EWR - SIN & HKG - EWR on EVA Premium Laurel
Written: Jun 15 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Premium laurel is a good product, Good AVOD, Good in-flight service overall
Cons: Angled lie-flat seats are not truly flat.
The Bottom Line: Good Asian airline and they seem to be trying 'harder'. I found their service efficient and unfussy.
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| bharat_rao's Full Review: EVA Air |
Business took me to Singapore twice in the recent past. The cheapest business class my travel desk could find was on EVA Air – an airline I had never heard of at that point. I was pushing them to book on Virgin Atlantic, but that was supposedly above the travel limit. I immediately checked out their website and reviews and was somewhat mollified to see mostly good reviews. While their website is not great from a user friendliness standpoint, it is adequate.
On the ground
So I showed up in Newark on a pleasant May evening for my flight to Singapore via Taipei. The departure was at 23.15. Check in was quick and smooth at the “Premium Laurel” (a rather odd name for business class) counter. EVA uses the BA Terraces lounge in Newark and it looked like all BA flights had left when I showed up there – there were only EVA passengers. The well stocked bar was open and there was an assortment of snack packets / crackers with Mandarin labels. I guess BA doesn’t allow other airlines the use of the entire lounge area, so the area we were in did get quite full.
In the air
EVA uses a B777 ER for the flight to Taipei. For some reason, the EWR – TPE flight has a stop at Anchorage while the return flight is non-stop. That, to me, seems like a technical rather than a commercial halt – perhaps something to do with jet stream, which requires the stop while flying to Asia but not on the return? Boarding was smooth. The airhostesses in smart dark green pinstripes were gracious and the cabin was cheerful. Premium laurel had two cabins of 18 each in 2-2-2 seating configuration. The seat pitch and width were definitely quite generous. Premium laurel seemed to have about 75% occupancy and the seat next to me was vacant. I was really comfortable.
We pushed back a few minutes before time and took off reasonably quickly – by Newark standards at least. The flying time to Anchorage was a little under 7 hours. Being a vegetarian and not knowing what to expect on a Taiwanese carrier, I had asked for an Indian vegetarian meal. Menu cards were handed for the regular dinner service. Dinner service was quick and efficient and the Indian meal was excellent. The airhostesses were clearly more comfortable in Mandarin (or was it Cantonese? I don’t know) but had adequate English language skills. Hot and cold towels came and went at appropriate intervals.
We touched down in Alaska around 2 am local time. We were asked to disembark and reboard 30 minutes later. EVA hasn’t arranged a lounge in Alaska for this purpose – something they should work on because we were out for nearly an hour. A new crew came on board. My copy of the Economist – which I had left in the seat back pocket – had found its way into the general magazines rack at the back of our cabin. No doubt the overzealous cleaning staff had failed to spot the difference between the airline copy and my personal copy – in spite of my name and address on the front! Minor irritations aside, I wasn’t complaining. I had anyway planned to stay awake until our Alaska departure so I could try getting into the Singapore time zone – while also chewing “No Jet Lag” tablets every 2 hours. I was quite terrified of the 12-hour time difference and the havoc it could potentially wreak on me. The EVA business class seat converts to flat bed but not a horizontal one – if you know what I mean. So I was sleeping flat but at an angle, so technically I could slide if I didn’t use the footrest correctly. I slept well on the Anchorage- Taipei leg. The starlit cabin lighting that EVA uses is a nice touch. We touched down a little before time in Taipei and the comfortable flight and No Jet lag tablets seemed to have had at least some salutary effect – My body clock seemed to be in sync with the time zone.
In Taipei
At Taipei, I went over to the Evergreen lounge after a security check. It is a fairly well appointed lounge with a business centre, game room and plentiful seating. There was a breakfast bar that had a reasonably good spread with an espresso machine and a selection of soft drinks. There is also a business centre and a game room. The 2-hour wait for the flight to Singapore passed before I realized it.
Taipei - Singapore
The flight to Singapore was on an A330 and was quite uneventful. Understandably, the seat width and pitch were less than in the 777. An authentic Indian breakfast was served to me and we were in Singapore bang on time. My bag showed up quickly and I was all set.
Return Flight to Newark – Hong Kong airport
Business also took me to Hong Kong, so I returned via HKG instead of SIN. On an extremely rainy day, I took a cab from my hotel in Central to the Airport Express stop. Roads were waterlogged and my cab driver – who only appeared to speak Cantonese – used non verbal communication to signal that he was taking a roundabout route as the normal route was waterlogged. The signs were pretty poor for anything resembling an on-time departure. I checked in at the single EVA counter at the Airport Express station. The lady at the counter started saying something about my bag being overweight, but then quickly apologetically smiled and said “oh beezness class, sorry sir” and handed out the boarding pass and lounge invitation. 30 minutes and a comfortable train ride later, I was in terminal 1 of HKIA. It was still raining cats and dogs and there were “Black rainstorm” (whatever that is) warnings displayed on various displays in the airport. I could hear a spate of gate change announcements which indicated that schedules were being impacted. Immigration and sec-check were quick and I made way to gate 60 as advised. EVA uses the Virgin Atlantic lounge at HKIA – which was almost empty when I got there. Loud colors and funky furniture – trademark VS – livened up the lounge. Sandwiches, coffee and red wine kept me well fed while, as expected, flights were delayed.
Flight to Taipei and Newark
EVA uses big aircraft for the 1.5 hr service to Taipei from Hong Kong – ours was an Airbus 330 while the previous flight was a 747. We took off behind a China Airlines 747 which, I think, was also bound for Taipei. The flight was uneventful. I had a 4 hour wait for the Newark flight which I spent quite comfortably in the Evergreen lounge. The 777 to Newark pushed back bang on time. The premium laurel cabin was almost full. There was a drinks service within about 45 minutes of take off and the dinner service commenced after that. I had figured out that the only way to sleep well on the angled lie-flat seats is to sleep on the side. That got me several hours of uninterrupted sleep while the AVOD kept me busy for the rest. Another dinner service got underway about 3 hours before arrival. I like the fact that EVA restricts itself to 2 meal services on the 15 hour flight rather than trying to squeeze in a third. We arrived about 7 minutes early on a rainy evening in Newark. Immigration was terribly slow and took almost 1.5 hours– a shame really. There was no attempt to open up additional counters even though 3 flights – LOT, KLM an EVA – seemed to have been bunched together.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bharat_rao
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Reviews written: 11
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