TRIP REPORT: To Taipei with Asia's brightest Star (EVA Air 777-300ER Economy Class)

Singapore to Taipei and back with EVA Air, Star Alliance’s newest Asian member airline

BACKGROUND

This trip report will cover my recent flight over the holiday season with EVA Air. EVA Air is a privately-owned, full-service airline based in Taipei-Taoyuan, with primary focus on airports around that region like Kaoshiung and Bangkok-Survanabhumi. Since its founding in 1989 as an affiliate of shipping conglomerate Evergreen International, EVA Air has been operating flights to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region like Singapore-Changi, Seoul-Incheon and Los Angeles. Its management has worked hard over the last 25 years, with results evident in the airline joining Star Alliance as a full-member in June 2013.

I was excited when I found out back in September 2014 that my family would be traveling to Taiwan (Taipei in particular) for our annual vacation. With Papa attaining Star Alliance Gold status that same period, the choice of airlines was shortlisted to just three; namely Singapore Airlines, EVA Air, and even Scoot.

PLANNING

Planning for this trip proved to be less challenging then my flight to the United States in 2013. It was pretty much a case of balancing price and quality of service rendered. Singapore Airlines, familiar as it may be to us, was far too expensive and way over our budget.

Scoot offered us competitive prices (compared to second-tier airlines plying the same route like China Airlines), but their outrageous departure time meant that it was struck off the list pretty quickly. Also, my family was not too keen on red-eye flights, as there would be a possibility that we would be functioning like zombies when we arrive. Big no no.

Thus, it was decided unanimously among the four of us that EVA Air shall do the honours for our trip.

BOOKING

Booking was completed on EVA Air’s global website. Much alike Singapore Airlines’ online booking system, EVA Air’s was often glitchy and I had to refresh the main site a couple of times in order to confirm my booking as it was stuck at the processing page. 

Choosing the flight was another simple affair, as the airline only operates a single flight to Singapore daily, BR 225 is scheduled to arrive a little past noon, while the outbound BR 226 departs over an hour later at 1310 local time. Papa’s status with Singapore Airlines was honoured as EVA Air was a fellow Star Alliance member and with that, we were all set for departure day three months later.

AIRLINE INFO

Here’s some information about the airline I would be flying with;

Name: EVA Air

IATA Code: BR

ICAO Code: EVA

Main Base: Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE/RCTP)

Number of aircraft in fleet: 63 (+20 on order)

Main aircraft types: Airbus A321, Airbus A330, Boeing 747, Boeing 777, McDonnell Douglas MD90

Average age of fleet: 10.6 y/o

Destinations: 55

Alliance: Star Alliance (joined June 2013)

DEPARTURE DAY

My day started at 0730, which is awfully early for ordinary travellers but a little too late for me. I had targeted to leave my apartment in central Singapore by 0800, but oh wells. A nice shower, followed by some last-minute preparations, and I was out of the house at 0830. 

After a relatively quick commute on public transportation, I arrived at Singapore Changi Airport at 0915 and proceeded straight to Terminal 1’s airside viewing gallery spending a good hour or so there. Papa and Mama had church that Sunday so I was unable to process my boarding pass even though I was really early.

Nothing much really happened at the central apron once again, other than seeing a TAM 777 being towed from SASCO to the Cargo Terminal and one of CX’s A340s pushing back for its flight to Hong Kong.

CHECK-IN

Papa and Mama arrived a little later at 1035. With our Star Alliance Gold card privileges, we were able to process our baggage and print our boarding passes at the dedicated check-in desk and skip the long, snaking queues for regular Economy Class and Premium Economy Class passengers.

* Premium Economy Class is branded as ‘Elite Class’, while Business Class on EVA’s longhaul 777s are branded as ‘Royal Laurel Class’. Very Taiwanese if you ask me.

My selected seat and meal order was confirmed at the check-in desk. I had selected 47A a few days prior while completing online check-in, and ordered a seafood meal (SFML) for myself and a child meal (CHML) for my brother. The rest of my family were seated behind me at 48A, B and C.

Tired of the landside amenities at Terminal 1, I met up with my family and we proceeded to clear immigration at the centralised facility for passengers departing. We parted ways again once the formalities at the biometric gates were completed.

LOUNGE

Using Papa’s Star Alliance Gold status, I was eligible to enter to Thai Airways’ Royal Silk Lounge. The Thai Airways lounge was located close to gate C11 and shouldn’t be hard to locate if you follow the signage. Upon clearing immigration, simply proceed to the left and head up the first escalator. Make another left and you’ll see the Royal Silk Lounge.

The rest of my family had their breakfast at a common lounge operated by SATS, one of the two main local ground handlers. As the SATS Premier Lounge was under renovation, all passengers with proper entitlements were directed to the ‘Rainforest by SATS’ lounge, which was somewhere close to Terminal 3.

My boarding pass was required for processing once again, which was thankfully completed in less than 10 seconds. My first impression of the lounge was that it was basic, but sufficient. As the lounge mainly caters to Thai Airways passengers, it was understandable that there wasn’t much variety in the food and beverage options.

There was a selection of alcohol and soft drinks, together with simple pastries and sandwiches. Nothing like the elaborate buffet service available at the SQ SilverKris lounges but oh wells.

A boarding call was made for the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok at 1200, 25 minutes before TG 404’s scheduled departure. However, no boarding calls were made for EVA Air’s flight to Taipei. I left the lounge at 1240 after a visit to the washroom and proceeded to meet my family again at our boarding gate.

AIRSIDE

Terminal 1’s airside was fairly quiet at that time of the day, as its busy periods were in the late-afternoon and late-evenings (when most European flights will depart and arrive).

It was a short walk from the Thai Airways lounge to the gate.

FLIGHT DETAILS

Flight route: Singapore Changi Airport (SIN/WSSS) to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE/RCTP)

Flight: BR 226

Aircraft type: Boeing 777-35E(ER)

Aircraft registration: B-16711

Gate at origin: C20

Gate at destination: C8

Cabin: Economy

Seat: 47A

Cabin Load Factor: 96%

Scheduled flight duration: 4:30

Actual flight duration: 4:28

Changi Airport uses the decentralised security system and it was a fairly normal security check (shoes on, laptops and iPads off). Boarding was announced at 1250, 20 minutes before departure with Business Class, Star Alliance Gold and passengers requiring assistance invited to board first.

I was unable to grab a photo of our aircraft with my device, but here’s a couple from airliners.net. Credits goes to their respective owners.

 

FLIGHT PROPER

DEPARTURE

I was greeted at door 2L by two of the flight attendants in their classy pine green dresses and cropped jackets.

(With a wide smile and a strong Taiwanese accent) “Welcome aboard Mr Lim (of course referring to Papa) and your family. It’s good to have you with us. Your seats are right down the aisle. This way please.”

Much like Business Class service, we were led down the aisle past the mini business and premium economy cabins. She introduced herself to Papa as one of the senior flight attendants on our flight today and thanked him for choosing to fly with EVA Air before hurriedly returning to the door to welcome more passengers.

As we were one of the first passengers on board, I was able to grab a few photos of my cabin and seat without awkward stares from other passengers.

The older version of YCL on EVA Air’s 77W boosted a generous 33” seat pitch.

The seat pocket was stocked three magazines (two shopping catalogues, and one in-flight magazine), with the standard safety information card.

Their PTVs were touchscreen enabled but were not that ‘High-Definition’ as I expected ‘High-Definition’ to be.

The cabin started to fill up gradually and within 15 minutes, my seatmates (two middle aged ladies returning home to Taipei) in 47B and 47C arrived.

Soon after, our technical crew came on the microphone and introduced himself as Captain Xu, the pilot-in-command for today’s flight to Taipei. He gave a brief one minute profile of today’s flight in Mandarin, including; our estimated take-off time, the weather over Singapore, en route and over Taipei, which runway we will be taking off from and details on our initial and scheduled cruising altitude. The same announcement was repeated by him twice in English and Hokkien.

*Hokkien is a Chinese dialect spoken by over 80% of Taiwanese

I switched from the camera on my mobile phone and texted a couple of my close friends’ goodbye and how I longed to return to Singapore for our pre-Christmas meet up. I recounted one of them telling me to strike a conversation with the ladies next to me. For some reason, I was asked to learn how to make soup from my seat mates. Hmm hmm.

We pushed back to face South promptly at 1310 local time. As you might see in the photos, we taxied on the East Perimeter taxiway before heading to the other side of the airport via one of the South Cross’ taxiways (you know, the bridge you see when driving on Airport Boulevard). The safety video was played as we taxied but heh, I was too engrossed spotting other aircraft that I completely disregarded it.

The video is uploaded online, I personally found the characters quite amusing and the content interesting. Much better than the professional, monotonous video that Singapore Airlines plays. Here’s the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu9btTrqwVA

Here are some shots of other aircraft as we taxied from our gate to the active runway.

After a good 15 minutes taxiing and waiting in the queue, our aircraft lined up on the runway (R/W 02C) and began her take-off roll. Thinking back, I really missed the hum and gradual spool of the mighty GE90-115B engines as it propelled us with over 100,000 lb of force from each side into the air. As it was a fairly short trip for this long range aircraft, we were airborne within 30 seconds.

We reached our initial cruising altitude of FL170 after 20 minutes and the seatbelt signs were extinguished. One of the cabin crew appeared at my seat, once again confirming that I’ve ordered a seafood meal for today’s sector and taking my order for my preferred beverage. I ordered an apple juice and thanked her for the confirmation in Mandarin, before fixing my eyes to the windows once again.

I then looked through the entertainment system (branded as ‘Star Gallery’) and was pleasantly surprised to see some of my favourite TV shows and movies uploaded in their AVOD choices. Feeling a little tired, I pulled down the window shades and settled for ‘The Maze Runner’.

MEAL SERVICE

We levelled off at 37000 feet and the cabin crew began pushing the meal carts from the aft galley to the front of our Economy Class cabin. As my meal was a special meal, it was brought to my seat personally by the same senior flight attendant and handed to me by hand. This drew curious gawks from a couple of passengers on the row, as I believed they were questioning in their head how this teenager got his meal before everyone else.

My seafood meal consisted of a shrimp and pasta salad for the appetizers, dory fillets in tomato sauce with potatoes, broccoli and carrots for the entrée, some fruits, a blueberry cheesecake, a bun and my pre-selected beverage of apple juice.

Although I felt that the meal was a little too small quantity-wise (as compared to Singapore Airlines’), its quality superseded my expectations of the Taiwanese carrier. The shrimp and dory were fresh and well-seasoned. Though I was not a fan of anything tomato-based, I really liked how well the sauce paired with the dory fillets. My favourite was the cheesecake, as the creaminess wasn’t overpowering and was a near-perfect dessert after a sumptuous lunch with EVA.

Our trays were collected after a while, before the crew came around offering water, coffee or tea. The service was concluded in 45 minutes.

CRUISE

I decided to leave my seat and take a walk around the two Economy Class cabins. It was a near-full load in Economy Class that day.

I looked through EVA’s ‘Star Gallery’ and settled for an episode of Top Gear, in which the Bugatti Veyron was crowned the car of the decade.

The cabin lights were dimmed for passengers to rest, and hence came two hours of horrible photography (the camera on Samsung devices are really bad in low-light conditions, thank God I’m back to iOS as I write this).

Nothing much really happened for the rest of the flight.

PRE-DESCENT

Around an hour before our scheduled arrival in Taipei, Captain Xu came on the microphone once again and gave us some information on the weather in Taipei and thanked the passengers for flying with EVA Air. And yes, he did repeat his announcement in English and Hokkien.

Soon after, the cabin crew came around distributing a packet of snacks. The packaging and contents bore a strange resemblance to Singapore Airlines’ post-departure snack.

ARRIVAL

I switched to the air map for the remainder of the flight.

The flight was soon coming to an end. I was reminded of God’s everlasting splendour as I was treated to another high-altitude sunset at FL370. I had arranged a playlist with EVA’s Sky Concert Hall and heh, ‘All of the Stars’ was playing as I was taking these shots.

Our aircraft got lower and lower, and we broke the cloud base at 15,000 feet over Hsinchu, before lining up for the ILS 05L approach. The cabin was brightened and the crew cabin around ensuring that passengers had complied with the pre-arrival instructions (seat belt fastened, seat upright, tray table and cabin baggage secured). I was unable to snap any photos of our approach as sigh, it’s a Samsung.

We touched down punctually 1732 local time and taxied across another bridge from 5L to Terminal 2, which was on the other side of the airport.

Along the way, we passed by where the old 5R used to be (current adjacent taxiway to 5L), which was the same strip of tarmac where Singapore Airlines flight 006 collided with construction vehicles one stormy night in Oct 2000. 83 passengers and crew lost their lives that day, and we will always have them in our hearts ;)

We arrived at our gate one minute before the scheduled arrival time at 1739. On the way out the senior flight attendant thanked my family once again for choosing to fly with EVA, and we thanked them in return for being wonderful hosts.

With that the flight came to an end.

CONCLUSION

I really enjoyed myself with EVA that day, as the cabin crew and on ground service were excellent. However, I feel that the refurbishment of their cabins have to come sooner for the older 77W. I was able to keep my device powered up for the 5 hours with them, but would probably struggle if this was a long haul, 10 hour flight across the Pacific. I am sure that the sooner the cabin upgrades come, the easier EVA would be able to retain their customers from other members in Star Alliance.

Would I choose to fly with EVA again in the near future? Why not. With more competitive airfares than Singapore Airlines and fantastic service on board, EVA would definitely be one of the top choices for future holidays in the region.

Thank you for reading this trip report, and as always, your feedback is appreciated :)

Next flight: Singapore to Bangkok on an A340-600 in Economy Class. Stay tuned!