Taiwanese hospitality at its best? EVA Air A330 Business Class, Seoul Incheon to Taipei

With a competitive home market consisting of premium carriers, the island of Taiwan isn’t short of good options for air travel. Also home to long time SkyTeam competitor China Airlines and newcomer Starlux, EVA Air (pronounced ee-veh-ay, not ee-vuh) needs to provide a competitive premium service that is amongst the best. Here’s a look at how Taipei’s second premium carrier performs in Business Class on an intra-Asia route.

How I paid for this flight

I used 20,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles to redeem one way for this x hour flight. Outside of EVA and Asiana, both members of Star Alliance, availability on other alliances for direct flights were limited and zero flights were available on Korean or China Airlines. Redemptions on EVA can be made through Star Alliance partners consistently providing availability is available. 

For cash, an average return fare is around $360 in Economy and $750 in Business.

Lounge access

EVA Air use the Asiana Lounge at Seoul-Incheon. There are three identical Asiana lounges for Business spread out in Terminal 2. In short, don’t arrive early for these lounges and don’t bother with the food - which consists of cold spring rolls and instant noodles. 

The seat and amenities

For a short flight, this was a real pleasure to see. On-board an Airbus A330, EVA’s Business Class product is in a 2-2-2 layout with lay flat seating. The usual caveats apply with 2-2-2 seating and the lack of direct aisle access for all passengers. As a solo passenger with the seat next to me and a short(ish) journey, this was not much of a bother.

While not the most flashy cabin, the grey seats with dark green headrests alongside wood-effect panels create a modern looking design which I like. 

More importantly, these seats are comfortable with enough padding and legroom. They are not the widest and on a redeye flight, I suspect many people will not find them the best to sleep on but they serve at most five hour long services.

Sitting in row 1 of this aircraft benefits from added space on the ottoman to place your feet while lying down. I recommend opting for this row for the added space on your booking if you available, even more so on a nighttime service.

While no amenity kits are provided by EVA, amenities of sorts are provided by the airline. On boarding, a plush cushion and large blanket are left on the seats with a quality one would expect from a long haul flight. The airline also provides every guest a pair of slippers for use in the cabin which were surprisingly sturdy and with enough padding to be comfortable.

In the bathrooms, Payot facial mist, moisturiser and hand soap are available for use by passengers which were of a good quality although I would say there are better brand collaborations out there. Packaged wipes, some of which were Payot branded, are provided but they do not beat having a proper hot towel upon boarding. 

Each seat has a sizable in-flight entertainment screen which is about 1.5m away from passengers. The system is far from the most advanced and neither features the most exceptional selection of content, but it is a serviceable option. Frequent flyers may have difficulty finding something new or different to watch aboard an intra-Asia flight on EVA.

Impressive noise cancelling headphones in sturdy cases are provided - and appear to be the same quality as provided on EVA’s long haul flights.

WiFi was available however their options are expensive and feature data caps - rather than paying for length of the flight.

Food and beverages

Where EVA began to shine in their service quality was the three course meal service on this flight. For the starter, we were served a few slices of chicken breast with a solitary prawn, a rice dish and lettuce leaves alongside a tasty piece of garlic bread. While the combination was a little odd to me, the taste was excellent and a light start to the meal. 

On this flight, the crew were pouring Castelnau champagne - I’ll let readers be the judge of that but it was more than sufficient to me.

For mains, I opted for a tender beef marrow dish with slices of tofu, sticky rice and steamed vegetables which was full of flavour. This was a lot better than the food options offered at the lounge in Seoul, which had left me hungry. 

I’ll also note the cool little ceramic salt and pepper pots - more stylish and maybe as cool as Virgin Atlantic’s equivalent in my opinion!

Dessert consisted of a chocolate and pistachio cheesecake concoction. The consistency wasn’t for me as the base was a bit earthy in texture but the flavours were decent. I opted for an espresso to finish the meal which was of a commendable standard for an aircraft.

Service throughout the flight was excellent and very attentive, although the crew were not as conversational as their equivalents on Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific. That being said I cannot fault the service they offered and they were very eager to make sure I was satisfied with the food before being offered yet more.

Conclusion

While Taipei makes for a geographically difficult connecting hub for passengers originating in the UK or Europe, I would highly recommend trying EVA flights to Bangkok, Taipei or connecting from East to South East Asia. They offer a competitive product which on regional flights stands up to their peers with consistent service across their crew members and decent food and beverage options. I cannot fault the flight I had and would be very happy to fly on this aircraft in Business, even with a passenger next to me, once again.