Eastward Bound

I just flew EVA business class BKK-TPE-SFO.

Some scattered thoughts:

BKK-TPE: Newer business class seats on the 787. Still a bit uncomfortable on my rear after 3 hours as the plane approached TPE. Decent room and storage. The overhead bins were more than spacious enough to handle two carry-ons and a backpack. IFE was responsive, but not much choice.
TPE-SFO: Older reverse herringbone on a 15 year old 777. Very uncomfortable seat. While better once the mattress pad was added, it still wasn't great. At 196cm the seat was difficult to get into and out of. I never even tried for full lie flat. Storage is a joke. The overhead bins were quite shallow compared to the 787. The lone power port is located in a horrible location encroaching on my shoulders. The IFE was small, low res, unresponsive and lacking in decent choices. The in flight map had no ability to be customized and often was only in Chinese.

The in flight food was mostly decent. My Massaman curry on the BKK-TPE leg was very tasty. The garlic bread was good if rather cold. As it was a short redeye flight I would have preferred a single tray serving rather than courses. On the TPE-SFO leg the meals were fine. My beefsteak was underdone. I ate the outer edges and left the too rare middle. The dauphine potatoes were a mixed bag. The golden potatoes were a salt lick while the beetroot dyed potatoes were fine, but I don't like beets. As such I skipped the beet soup. I also skipped the cheese course and dessert to get some sleep. I avoided alcohol except for the pre-departure sparkling wine which was almost as bad as some $5 swill I got for free when graduating from college. Breakfast was the pork noodle soup. It needed white pepper but the meat was tender and the broth was acceptable.

Service on my flights was terrific. I didn't bother to wear my pajamas (I think I got a size too large) or the amenity kit (I'd have preferred black instead of tan).

Lounges: BKK's lounge was rather good (retro-futuristic decor notwithstanding). Lots of power ports and seating. The food was okay. I kept to the dim sum, chicken wings, and wonton soup. The chili oil for the soups was shockingly spicy. The vegetarian pizza was also decent. Not a problem to get a shower reserved. TPE at breakfast time was pretty bad. Crowded, poorly designed, small restrooms. The food sucked. Everything was bland or tasted off. How is a radish cake fishy? No bottled water on offer? At least there was yogurt. I left the lounge after 45 minutes to explore the duty free shops and buy a bottled water and croissant.

If I go back to Asia in a couple years, I think I'd like try one of the Japanese airlines.

Davvidd

I always get to fly the 777 on my route so cannot compare it to the 787. I never had any issues with the seat especially with the bedding. I do however think the standard has slipped from pre pandemic.
Ok, so I am wrong about the food in the lounge as I thought they were mainly catering for the Asian passengers. Yes I never like the food they have there. I think then I am going to give it a miss when I fly next month and try to use any other Star lounge if it is open. The shower facilities are good though.

A point I would like to make is that with the new pyjamas, they do not seem to have XL with the hoodie. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on this.

Also why is the IFE so bad? I have always complained about it on every flight but no response from them and not even an email. It is difficult for me to change now as I have so many points and being a G with them does help a lot in UGs, and also in seat allocations. Pre Pandemic In flew a lot on CX but to me the service was not comparable then to BR. Especially in PE, BR I think is still better than CX. Just my opinion.

hlee628

They do have the XL pajamas, but you need to specifically request them and the FA will get them for you. However, they are more wide than long so it doesn't help if you're tall.

tai4de2

The food onboard ranges from barely acceptable to revolting. The lounges in Taipei are confusing, overcrowded, headache-inducing... and offer revolting food. The difficulty contacting them by phone is truly inexcusable, especially considering the unreliability of redeeming miles using their online systems.

The food in the lounge in Bangkok is great. The onboard service is nice. The schedule is fantastic... flights leaving west coast USA middle of the night for an early AM arrival into Asia.

I used to buy business class regularly but they've raised the prices to the point where I'm no longer willing to do so. Lack of premium economy on my route means this keeps me away from EVA lately.

Eastward Bound

My PJs are an XL. My flight attendant had them with her. I should have gotten L. I just used the bottoms from my AA First PJs. My outward flight was on SQ, which don't provide pajamas on a 17 hour flight so I brought my own.

Davvidd

Did you get the XL with the hoodies or without the hoodies? I asked for the one with the hood in XL as I boarded and before they even started distributing it and then they told me that there is no XL with the hoodies but only L. This was in TPE a couple of times so I thought they do not have the hoodies in XL.

bocastephen

I chose XL pajamas given that on Asian airlines, XL is usually a US size M at best - but in this case the pajamas were true to size, although inexplicably missing pockets in the bottoms. I ran them through the wash and dryer, and they shrunk just enough so the bottoms were not dragging on the floor anymore.

As to the first post, I find the seats to be on par with most other airlines, they are not behind the times - just some carriers have moved beyond these stock seats to a more custom design. The food and beverages are top notch, and if anything, they are sacrificing quantity for quality, I'm often left hungry after dinner. The IFE most definitely needs improvement, the WIFI is overpriced and unusable, but the service is now excellent quality and attentive without any of the catfights and crew brawls of yesteryear, but I agree the safety video is ridiculous and needs to be scrapped. Their amenity kits are often the most amazing and post-flight useful cases regardless of what's inside.

Sure, they ain't JAL or ANA, and TPE isn't NRT, but they work well for what I need.

Davvidd

For me the amenity kits have gone down when they discarded the Rimowa. As for the food I do not find it less quantity but as you say the quality is very good. It is the in between meal that is way too low standard for business class.

dkc192

Re. food quantity there's quite a difference between various flights. On midnight departures, i.e., almost all ex-US and some TPE-west coast flights, you get an abbreviated supper service, which is primarily missing a soup and salad course compared to the normal dinner service (there might be other minor differences). On all other long-hauls, you get the full dinner service with soup and salad course.

That said, I was on BR16 (the midnight TPE-LAX) a couple of months ago, and despite the menu showing an abbreviated supper service, got offered the soup and salad anyway. I wonder if it was a miscater in my favor or if they forgot to update the menus.

Personally I found the supper quantity of food to be satisfactory and didn't need any additional food before breakfast. Conversely, the full dinner service was too much food.

BR777

I normally depart Taiwan on BR28. I do agree that despite EVA naming it "Supper", it feels like a complete full dinner service. I also agree that the amount of food is a bit too much. I generally still try to finish everything they serve though, since I was taught that it's bad to waste food when I was a kid.

Well, even though I commented that it's too much food, I normally still end up calling the flight attendants for a burger (without fries) and a plate of stir-fried noodles for the mid-flight snacks on almost every single flight XD (just want to get my money/points worth really)

On the ex-US midnight departure flights, the amount of food they serve for the supper feels alright for me personally (those are generally without soup and fresh garden salad courses)

SYM

I feel this discussion is incomplete without any mention of the most important menu item in the Taipei lounge: all-American hot dogs!! It's a fabulous, bizarre, idiosyncratic treat. Even when the Singapore lounge is open (not sure if it has reopened post-Covid), I always started my stay with a hot-dog!

bocastephen

I found the midnight dinner service ex-USA to be lacking - the correct procedure is to add the option for soup and salad to the online pre-order so those who want the extra side dishes can request them in advance, rather than engage in cheap cost cutting and pretend it's what customers really want - that's a classic Vicki Escarra move. It wasn't this way before the crazy part of the family took over.

Also the burger/fries doesn't taste nearly as good as a before, something was done to the quality of the meat, and even the fries taste different.

That being said, unless you're flying JAL in business, which is arguably the best inflight food of any airline on the planet, and in virtually unlimited quantities, EVA still stacks up far better than United where some temperamental old battleaxe or disinterested GenZ will stop by your seat to say "red or white, whadyawant!", and then drop off a bowl of slop that would barely feed a chihuahua.

I'm paying for the overall experience which includes the seat, beverages, meals, and service. I can pre-load stuff on my ipad to make up for the gap in IFE, which is a minor inconvenience.

Braniff

Eastward Bound

It was without the hoodie.

bocastephen

I'm wearing my XL with hoodie right now - I would have preferred one without, and pants with pockets.