I’ve flown EVA Airways on several occasions, mainly to experience the Hello Kitty Jet. This time I treated myself to an upgraded experience on EVA and booked a business class trip.
The EVA Air lounge in Bangkok Airport is my favourite Star Alliance lounge there, food in the lounge is prepared by Thai Airways catering, there are lots of choices, and the times I’ve visited it’s always been quiet.
ON THE GROUND
My flight from Bangkok to Taipei was scheduled for just over 3 hours, with a departure time of 2 am. Since it was a night-time departure, I was expecting a supper service. However, I was pleasantly surprised by all the service elements onboard. As soon as I was at my seat, a crew member noticed my jacket and offered to hang it.
Several minutes later, Jamie, the crew member working my section of the cabin, offered me a choice of Juice, Water or Sparkling Wine. Along with the drink, a hot towel was provided, which was already pre-plated on a dish.
Just a few moments later, I was given the inflight menu, and the crew advised that they would take my meal and drink order on the ground (which they did several minutes later).
INFLIGHT
About 10 minutes after takeoff the purser came to introduce herself and thank me for flying with EVA Air. We made some small talk about the short hop to Taipei, and she asked about my trip, then Jamie dressed my tray table with a linen cloth and delivered my drinks, along with some nuts and water.
Here’s a look at the inflight menu, the offering included one entree, a choice of beef, chicken or fish for the main, plus dessert options.
And here’s the wine and drinks list.
My entree followed soon after the drinks were delivered, and moments later, a crew member appeared with a bread basket and offered an assortment of bakery items, and I selected some garlic bread.
The entree presented well, and the slice of lemon added some zestiness to the dish, the salt and pepper shakers were quirky.
For my main, I had selected the stir-fried beef with XO sauce, while I enjoyed the rice and vegetables, the beef and XO sauce didn’t appeal to me at all.
Dessert was fabulous, the presentation was stunning, and the flower of mango with sticky rice looked too good to eat.
There were no service carts in the cabin, everything was delivered by hand, and I felt as though I was dining in a restaurant, not an aircraft.
About 50 mins after taking off, I’d finished my meal, and the crew collected my meal tray, service throughout this flight was excellent, and the crew were engaging, friendly and pleasant to deal with.
TAIPEI LOUNGE
Upon arrival in Taipei, I had time to check out the airlines’ lounge in their homeport, it was quite busy, so I had a quick shower and went to take photos of the food offering.
I found the breakfast offering here to be slightly sub-par, the food didn’t present well and reminded me of a school cafeteria rather than an airline lounge.
My flight from Taipei to Jakarta departed at 9 am with a flight time of just under 5 hours. Service on the ground included a hot towel offering and this time the addition of freshly pressed juice was offered as part of the welcome drink. I was given my inflight menus, and my meal order was once again taken on the ground.
After takeoff, I advised the crew that I would sleep and that I wanted to eat closer to landing. The crew member suggested keeping my meal choice aside for me. I appreciated her offering to do this. I fell asleep for a few hours, and when I woke, the crew prepared my meal for me.
Here’s a look at the inflight menu for this flight.
My tray table was set up once again, and my entree soon followed, the salmon entree was an excellent start to the meal.
The star of the show, however, was the honey chicken which was delicious and authentic. Dessert followed soon after, the mousse vanilla cake was a little bland for my liking, but I still ate it.
The service on this flight was just as fantastic as the previous sector; the crew on this flight used my name in every interaction we had. Overall I had a fantastic experience with EVA, and they are certainly up there with some of the best business class airlines in the world. I’ve enjoyed flying them in economy and premium economy, and their business class experience is exceptional.