Review: EVA Air 787-10 Business Class Bangkok-Taipei
Intro
There are some pretty brutal redeyes across the world, such as Denver to Atlanta, Dubai to Kabul, etc... However, this next portion of my adventure would see me flying on EVA Air from Bangkok to Taipei on a pretty horrible redeye. The flight is scheduled to depart at 1:35 am, and lands at 6:20 am in Taipei, with a flight time of just over 3 hours. It's brutal...
I have always loved EVA Air on its long-haul routes. Before Covid, I flew a lot of EVA on the Bangkok to London route and had some of the best service I've had on a plane. So going into this flight I was excited to test out EVA on a short-haul route. While the hard product is good, the service was nothing short of flat-out bad. Let's get into it!
Route-Bangkok-Taipei
Seat- 10K
Flight Number- BR206
Aircraft- Boeing 787-10
Date- August 18th 2024
Flight Time: 3 Hours 39 Minutes
Price Paid- 660$ (2 Legs)
How I Booked
With my Aeroplan adventure coming to an end, I had to get up to Seoul for dinner the next evening. Seeing as direct economy flights were around 400$ and business was about 900$, I decided to book a connecting flight with EVA Air from Bangkok-Taipei-Seoul for 660$. This also helped me secure 1K for the year as this credited two more PQFs to my United account.
SQ Lounge Bangkok
Once landing from Dhaka onboard Thai Airways in Business Class, I visited the EVA Air Lounge in Bangkok which looks like an airport go-go bar (in a good way) for a little bit. I also managed to sneak in a little bit of time in the Singapore Silverkris Lounge in Bangkok which is nice but closes around 10 pm unfortunately.
All in all, this is a nice lounge but doesn't quite have the same vibe to it as the EVA Air Lounge.
Boarding
With a scheduled departure time of 1:35 am, boarding was set to commence at 1:00 am sharp. Heading down to the gate area, I saw a long line of people waiting to board as boarding had been delayed until 1:30 am due to traffic in the area.
Sure enough, right at 1:30 am boarding commenced with those needing extra assistance followed by business class and Star Alliance Gold members.
Stepping onboard, I found a busy crew preparing for departure. In comparison with Thai Airways where I was welcomed onboard and escorted to my seat, this was the complete opposite.
The Seat/Cabin
EVA Air operates three business-class products across their widebody fleet (minus a few of their older A330s with recliners review coming soon of that). Their 777s feature reverse herringbone seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, their A330s feature lie-flat seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, and their 787s feature lie-flat seats in a 1-2-1 configuration.
The cabin is laid out with 34 business-class seats across 9 rows (for some reason EVA skips row 4). If you traveling by yourself, look for seats in rows 2,5,7, and 9 for maximum privacy. Unfortunately, when I booked, the only available window seat was 10K.
For a long-haul product this is a fantastic product, let alone that EVA Air flies these planes on intra-Asia routes. Each seat features a decent amount of footwell space, a large IFE screen, seat controls (which you don't bump into in the middle of the night), a small cubby for storage, and more space for storage underneath the counter.
Very impressive hard product!
Departure
At 2:00 am local time, the captain came on to announce that we were delayed due to "ATC Flow Control" and that we would be pushing back shortly. He expected a flight time of 3 hours and 10 minutes, with a slightly late arrival into Taipei.
Sure enough, we pushed back a few minutes later at 2:06 am local time, in which the safety video was played.
At 2:18 am local time, we were wheels up from Runway 20L departing to the South.
Amenities
Once airborne, I decided to check out the multitude of amenities that EVA Air features on this short flight. In most airlines around the world, you are lucky to get a blanket and pillow, but EVA Air takes its amenities to the next level with slippers, noise-canceling headphones, and comfortable bedding.
Yes, you can see the American coming out in me here, as I am wearing shorts (it's the only clean clothes I had left at the time).
All in all, this was very impressive from EVA Air.
IFE+Wifi
If you are worried about getting bored on your flight, you better drop those worries, as EVA Air offers an extensive selection of movies and TV shows. The seatback screen is of exceptional quality and can be accessed through touchscreen or the remote located next to the seat.
EVA Air also has Wifi onboard their aircraft at a relatively steep cost. While I do appreciate that EVA offers 30 minutes of free wifi to passengers, I do think that 16$ for a 3-hour flight is on the steep side.
Meal Service
Upon boarding the aircraft, waiting next to my seat were the menus for the flight tonight. Considering that this is a brutal redeye, I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of dinner options, as well as a full wine menu. While EVA Air is known for its fabulous champagne in Royal Laurel long-haul routes, they serve Castlenau on the short-haul products.
While I had planned to eat, and even ordered the braised beef on the ground, unfortunately, I wasn't woken up by the cabin crew after takeoff. They asked if I wanted to be woken up, and I responded with a yes, please, but sadly I must have been too deep in sleep when they came around.
While I have plenty to fault the crew on this flight, unfortunately, this is not one aspect in which I will fault them.
Bed Time
Upon taking off, I placed my seat in the lie-flat position and headed off to bed. This would now be my 4th straight night on a plane, and I was starting to feel the effects of all of this traveling.
The bed was comfortable, although I am not the biggest* fan of this seat due to the slightly constricted footwell compared to the Reverse Herringbone seat.
Service
Falling asleep for about 2 hours and 15 minutes, I woke up just before we began our descent into Taipei. Unlike Turkish Airlines, there was no FA to come over and offer me a pre-landing beverage, but rather it took me 10 minutes to flag down a flight attendant.
So let's discuss service. EVA Air has fantastic service on their long-haul flights, but this is not the same on short-haul flights. I found the flight attendants just didn't want to be working for the airline. Of course, I am grateful to be flying business, but it's important to be honest in these reviews... Here are some things that stood out to me:
No pre-departure beverage was offered
When taking my meal order it was simply "What do you want to eat?"
Upon waking up, I had to flag down an FA to get a morning champoffee.
When the champagne arrived, it turned out it was flat, and when I told the cabin crew, they just walked away... Really?
We had begun our descent into Taipei and were at 20,000 feet. I got up to grab my charger and was shouted at to sit down while someone else 3 rows ahead was up as well. A nicer way would have been to approach me and inform me that we are on descent instead of shouting at me through the whole cabin.
Arrival
By 6:00 am local time, the captain announced our initial descent down into Taipei. We ended up having a smooth approach and touched down on Runway 23R at 6:31 am (20 minutes behind schedule).
From there we had an 8 minute taxi and pulled int gate C7 at 6:39 am local time.
Getting off the plane there was no thank you for flying EVA Air or anything of the sort. Quite the contrast to the previous flight with Thai Airways. 😒
Final Thoughts
EVA Air provides a decent hard product onboard their 787-10 from Bangkok to Taipei, featuring lie-flat seats, a great IFE System, and a decent meal service. However, I will say that for the region, the service was extremely lackluster on this flight, and to me, that is what makes a flight great. While I wouldn't hesitate to fly EVA Air on a long-haul flight in Business, I am not sure if I would choose EVA Air over the other competitors in the region. The service on Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Starlux seems to just blow EVA Air out of the water, and thus I would be more encouraged to fly with those carriers.
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