, and sometimes people get into other peoples faces. With all female crews EVA has more of a chance of getting someone on her monthly period with its resultant bad mood. I wonder why one of the FA didnt advise their leader. I am sure she will quiet them down posthaste and separate them.

That said, if you dont understand Mandarin, it can sound serious when really it isnt. They could be complaining about something else and not directly arguing with each other perhaps? I dont know as I wasnt there. But I guess it cant be perfect each flight for everyone.
.....

I speak fluent Mandarin, and I know Taiwanese facial expression very well. I know for sure these two flight attendants are in a big quarrel. I was puzzled too why the lead FA did not stop them soon enough before they let it out in front of the passengers, and why the third FA just grin and chat with another FA and pointing fingers to the fighting FAs, instead of reporting to the lead FA immediately.
BTW, I was not the only passenger witnessing their drama, all the passengers in this section were stunned by what was happening. But again, most of the passengers were Thai blue collar workers. This may explain in part why perhaps the FAs could care for less.

BTW, I was not the only passenger witnessing their drama,

In my 10 years of flying EVA, I've never seen anything like this.

I feel I've missed out! Sounds better than the IFE...

jimbo, it really depends on which flight/fa you got... cause I have encountered this many times on the Macau route.

hi AK333,

Just looking at your FlightMemory link. Holy *rap - thats a lot of miles. I thought I had a lot but you are 2 times me. It is also incredible that you have never made it down to the Southern Hemisphere in all of your miles. Not criticising you, just making an observation - that is one statistically weird flight pattern. Well done! Better your back-side than mine.

Aust/NZ are definitely on my list; I was hoping for sometime in 2010. Every time I have had something booked, something else came up.

jimbo, it really depends on which flight/fa you got... cause I have encountered this many times on the Macau route.

FAs quarrelling ? If so I'll have to fly to Macau... Perhaps we can bet money

I speak fluent Mandarin, and I know Taiwanese facial expression very well. I know for sure these two flight attendants are in a big quarrel. I was puzzled too why the lead FA did not stop them soon enough before they let it out in front of the passengers, and why the third FA just grin and chat with another FA and pointing fingers to the fighting FAs, instead of reporting to the lead FA immediately.
BTW, I was not the only passenger witnessing their drama, all the passengers in this section were stunned by what was happening. But again, most of the passengers were Thai blue collar workers. This may explain in part why perhaps the FAs could care for less.


Unlike the Japanese, the TAiwanese are not more harmonious with each other, preferring to duke it out wherever. Maybe more Thai and Vietnamese and other Asian FA are needed? EVA has a few already. They need a Cathay Pacific like female crew to keep things balanced. And yes they probably didnt care if most of the passengers were Thai and they "dont count" in their eyes often. They are looking for that successful male passenger to get close to sometimes. EVA FA have been accused of favoring certain customers from time to time. Hey they are only human and not robots like some claim.

My ex married a passenger from First Class when she served on Cathay.

I always love a good cat fight ;)

As for the pre-meal drink service, that was abruptly ended several years ago. They used to ALWAYS do a full drink service just after takeoff followed by a meal service which included a second drink service followed by a coffee/tea service. The pre-meal drink service ended several years ago and often these days they fail to make a second refill round on the coffee/tea service as well. Also gone about the same time was the mid flight noodle service on long haul flights.

FAs quarrelling ? If so I'll have to fly to Macau... Perhaps we can bet money

Well, I don't always take EVA from Taiwan unless either...

1. The route is not served by China Airlines
2. CI's price is way too expensive
3. I am on a tour where I have no choice.

The trip I made to Brisbane via EVA was an okay experience (though I saw the FA spill orange juice on a customer)... but trips to Macau that I have had in the past were just not friendly (whether to me or to other customers).

So are you saying the FA only argue on the Macau route, seems you guys are scraping the barrell for things to write about on here

So are you saying the FA only argue on the Macau route, seems you guys are scraping the barrell for things to write about on here

Maybe just that the FAs that served the Macau route were the same batch of unfriendly and unprofessional ones? Do note this is 3 years ago... I haven't gone to Macau ever since cross strait flights begun.

And here you guys are worried bout a few FA having a bit of a disagreement, how about this ???

http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/391066-air-india-pilots-crew-slug-out-30-000-ft.html

I think the OP needs a new definition of the word "horrible."

Hey - its a true adventure on EVA. I love the airline. Last week i got to taste a purple bready bun thing.

That must be the taro buns, if you're not familiar with them, they can be pretty sweet if you like such stuff.

NO doubt EVA will fire those two FA who are arguing on the plane if they found out. But they are people too, and sometimes people get into other peoples faces. With all female crews EVA has more of a chance of getting someone on her monthly period with its resultant bad mood. I wonder why one of the FA didnt advise their leader. I am sure she will quiet them down posthaste and separate them.

That said, if you dont understand Mandarin, it can sound serious when really it isnt. They could be complaining about something else and not directly arguing with each other perhaps? I dont know as I wasnt there. But I guess it cant be perfect each flight for everyone.

I wouldnt judge an airline with only one flight. But if it was bad enough an influence I would avoid that airline. And if you choose to do so, its certainly ok with the rest of the travelling public.

With many airlines running in the red, I would think food service would start to suffer and EVA is probably not immune in this respect.

Many airlines are bleeding a lot of red ink, this makes things tough for everyone, crew and passengers. Crew get their benefits cut and dont feel good about it and passengers get benefits cut too.

I'm pretty surprised that this would happen - it was my impression that BR has pretty high standards for cabin crew, in terms of recruitment (mostly university graduates) and training (they often train in conjunction with ANA - a legacy to Evergreen Group chairman's Chang Rong-fa's Japanophile business practices).

In any case and for whatever reason, this isn't acceptable. Did you sent a comment form to BR?

I'm pretty surprised that this would happen - it was my impression that BR has pretty high standards for cabin crew, in terms of recruitment (mostly university graduates) and training (they often train in conjunction with ANA - a legacy to Evergreen Group chairman's Chang Rong-fa's Japanophile business practices).

In any case and for whatever reason, this isn't acceptable. Did you sent a comment form to BR?

I think only the initial groups of FAs were trained by NH and now they do their own training in TPE. The quality of service nowadays does not compare at all to when they first started in 1991. Remember, the dream was a premium airline but now it is all about controlling cost.

As far as educational level, I think Evergreen Group/EVA's motto is - we want people we can train and shape (usually the more you are educated, the less you can be shaped by external forces). I find BR FAs less sophisticated than CI FAs.

Evergreen/EVA is an extremely disciplined company. I would expect the FAs to be fired also.

Oh come on, all these posts and not 1 uTube video? Really guys. :D

Every company will have some sub-par employee and every person will have bad days. Let's not get all worked up over isolated incidents. If they are frequent then contact the corporate office (works better with video!).

They are looking for that successful male passenger to get close to sometimes. EVA FA have been accused of favoring certain customers from time to time. Hey they are only human and not robots like some claim.

My ex married a passenger from First Class when she served on Cathay.

Your experience seemed to be toward CX not EVA. I don't know why you were blaming this on EVA as well.

One thing people missed is that the OP mentioned "it was a full flight". EVA tried to cut cost so their passenger/FA ratio is higher than other airlines. That's probably why you see military style service when it happens, and these FAs are really stressed under this situation. My one experience with EVA when the load was light, the FAs were very attending and smiley. I would not jump right into the conclusion on Thai worker's discrimination. I believe the problem is the result of EVA's cost cutting, which can probably turn Singapore Air's FA into devil too.

Your experience seemed to be toward CX not EVA. I don't know why you were blaming this on EVA as well.

One thing people missed is that the OP mentioned "it was a full flight". EVA tried to cut cost so their passenger/FA ratio is higher than other airlines. That's probably why you see military style service when it happens, and these FAs are really stressed under this situation. My one experience with EVA when the load was light, the FAs were very attending and smiley. I would not jump right into the conclusion on Thai worker's discrimination. I believe the problem is the result of EVA's cost cutting, which can probably turn Singapore Air's FA into devil too.


Not blaming EVA. I happen to like EVA and have followed them with interest since their inception. Skytrax reviews of EVA (and Ci) have been very favorable over-all. Whereas CX seems to be falling behind, while SQ seems to be holding to their own.

Used to fly EVA to/from HK a fair bit (from TPE). Have only been on a few longhaul with them.

As I said, I like EVA. And its funny that their planes are painted almost the same shade of green that CX used to sport before they became a darker shade of green.

Many liken EVA to CX in the old days. Which is a good comparison.

My one experience with EVA when the load was light, the FAs were very attending and smiley. I would not jump right into the conclusion on Thai worker's discrimination. I believe the problem is the result of EVA's cost cutting, which can probably turn Singapore Air's FA into devil too.

I'd probably concur. I've generally had pretty positive experiences with BR, though it's been a few years, and I've only flown transpac (SFO/TPE) and the short hop between TPE/HKG.

Actually one of the better advantages of the Combi (74E?) was that they had relatively fewer passengers on board than a full-blown 744 or even a 777 - which made service faster and the FAs were relatively less harried.

I think only the initial groups of FAs were trained by NH and now they do their own training in TPE. The quality of service nowadays does not compare at all to when they first started in 1991. Remember, the dream was a premium airline but now it is all about controlling cost.

As far as educational level, I think Evergreen Group/EVA's motto is - we want people we can train and shape (usually the more you are educated, the less you can be shaped by external forces). I find BR FAs less sophisticated than CI FAs.

Evergreen/EVA is an extremely disciplined company. I would expect the FAs to be fired also.

You're probably right - back in 1991, the objective was to outdo the big boys at CI - I call it the Avis "We Try Harder" position. It's different now (and CI has come roaring back).

The Evergreen Group has generally preferred to grown their own and promote from within (so as to maintain the corporate culture), so you've touched on a good point.