As I was heading back from Asia, I realized that I haven’t really tried out any of Taiwan’s Airlines. There was a choice between Starlux and Eva Air on my date, but given the timing Eva Air worked out better for me. I do find it interesting that Taiwan has the equivalent of 3 major airlines, and is a small country relative to Japan or Germany which both have less than 2 major airlines.

Booking

I booked a last minute deal that had me stopping over in Seattle, but prices in general are around $3,000 for a one way flight. Both China Airlines and Eva Air both flight to Vancouver, and China Airlines is consistently more expensive. My Taiwanese friend says that China Airlines is better, though she’s only flown economy class.

Flight: BR 26

Departing: Taipei (TPE)

Arriving: Seattle (SEA)

Operated by: Boeing 787-10

Cabin: Business Class (Royal Laurel Class)

Check In and Lounges

I checked in at Taipei Airport at around 8PM, and it was relatively empty. I immediately headed towards the lounges, and was a bit confused. It turns out that Eva Air uses The Garden for it’s most elite customers, while the Infinity and the Star are for it’s regular business class passengers. The latter two are connected to each other, so I’m not sure what the purpose of artificially delineating between the two are.

Both lounges are very similar, and have similar food offerings. This one is the Star Lounge, creatively named to house Star Alliance elites - I found this one less crowded.

The food was…tasted like cafeteria food, not going to lie. There was a lot of traditional Asian food, such as salted egg, noodle soup, shumai, chashao, chinese cabbage. And also a salad bar and Haagen Dazs icecream stand. That’s one way to blend East and West for sure.

There was also a self serve bar, and a cooler filled with soft drinks. My favorite was this “water” soft drink, which tasted like slightly sweet yogurt and definitely had calories.

There were also showers, which had strong water pressure; however, they were of a bit of an older design, and were not as good as the ones in Cathy Pacific’s lounges.

The Infinity side was slightly nicer, yet also substantially busier. I would probably pick the Star side, unless you were interested in one food item in particular.

The humble hot dog. It was a Chinese style sausage, but with all the classic American trimmings - 3/10, tasted horrible as you can imagine.

Having learned my lesson from last time, I made my way to the gate early this time, and had a look at duty free. For a country whose GDP per capita is around $30,000, there was a surprising number of high end alcohols being sold there, with some retailing $1,500+.

Boarding was done in a quick and efficient manner, outside of one family that held up the entire plane. Not cool.

Cabin and Seat

Eva Air’s 787-10 has 34 Royal Laurel Business class seats, and 308 Economy class seat: for flights to Seattle, this is the newer, nicer version of the 1-2-1 product.

At first glance, the seat was quite wide, and even though it didn’t have a door, felt like a miniature pod.

The seat reminded me of Swiss Airline’s business class seat but with a completely different finish. Starting from the left, there was a cubby with the classic headphones and water. Eva balls it out, and uses Evian Water, though it tasted just like water.

The full seat had it’s seat controls cleverly placed at the edge of the seat, along with a charging port and headphone jack.

Next up was the literature pocket and wide screen TV. Given this was a nighttime flight, the TV remained unused, though I have been told that Eva Air has a relatively weak selection of entertainment.

The TV itself was 18 inches, and while claiming to be High Definition, felt a little bit on the Standard Definition side.

There was a lot of legroom, and I slept comfortably, although that may have been due to my pajamas.

I also again appreciate how rich some Taiwanese are: there was a Patek ad on the In Flight Entertainment, and note that Pateks typically retail for $25K+.

Flight attendants proactively helped convert seats into beds, complete with mattress pads and proper blankets.

The bathroom on this flight was well stocked with toothbrushes, mouthwash and Acqua di Gio soap and lotion.

Food and Drink

My friends and associates have noted that the food onboard Eva is one of their weak points, and I have to agree. The meal started with a hot towel and a glass of Duval-Leroy Clos des Bouveries, which I found a bit dry.

I perused the paper menu, and chose the Asian dishes. My palate is not up to scratch, but I was a tad confused by some of the dishes.

It started out with a Egg Crepe Roll with Smoked Duck and Cream Cheese with Mushroom. Not sure of what I made of this, tasted a bit funny.

Next up was the Hor D'oeuvres - not a fan, the flavor profiles didn’t seem to work together.

Then came out a selection of bread and I close the tasty garlic bread.

Finally there was the Deep Fried Chilean Sea Bass, which was fantastic: the fish was perfectly seasoned and unbelievably soft. The rest of the dish was also a step up from the cafeteria level food in the lounge.

Amenities

Watch out Qsuites, there are the best PJ’s and somewhat the best amenities kits I have ever gotten on a plane. The PJ’s are by celebrated Canadian / Taiwanese fashion designer Jason Wu, and beyond looking extremely stylish they also retained their softness after a wash

The flight attendants came before dinner to pass them around, and there is actually another set that’s red and black. Also, note that Medium is the smallest size they have, but they corresponded to other airline’s smallest size.

At the seat was slippers, also by Jason Wu, which had good padding but were not amazing.

Finally, there was the Armani amenity kit, which looked better on the outside than the inside.

There was a hilariously oversized but soft eye mask, body lotion, hydrating mist, lip balm, earplugs, toothbrush and comb. There is a slightly flimsy card holder with the logo, and I am not sure quite what it’s for.

The final amenity, should you chose to ask for it, is a bunch of cute model planes.

Outside of the slight delay earlier, the rest of the journey was uneventful, and we touched down in Seattle a tad before 6:00PM local time.

The Service

Excellent. This is in stark contrast to my Cathy Pacific flight. The crew was professional, poised, and funnily enough consisted of 5 young Asian ladies who looked and dressed really similar. The purser was kind enough to give me an extra set of PJ’s and amenity kits, while the other flight attendants kept randomly giving me water after seeing how much I was consuming. All flight attendants were fluent in English and Mandarin: I was sandwiched between two non-Asian passengers, and so it was impressive watching them effortless switch between the the two languages. Similar to the Ritz Carlton, proactive but not subservient.

The Point

Eva Air is full of contradictions. It’s service, amenities and hard product in the sky was a standout, yet it’s lounge and food offerings were a bit puzzling. On the bright side, the latter two can easily be fixed. I enjoyed this flight, and unlike the other two flights on my journey it truly felt like an adventure. Even if this “worst” of the major Taiwanese airlines, it’s probably on my top 3 business classes I have flown so far. Looking forwards to going back to Taiwan, and hopefully trying out a few others!