EVA Air The Star & The Infinity Lounge Taipei
After a swift and smooth transfer process I make my way towards EVA Air’s lounge complex located on the second floor of the main concourse. The lounge concepts which EVA Air use are somewhat abundant as they operate four different lounges all in close proximity to one another. The Star and The Infinity are available to Business Class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members, whereas The Club is available only to Infinity Mileage Lands Silver members. There is also a terrace lounge called The Garden available, which sadly was under renovation during my visit, and while the access rules weren’t made fully clear I assume that Business Class and Star Gold should have access to it.
The entrance to the lounge complex for The Star & The Infinity.
At the reception I present my invitation card to the friendly receptionist who promptly directs me to The Infinity, but seeing as I was in dire need of a shower and shave I lingered around have my name signed up on the shower list. I am given a beeper which would notify me when the shower was ready, so in the mean time I decided to check out The Infinity lounge.
The main seating sections of The Infinity.
To be completely honest I wasn’t really a fan of The Infinity. After stepping off a 16 hour flight in complete darkness, the least thing I would want is to spend more time in darkness. The lounge itself felt like a mixture between TRON and a sleazy nightclub with the bright LED and neon lightning, and the slightly worn out leather sofas certainly added to that nightclub feel. I mean who in their right ming would want to spend their morning hours in this place?
The food and beverage section.
The concept of eating breakfast in a nightclub environment didn’t appeal to me, and considering the fact that I had just consumed a rather substantial breakfast on the flight I didn’t bother with exploring the options. But from what I could see a pretty decent spread was being offered with several hot options, as well as Mövenpick ice cream.
After roughly 30 minutes my beeper rang, and I made my way to the reception to collect my shower key.
The Metro Forest shower suite… I think that was the name.
The shower suite was well equipped and featured shampoo, shower gel and body lotion from Harnn. In addition a range of amenities such as hair combs, razors, Q-tips, hair caps, etc were offered. The suite also featured a hair dryer, an indoor fan as well as a stool to place your hand luggage on. Oh and towels, lots of them!
After a warm and refreshing shower, I felt like a human again and with two hours to go before boarding, I spend the remainder of my time in The Star.
The main seating section of The Star.
The table section in the ”annex” where most of my time was spent.
The Star certainly holds a massive improvement over The Infinity. It’s bright, calm and spacious here, and the faux blue sky à la The Venetian in Las Vegas certainly adds a nice and soothing ambience to the place. Sadly however, there were a few obnoxious american businessmen talking loudly on their cellphones so I had to seek refuge in the table section of the ”annex”. At the time I began feeling a bit peckish, so I headed off to the food and beverage section to see what was on offer.
The food and beverage section of The Star. Offerings were identical to The Infinity.
…My choice of breakfast!
After roughly one hour and a half… Or several bowls of ice cream later, I leave the lounge for a stroll around the shops in the terminal. The shops mostly consisted of luxury brand stores such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Prada, etc which clearly seem to cater to the nouveau riche clientele. Naturally I didn’t enter any of the stores, so after a few condescending looks from the staff I made my way to the gate.
EVA Air flight BR67 Taipei – Bangkok
Departure: 09.00
Arrival: 11.25
Duration: 3h 25m
Date: 24 June 2014
Aircraft type: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat & Class: 2K Royal Laurel Class / Business Class
At the gate there was an additional security screening before my boarding pass was ripped and scanned. At the holding pen I notice at least 50 people glued to the window with their camera phones, gazing in amazement at the behemoth parked outside. It turns out that my chariot for this 18 hour trip to London would be the infamous Hello Kitty Saniro Family Jet. My sister certainly got happy when I sent her a picture of my plane, though to be honest this livery certainly makes the mighty Triple-Seven look undignified.
Boeing 777-300ER in Hello Kitty livery.
Boarding was soon called, and as usual Royal Laurel Class passengers and Star Alliance Gold members were allowed to board first. Similar to JFK a gate agent was holding up a sign for priority passengers, and overall the process was very orderly and civilized. I’m among the first passengers to board the plane, and to my slight disappointment there is a jetway connected to door 1L which means no left turn this time.
At the door I’m greeted welcome by a young stewardess who after a quick inspection of my boarding pass escorts me to my seat 2K.
The slightly older Royal Laurel Class on this B777-300ER.
Unlike my previous flight which was operated by EVA Air’s newest B777-300ER, this particular aircraft was of a slightly older model, hence featuring the ”original” Royal Laurel Class and the old cabins in Economy and Elite Class. Neither did the aircraft have mood lightning or onboard wifi, and the entertainment system was of a slightly older generation. But in all fairness both the seats and entertainment system are up to today’s standards, so there’s nothing to complain about.
Royal Laurel Class seat.
Apart from a few cosmetic differences such as the fabric headrest and and slightly smaller entertainment screen there aren’t any major differences in terms of the seats, and with the exception of the cushion being slightly more worn there were no differences whatsoever in terms of comfort and personal space.
The slightly older entertainment controller, power socket and reading light.
It doesn’t take long before the purser comes around to greet passengers welcome onboard and offer pre-departure beverages and refreshing towels. Once again Champagne is not offered on the tray, so I settle for a glass of orange juice which is soon accompanied by the menu and wine list for the flight. After flicking through the wine list I almost choke on my OJ when noticing that the Dom Perignon is not featured in the wine list. Thankfully the stewardess reassures me that the Dom will be back on the long segment from Bangkok to London Heathrow.
Welcome beverage consisting of orange juice.
The doors are eventually closed and we make an on-time departure before reaching our cruising altitude of 42000 feet roughly thirty minutes into the flight. On a short flight like this one you can certainly feel the power of the GE-90s as we took off.
With no time to waste the crew immediately commences the brunch service once the seatbelt sign had been turned off. Drink orders were taken before table linens were laid out, and as always Champagne was my drink of choice.
Billecart-Salmon Brut Vintage 2000 was offered in place of the Dom on this flight, and once again I’m impressed that they chose to serve a rather expensive vintage Champagne on these regional flight.
Starting off with a glass of Champagne, water and rice crackers.
As expected the Billecart-Salmon didn’t taste as smooth as the Dom and despite it’s impressive age of 14 years it lacked that same honey flavor as the Dom. The taste itself was dry, bready, and with strong tones of citrus. All in all a fairly enjoyable Champagne even though it wasn’t completely up to my taste as it lacked some fruitiness, but if you’re into dry Champagnes then you’d definitely like it. Shortly after finishing my glass, the starter trays were brought out.
Starter dish consisting of Foie Gras and prawn with apricot confit, red pepper and lettuce.
Foie Gras is something you seldom get served on planes, at least not on non-french airlines. My previous experience with this french delicacy on a plane was on an EgyptAir flight from Paris to Cairo in 2012, and while I may be no foodie even I could tell that it was a terrible piece of Foie that I was served on that flight. Bearing my previous experience in mind, I didn’t expect the Foie Gras on EVA Air to taste particularly good either. Thankfully however, the Foie Gras tasted well for my inexperienced tastebuds and the sweetness from the apricots paired perfectly with the savoriness from the liver. The only thing missing was just a glass of Sauternes, but the french white wine on offer worked well as a substitute. The prawn tasted rather unspectacular.
Once the starter plates had been cleared a stewardess approached me with a tray, neatly presenting the three main courses on offer. I appreciated this setup as it allows you to pick and choose the main course that you’d like, without having to rely on the sometimes deceptive menu description. But in this case I had already made up my mind on the fish, as always…
Main course of seafood pasta with salmon, prawn and scallops, smothered in a rich cream sauce.
After my good pasta experience on Turkish Airlines, I decided to give the pasta dish a try. Sadly this time the pasta was slightly overcooked and the cream sauce had a somewhat bland taste. The salmon chunks were generously proportioned and medium fatty, just how I like them. Prawn and scallop were nicely cooked without that rubbery texture. Overall it was an acceptable main course, but I wouldn’t call it good either.
Dessert consisting of strawberry cake and fresh fruit.
Once again EVA Air should improve on their desserts. How about perhaps consulting a fancy french Patisserie like JAL and Qatar Airways did? Anyways the strawberry cake tasted mostly sugar and it didn’t contain any other strawberries than on the top. I take a few bites before I have enough. The fruit on the other hand was once again fresh and ripe.
Once the table had been cleared I put the seat in its fully flat position for some shuteye. It was past midnight New York time and I was starting to get a little tired, but at least I managed roughly one hour of sleep before it was time to prepare for landing.
Touchdown at Bangkok Airport was smooth and since we had a 90 minute stopover here all passengers were asked to leave the plane. Upon exiting the plane we were given transit cards and since Royal Laurel Passengers were allowed to disembark first, I managed to beat the queues for the transit security. The screening process was smooth and within minutes I found myself at the EVA Air Lounge.
EVA Air Lounge Bangkok
Despite the large amount of Star Alliance lounges available in Bangkok, EVA Air chose to run their own lounge, which then again isn’t really surprising seeing how they joined Star Alliance just last year. The lounge itself is surprisingly large and spacious for being an outstation lounge with seating for nearly 100 guests, and with the wave of departures currently taking place the lounge was fairly crowded during my visit.
EVA Air Lounge reception in Bangkok.
The main seating section.
Since I just had lunch on the plane I didn’t bother exploring the food and drinks section in detail, but by the looks of it there was a fairly respectable looking spread of hot options. What caught my attention however was the ice cream freezer on the counter. I was told by my friend earlier that they served Häggen Dazs ice cream in the lounge, but now it appears to have been replaced with Swenden’s Ice Cream.
The food and drinks section.
I fetch myself a bowl of sticky chocolate ice cream which was divine, but I hardly have time to finish it before I have to run off to the gate.
Next Part: EVA Air Royal Laurel Class Bangkok to London + Three days in London