I travel to TPE about 50+ times a year. I’ve written countless times and pretty much nothing has changed.
The facilities, while T2 stands out in terms of appearance, I echo the previous posters opinions. If given the chance that an immigration officer is willing to listen, I point out the masses of Taiwanese passport holders in line while the automated departure/arrival stations are all empty! It is simply a waste of money to not educate Taiwanese people to go through those automated stations, not to mention a total waste of time upon arrival (departure is not far off). My record for waiting upon arrival from start of line to passport stamped was 72 minutes, no joke.
Beyond that, I just try to make things bearable. Usually adding 30-45 minutes at the airport solves this.
I find the SKL to have the best catering. All the EVA lounges are pretty much pedestrian, coach level food which I avoid altogether. Everything else seems to be slop they found leftover from economy meal carts. At least with SKL, they have a couple of dishes that they keep rotating and their dim sum is passable. The surroundings are drab, but tolerable, and most importantly, are quiet.
If I have the time, I will stop by at EVA for Haagen Dazs or Movenpick, which is really the only acceptable food there. The worst part of the EVA lounges in my opinion is they have no differentiation of service. Everything is self serve, food and beverage the same. Why separate into 4 different lounges if there is no differentiation?
Originally Posted by
hayzel7773
they still have not alleviated any of the crowding issues that have been affecting them. I hope that the newest "expansion" will help to fix this very serious issue.
For as long as I've been traveling to TPE, which dates back to when there was only T1, at that time, they said T2 would alleviate overcrowding issues. I do understand that Taiwan probably did not account for mainlander traffic but it really lies in the automated gates. It baffles me to no end how many Taiwanese people don't use them and instead line up, maybe it's ignorance or lack of education from officials, I don't know. But this is an issue that's going to keep repeating itself and unless they start funneling Taiwanese passport holders to those automated gates, crowding is still going to be an issue, imo.