Little known in the UK but a great airline (EVA Air)

Member Name: ski_snow_lover

Product:	EVA Air
Date:	30/07/05 (3054 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great service, on-time, excellent value for business class

Disadvantages: Entertainment system not the best

I went on Eva Air on the LHR-BKK route in May 2005. It was our honeymoon and I was initially a little nervous about travelling on an unknown airline. I trusted the choice by Trailfinders first and business class department. They had a special deal for a flight/hotel package for about 2 grand a person (12 nights in Thailand). After reading a few random reviews online that were mostly good, my initial worries were laid to rest.

Our wedding day came so quickly and unsurprisingly it was a stressful runup. We were so relieved and happy to be on our honeymoon. The checkin at Heathrow was confusing because there was some building work directly next to the Eva counters, we couldn't find the business class counter but there was no queue for the Evergreen class (equivalent to premium economy) so we used that one instead. We spent most of the time after checkin browsing duty free. The business lounge was a shared one with multiple airlines, it was busy but not too much so- we could have easily stayed there for a while. There are games, refreshments, interesting books, magazines, PCs etc.

The departure lounge was quite crowded and typically didn't have enough seats for everyone. There was a slight delay for takeoff, but we more than made up for it and arrived over an hour ahead of schedule.

Now for the flight-
Seats: Older style (not fully reclining) but very comfortable with leg rests and personal screens
Food and drink: Selection of oriental teas was excellent. Wide selection of wines- better than Virgin upper class IMHO. We were fed 2 meals and both were excellent. Both meals are split between Eastern and Western dishes. If you have a disposition to try oriental food, they have alright congee (rice porridge), for those wanting to stick to western food this is also good.

Entertainment system: Movies are on a loop across about 8 channels with 2 movies looping on each. The quality is not great, a couple of the channels were unwatchable due to the are lines on the screen. I guess that they running on analogue tape system which wears out after repeated usage. Noise-cancelling headphones are excellent (similar to Virgin upper class). I think that they are running an upgrade programme for their cabins in business so these problems would be ironed out in the near future.

Service: You will feel pampered- the attendants are extremely attentive to your needs.
The air attendants wear quaint aprons that you can even buy to take home!

Summary: Great value, excellent service, would fly again