Lots of room for improvment
Written: Jan 20 '05 (Updated May 22 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It got me there and back
Cons: 'its controlled by Taipei', passenger check-in system
The Bottom Line: Unless EVA airways changes it 'its controlled by Taipei' policy and overhauls its entire passenger check-in system, I will never fly EVA again.
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| ykang's Full Review: EVA Air |
This review is with regards to a round trip from Singapore to Vancouver with a transit in Taipei in both directions. Economy Class (Non-Deluxe)
Starting off with background information, my Singapore-Taipei flight was scheduled to depart at 1:10 PM and my Taipei-Vancouver was scheduled to depart at 11:55 Pm the same day. Anyhow, I checked-in at Singapore airport at about 11:30 AM, a good 12 hours before my Taipei-Vancouver flight.
CHECK-IN
After waiting inline for less then five minutes, I handed over my passport and air-ticket to the ticketing agent and requested for an aisle seat. She then said she will try and get an aisle seat for me. After checking her computer, she advised me that she could only get me an aisle seat for the Singapore-Taipei flight and was only able to get me a middle seat for the Taipei-Vancouver. FYI, at this point in time, the departure time for the Taipei-Vancouver flight was about 12 hours away. I then said to the ticketing agent 'So fast?', she then replied something to the effect that 'its controlled by Taipei', and told me that upon my arrival in Taipei, to approach the EVA Airways transfer desk to request for a seat change to an aisle seat.
For this particular flight (at least), EVA Airways has subcontracted out their check-in ticketing agents to Singapore Air Terminal Services Limited, a company that provides air transport services to airlines. Hence, I shall not comment on the conduct of the ticketing agent.
BOARDING (SINGAPORE-TAIPEI)
After an announcement was made, all the passengers, including me, boarded the plane. No drama there.
DURING THE FLIGHT (SINGAPORE-TAIPEI)
About an hour into the flight, there was a meal service and we had a choice of a chicken dish with rice or seafood noodles. I chose the seafood noodles. It was quite delicious. The noodles they used were actually the Japanese udon type and the dish came with shrimps, a few other types of seafood and generous amount of gravy. In terms of inflight entertainment, they had a TV mounted on the ceiling along the aisle every 5 rows.
ARRIVING IN TAIPEI
After arriving in Taipei at about 6:00 PM, I approached the EVA Airways transfer desk and showed my Taipei-Vancouver boarding pass and asked the EVA airways transfer desk agent I wanted to change to an aisle seat. She glanced at my boarding pass, without checking her computer or consulting her colleagues she said the flight was really full and was unable to change my seat allocation to an aisle seat. FYI, at this point in time, the Taipei-Vancouver flight was about 6 hrs away.
BOARDING (TAIPEI-VANCOUVER)
After loitering around CKS airport for 5 hrs, it was finally time for us to board the plane. I noticed from the airport boarding lounge, the majority of the passengers were Taiwanese students going back to school in Vancouver.
DURING THE FLIGHT (TAIPEI-VANCOUVER)
About an hour into the flight, I tried the headset given to each passenger but notice that one side of the headset was not working. I then pressed the 'Call' button. After waiting many minutes, nobody came. However, a meal service started and we had a choice of a chicken dish or a pork dish. I chose the pork dish, it was OK. Nothing to shout about. I also took this opportunity to tell the flight attendant that my headset was not working. She then took my headset and had it tested on my neighbour’s audio socket and said it was working fine. I then told the flight attendant (in both English and Chinese) one side of the headset was not working but she still insisted that it was working fine. As I could see she was getting quite stressed, I just said 'Thank You' and took back my still faulty headset.
Also, while one of the inflight movie was being screened, the movie suddenly stopped. One of the passengers alerted the flight attendant who made a call to (I guess) the person responsible for the aircraft inflight movie system. After a few minutes, the movie started again, but it was the wrong movie! The same passenger then alerted the flight attendant and it was not until about another 2 attempts did they manage to restart the correct movie being screened.
During the flight, after sleeping for a few hours, my leg starting to get cramps due to the fact there was not a whole lot of leg room between my seat and the seat in front of me. I am only about 5 feet tall! I can't imagine what it would be like for someone taller! The cramps got so bad, I had to bother the person seating the next to so me to get up so that I could get some blood circulation going. I then decided to stay out of my seat for a few hours to ease the cramps.
During this time, I also noticed that there were no flight attendants around. For all other airlines I have been on, the flight attendants would pace the cabin crew, even when the passengers are asleep, to see if anyone needed anything. This was not done on EVA. However, there was only one occasion when a flight attendant, seem to suddenly appeared with a tray of fruit juices for the passengers. But just as sudden as she appeared, she also disappeared rather quickly. Thereafter, I did not see any flight attendants in the cabin until it was time for us to land in Vancouver.
CHECK-IN (VANCOUVER-TAIPEI)
There was not much of a queue when I checked in at Vancouver International Airport. After handing over my passport and air-ticket, I requested for an aisle seat. Initially, the EVA check-in ticketing agent said there wasn’t any available but she turned to a colleague to check with another colleague if he had any aisle seats available. Thankfully, I was able to get an aisle seat for the Vancouver-Taipei flight. However, unlike the time I checked-in at Singapore, I was not given a boarding pass for the Taipei-Singapore flight. When I asked the check-in ticketing agent about this, she said something about not being able to see the flight on her computer system. I assumed I was given the ‘its controlled by Taipei’ reason again. She then advised me to approach the EVA airways transfer desk, upon my arrival in Taipei, for my Taipei-Singapore boarding pass.
BOARDING (VANCOUVER-TAIPEI)
I was one of the last few passengers to board the plane so besides that, there was not much drama.
DURING THE FLIGHT (VANCOUVER-TAIPEI)
A few hours into the flight, there was a meal service where we had a choice of a chicken or pork dish. As I was having a sore throat, I chose the pork dish. It turned out to be steamed potatoes, carrot and string beans with boiled bite sized pieces of pork. I found the pork quite tasteless and bland and only had a few mouthfuls.
This flight was the same as the Taipei-Vancouver flight in terms of an absence of flight attendants when the passengers were sleeping. Maybe its company policy for the flight attendants to sleep at the same time as the passengers!
Just before we landed, breakfast was served. We had a choice of fish porridge or western omlette. I choose the fish porridge. It came with a side serving of chicken floss, which were suppose to add to the porridge to make it more delectable. But this attempt was futile and I can safely say I could easily have cooked better tasting porridge!
TRANSFER (TAIPEI-SINGAPORE)
Upon arrival in Taipei, I approached the EVA airways transfer desk and asked for my boarding pass. I also showed my air-ticket at the same time. The EVA airways transfer desk agent then retrieved my boarding pass which was already printed beforehand. Hence, I guess this is why she did not ask if I wanted an aisle or window seat.
BOARDING (TAIPEI – SINGAPORE)
We all boarded the plane in good time. No drama.
DURING THE FLIGHT (TAIPEI – SINGAPORE)
This flight was about 20% empty and (lucky me!) was given a seat closest to the emergency exit so I had tons of legroom. About 2 hours into the flight, there was a meal service, where we had a choice of omlette or fried thin rice noodles. I chose the fried thin rice noodles, which was totally unedible. The fried thin rice noodles has been over fried so much that some parts or it had been burnt. Needless to say, I gave the entire dish a miss. Not long after, the plane landed in Singapore.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
I have flown to Vancouver on other airlines and when passengers enter the airport, right after the aerobridge, there would be an airline employee holding up a sign / whiteboard providing more information to transit passengers with regards to flight connection details. This was not done by EVA airways.
Also, in this age of airline alliances and codesharing, it baffles me that I have to wait 6 hours for my connecting flight.
ON-TIME PERFORMANCE
Even though all the flights departed on time, they all arrived at their respective destinations 10 - 15 minutes behind schedule.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
ykang
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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