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Flying From San Francisco to Taipei, Taiwan; EVA Airlines Royal Laurel Business Class Review

 

Patrick_y recounts his favorable experience aboard EVA Air's Royal Laurel Business Class from San Francisco to Taipei.  He concludes it's a great marriage of equipment, service, and price performance.  

Please also see other articles in the Taipei, Taiwan series:

Ding Tai Fung Taipei Review

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Famous Taiwan Bread

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It's rare to be impressed in airplanes these days.  The golden age of air travel is GONE.  Axed.  Disappeared.  It's now becoming an age of how to cope and bear the difficulties of air travel.  And as air travel becomes more widespread and necessary, it's just another thing to get done so you can enjoy the pleasure or business at your destination.  

 

So, you’re looking to get to your destination.  Most of my travel is for pleasure (usually to faraway places to meet with other watch collectors), so I’m normally somewhat budget conscious.  You start looking at the routes to see what are the best highly reliable and non-stop routes to get to your destination.  And you normally see prices in the three classes; Coach, Business, and First.  The part that always amazes me is that the cost of Business Class is often 3x Coach (sometimes more if it’s a refundable/upgradeable ticket); and First Class can sometimes be in excess of 5x the price of Coach (I’ve personally seen up to 9x).  Well, many people state Business is sufficiently good.  But what happens if you get First-Class level service for Business Class pricing?  That'd be a bargain.  

 

On the rare occasions when I travel for work where the vendor is nice enough to put me in Business Class; it has usually been a full fare business class, I normally use miles or an upgrade voucher to upgrade to First Class.  And when I travel for pleasure with family, I will often find a seat in First Class or Business Class, availability permitting.  But I'm also happy to be in Coach.  I've flown nearly 15-hour nonstop flights in coach and had an awesome time doing it.  So there you have it; I'm familiar with all levels of service on the plane.  And usually if I’m flying alone on my own dime, I try to fly within a budget (more money for my watch fund).  When I’m flying upon request by a friend, I always fly coach no matter the distance.  And unlike some people, I don’t have a rule that I won’t fly coach on a flight over 5 hours, I have flown coach on non-stop flights in excess of 10 hours dozens of times and my longest flight of nearly 15 hours has been in coach.  I'm happy to fly coach, but I do appreciate flying First or Business Class.  

 

I’ll start with the criteria of how I determine if I enjoy my flight.  Generally after you determine the schedule that you need, airlines are a product of three things; equipment, service, and price.   

Equipment is the hard good; is the plane well maintained?  Are the seats comfortable?  Is the entertainment system quality good? 

Service is the soft good; how is the service?  How is the food and wine selection?  Did the plane leave on time?  How were problems addressed?  (FYI, I may be benevolent in some of my ratings in service as I’ve worked in customer-facing situations and I know customers feel very entitled and can be unreasonable at times and are not always right.)

And lastly, price performance is very important, was it worth it?  Would you fly again? 

 

Well, when it comes to my experience on EVA Air from San Francisco to Taipei (and back), I have to say my expectations were exceeded.  I’m very rarely impressed these days (unless it’s a new watch) and I pride myself on being extremely discerning and able to recognize small flaws that would normally go unnoticed. 

 

EVA Air is a bit different.  It’s really a 2.5 cabin plane instead of the typical First/Business/Coach layout.  Instead, EVA has a Business/Elite Coach/Normal Coach layout.  This review mostly concerns the Business Class that EVA calls “Royal Laurel Service,” which is really a confusing name because the word “Royal” implies it’s a First Class product, but it’s officially a Business Class product.  I have no idea how the marketing team came up with that name.  

 

But the money EVA saves by keeping a small marketing team goes towards reduced fares.  Because that confusingly-named Royal Laurel Service is perhaps the best business class I’ve been on. 

 

Equipment

 

 

The Boeing 777 aircraft is the best airplane in the sky.  It’s a state of the art plane with amazing features that actually translate to real benefits for its passengers.  Not only is it efficient, quiet, and fast; it’s also a wonder in terms of ergonomics for all passengers because it has a higher cabin humidity than most other airplanes.  Depending on the configuration by the airline company, the 777 is also designed to have excellent fresh air refresh rates.  The Boeing 777 is a fantastic plane; it’s not the biggest nor the fastest, but it’s certainly a comfortable plane and one of my favorite planes to travel in. 

 

Large table, lie flat seat, power outlets, and lots of storage space (most seats have a dedicated overhead storage bin)…  What more could you want?  Things to note, get a window seat.  Window seats have their own aisles.  Looking upon my itinerary, I sat in seats 10A and 2K, and the seats both had windows and aisles. 

 

The seats are in a gray color and the plane is overall clean and well maintained.  Lavatory is fairly normal in size and reasonably clean, it is also equipped with HARNN amenities which were nice and only slightly overly fragranced.  The gray color of the seats is an easier color to maintain than the cream or white seats other carriers have, which noticeably dirties more quickly and easily.  But that’s not to say the seat was less than clean, the maintenance of the plane met my expectations.

 

The 15.4 inch touchscreen infotainment monitor offers a lot of options in films from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and The United States.  The screen resolution isn’t the best, but the size is generous.  The viewing angles of the infotainment screen are good, but the response to my commands were met with annoying 3-second delays.  Sometimes using the corded remote was better than the touchscreen.  Also, if you want to start a movie halfway through the movie, it was not possible scroll to your desired point as you had to fast forward until you reached that point in the movie (which you will almost certainly pass and then have to start the annoying rewind process).  Headphones are the expected noise canceling type, but I still bring my own Bose noise canceling headphones.  Oh, if you’re one of the lucky people who have the Audemars Piguet noise canceling headphones by BEATS, the green leather band on your head phones would work nicely in the EVA cabin (EVA’s color is dark green). 

 

PuristSPro Consultation: Can’t decide between window or aisle?  Don’t compromise and get a window seat, it comes with an aisle too.  Get an A or K seat. 

 

Service

 

Service was mostly faultless from check in through the duration of the flight.  Like Lufthansa, EVA Air asks you to have a maximum 8 KG carry on.  The reason why so many airlines have such a rule is because they’re afraid the latches on the overhead compartments will unintentionally open (during turbulence) if they’re loaded with heavy luggage.  My suitcase alone without contents already weighs 4 KG.  Clothes are heavy, shoes are heavier because you likely have shoe-trees in them.  Fortunately, they let me board the plane with my luggage which was a few kilos heavier than 8 KG.  This isn’t unusual, but mainly the check in staff was reasonably accommodating. 

 

The EVA lounge in San Francisco is small and fairly crowded for the red eye flight to Taipei.  Food is mediocre, and charging ports are NOT aplenty.  Improvement to be made here, but there is a shortage of physical space. 

 

You are immediately served Dom Perignon Champagne upon boarding by a warm and inviting staff.  Reader, this is where your eyebrows should be raised, Dom Perignon Champagne is normally only served to First-Class passengers aboard international flights, so for EVA to serve it in business class it’s highly unusual.  Since it’s a red eye flight, the staff realizes they have a short time they can spend with you. 

 

Breakfast Porridge.

Once airborne, a fairly appetizing dinner is served.  Upper echelon ingredients are often used, like lobster, duck, etc.  Among airplane food, this food is actually edible and even mildly enjoyable.  The menu is assembled with care befitting a First-Class flight aboard other airlines, even with input from the chefs at Ding Tai Fung, the famous Taiwanese steamed dumpling eatery that has since started its recent global expansion (see link at beginning of review for a link to Ding Tai Fung).  Unlike some carriers who hire the cheapest food caterers for their flights, EVA seems to have implemented a reasonable amount of quality control, as the food looked appetizing and tasted appropriately and was one of the better meals onboard any flight.  Overall the food was exceptionally good for a business class flight, and would exceed the food I’ve experienced aboard other carrier’s International First Class flights. 

 

For those who like to drink liberal amounts of wine while flying, they will not be disappointed.  The wine list is fairly extensive and all were quite good.  Again, amazingly, the wine list included wines that made me forget I was in Business Class and made me think I was in First Class!  The spirits selection is also quite good.  I don’t drink a lot of spirits, but I noticed the KAVALAN Single-malt whisky (a Taiwanese whisky) is on the list with other famed whisky and whiskey producers.  Notice the inconsistent spelling on the menu, “whiskey” spelling is supposed to be used by Commonwealth countries, but Royal Salute is spelled Whisky despite being from Scotland.  Hennessey Cognac XO, that’s something you don’t expect to see in Business Class… 

 

A turndown service is offered, but it’s a minimal conversion; the seat is converted to its fully flat position and you’re given your blanket.  There’s not much else.  I don’t recall getting pajamas, but the website states pajamas are offered (probably just a new policy).  Other than this aspect, it would almost seem that you’re in a First Class.  Some airlines based in the United States do not offer pajamas and turndown even in long-haul flights.  So think of it as a First Class aboard one of these airlines. 

 

PuristSPro Consultation: Bring an appetite and avoid filling up on the bad food in the lounge.  The food in the air is better than the food in the lounge.  Just don’t eat too much or else you won’t sleep well on a bloated stomach.  Also, make room in your carry-on luggage to take home the hard plastic RIMOWA amenity kit.  This amenity kit is not one that you’ll leave on board. 

Photo Credit: Lucky @ One Mile At A Time

 

Price Performance

 

EVA has a reasonable price in all class levels.  Furthermore, EVA also gives you an impression that its planes are well maintained.  It has the best route and schedule for flights to Taiwan from Los Angeles and San Francisco.  And most importantly yet most often overlooked, EVA has a spotless safety record.  EVA boasts a 7 Star Safety rating by the Aviation Safety Network (7 stars is the maximum).  It’s also a private company with virtually no financial support from any government.  

 

Conclusion

 

Flying to Taiwan?  Depending on what your origin city is, EVA is probably one of your better choices.  But if you’re departing from SFO or LAX for Taiwan, EVA's Royal Laurel Class is definitely the way to go.  This is a great value Business Class, because it delivers 90% of the features and benefits in both equipment and service you would find in First Class on other airlines.  

 

Hmm, I almost want to go to Taiwan just to ride on the plane again.  Must find an excuse…  New watch boutique at Taipei 101?  The impressive New Year’s Fireworks show at Taipei 101?  It’s amazing that I’m thinking of going to a place just for the experience of getting there…  I would definitely choose EVA to fly with again.   

This message has been edited by patrick_y on 2014-10-23 15:15:18

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