From Tapei to Singapore I enjoyed a lovely flight in a sparsely-filled economy class cabin onboard an EVA Airways 777-300ER. The flight was marked by delicious food and excellent service.
EVA Airways 777-300ER Economy Class Review (TPE-SIN)
After my misconnect in San Francisco, I was booked in economy class (a “full Y” fare) and would have used miles to upgrade to business class (30K United MileagePlus), but the “Royal Laurel” cabin was full. Turns out I was fortunate because economy class was less than 1/3 full and I had a row to myself.
Our aircraft was parked at a remote stand. At 6:55 am, 45 minutes prior to scheduled departure, bus loading began.
We were driven out to our aircraft on a packed bus, with nearly every passenger wearing a mask, as is culturally customary in Taiwan.
EVA Air 225
Tapei (TPE) – Singapore (SIN)
Thursday, March 23
Depart: 7:40 AM
Arrive: 12:00 PM
Duration: 4hr, 20min
Distance: 1,996 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seat: 45A (Economy Class)
Onboard, I walked through the business class cabin and premium economy cabin and found my seat in row 45…the first row of economy class. Yes, EVA skips row numbers, but offers a very large business class (38 seats) and premium economy (64 seats) cabins.
Seat
Economy class contains 221 seats spread over two sections. The seating configuration is 3-4-3, which is a standard these days for economy class (up one from the 3-3-3 days). At 17 inches wide, the seat was still comfortable enough for economy class.
Legroom varies from 31 to 33 inches, but I was assigned a bulkhead exit row seat with over a yard of legroom.
Each seat has a power port and individual screen. My screen flipped up from the side but not bulkhead seats have monitors available in the seatback directly in front.
Each seat also had a coat hook.
IFE + Wi-FI
EVA was slow to introduce wi-fi, but has now rolled it out across its fleet. While rather expensive (in fact, I did not connect since I had completed my work in the EVA Air “The Star” Lounge), it is nice to have internet available onboard:
Additionally, the IFE system included movies, TV shows, audio programming, and games. Complimentary disposable earbud-style headphones were provided.
Duty Free
EVA Air still offers duty free shopping onboard. Rather than a printed magazine, the selection is available on your screen. I tried to purchase a Hello Kitty night light projector for my daughter, but sadly none were loaded.
Lavatories
The lavatory was very clean even at the end of the flight when I used one.
I appreciated the flowers on the wall and the Green Conut amenities you might expect in a business class lavatory, but not in economy class (hand wash, body cream, aroma mist, scented sanitizing gel).
Food + Drink
Breakfast was served after takeoff. Although there were no printed menus, our choices were displayed on the in-flight-entertainment screen:
To begin, flight attendants visited each passenger with a choice of water, orange juice, or apple juice:
Main course choices included:
Egg Fred Rice
with chicken and vegetables (529kcal)or
Creamy Mushroom and Seafood
served with spaghetti (475kcal)
I loved that even the number of calories was included in the menu description.
I chose the second option, hoping it would be like my seafood dish on Royal Brunei from years ago.
The meal was served on a tray with the main course covered. It included a (plain) yogurt appetizer, sliced fruit (apple, orange), and a white bread roll.
Unwrapping it, I found an attractive pasta course with scallops, white fish, and shrimp.
Metal cutlery was used, which is always appreciated.
It was a very satisfactory breakfast…as you can see. The pasta sauce was creamy and the seafood was flavorful.
The coffee, however, was something I should have skipped. Coffee is not meant to be translucent. I know now to order tea on EVA…
Another beverage was offered before landing, though I skipped it.
Service
I appreciated the service on this flight. Yes, I’ll admit it was nice to be served by a cabin of beautiful women. But looks can be deceiving. However, the cabin crew on this flight was very kind, attentive, and cordial. While I appreciate the more laidback and friendly atmosphere on US carriers, the ladies working the economy class cabin on this flight were efficient, polite, and professional.
CONCLUSION
We landed in Singapore ahead of schedule, giving me some time in the lounge before my connection on Singapore Airlines to Siem Reap. I quite enjoyed this flight, though obviously the very empty cabin made it much nicer. Even if the flight had been more full, though, I still would have given it high marks for the excellent service, comfortable seating, and great food onboard.
Well done, EVA Air!
All the photos show a 3-4-3 cabin, not a 3-3-3 cabin.
Obviously I was not paying attention and looking at the wrong seat map…wow.
T H A N K
Y O U.
Seriously, makes me wonder.
But EVA still does fly many 777s with 3-3-3 seating.
To be fair, a good sign of seat comfort if you mistook a 3-4-3 configuration for 3-3-3…
I flew EVA economy once. The seat was more comfortable, food was better, and the service was superior in every way compared to our less-than-stellar US airlines.
Plus Taiwanese guys are hot.
In all my flights on EVA over the years, I’ve never seen a male flight attendant.
Of course not! Asian carriers know what their customers want. It’s not grandmas, nor men pretending to be women, nor pierced and tattooed freaks, nor “FAs of Size”, but beautiful young women.
No for the guys, you have to go into the city, and given your physique you would be very popular there.
Though you’ve never seen me, I can personally attest that I have a similar build and I have to fight them off BELIEVE THAT.
You really need to take your meds…
Shutup, incel prude loser. There is action to be had.
Oh dear, the incel calling others an incel…
How funny! A freak calling others freaks. Go check into an asylum why don’t you?
Yeah why don’t you open wide and eat what I had for dinner last night? Hint: It was corn.
EVA Air banned the hiring of men as flight attendants until about a year ago.
I like EVA flight attendants’ shoes. Very practical and safety minded. No need for high heels or medium height heels during an emergency. Their short sleeves are made for skinny arms. The uniform would be unsuitable for US carriers because female FA’s arms in the US tend to be too fat.
On Instagram, there is a former EVA Air flight attendant who quit because the pressure to do a good job and harassment by senior FA’s was intense. There seem to be quite a few EVA FA’s on Instagram compared to bigger airlines, like Delta and United.
Matthew and the Taiwan water Polo Team as flight attendants. That is a winning business model for EVA Pride!
Is this blog about aviation.or Matthew’s hunkiness? Okay. He is hotter than the Concorde. Let’s deal with it.
“I appreciate the more laidback and friendly atmosphere on US carriers” Laidback = usually unprofessional and unhelpful. Friendly?? Really?? Maybe when they’re not threatening to have you thrown off (for taking photos, or whatever else one might be doing). I would take ANY Asian crew (including the Mainland Chinese airlines) over ANY US airline’s, any day of the week.
When you get a good crew on a US carrier, it is nearly impossible to beat:
https://liveandletsfly.com/united-airlines-business-class-787-9-review/
@matthew: with all due respect, are you on crack? when you get a good crew on a US carrier its nearly impossible to beat? you don’t really think that right?
Even a good crew, on your preferred airline united, still means a probably dirty plane. Even with a clean plane, i’d take an avg crew on Qatar or Singapore over the best United crew.
To each their own, i suppose.
I much prefer to engage with you on topic like this, rather then flag pins:)
Those premium economy seats didn’t look too bad.
Excited to fly this same route but up front this winter! Haven’t flown EVA Biz since 2018…
“…with nearly every passenger wearing a mask, as is culturally customary in Taiwan.” This statement is wrong and possibly unknowingly racist. It is NOT culturally customary to wear a mask in Taiwan. Pre-Covid days, the majority of people did not wear masks, although a few people did. The pandemic is ongoing with very high levels of Covid in 27 of 50 states this late summer. People should wear masks but the peer pressure to not wear masks is great. In the US, you are considered a weirdo if you wear a mask.
Gate C5R is a common use gate used by several airlines, often when something different happens. I was on a Delta replacement section flight that used that gate.
Economy class does have printed menus but the flight attendants have the few copies available. They are laminated and used if there is a breakdown in communication. Those menus are used to allow pointing.
In my opinion, EVA economy class and Royal Laurel class are outstanding. A disclaimer is my limited experience with them, 4 flights. Their livery is just ok and could be improved without a drastic change.
Racist?! There’s nothing good or bad, superior or inferior about masking. It’s just something I observed, even before the pandemic.
That food looks a lot better than what UAL offers in Polaris.
EVA markets their economy as “Polaris Business Class?” That’s some pretty high-level trolling!
Lol. Whoops.
17″ width may be comfortable for you but not for the typical American male!
EVA is my long time favorite. Sadly I don’t have the time to recount some of the wonderful experiences. But I would like to thank the hardest working flight attendants around. Eva was the first premium economy ( I think ) and it was spectacular and so generous. I still have some of the forest green silk amenity stuff. Not sure if this is correct, but I think they are launching a new hello kitty service today that includes swag. Somebody get little CMK the nightlight.
@ Matthew – the 30k upgrade – are you referring to the Star Alliance Upgrade? If so – have you tried recently? Historically marred with trouble – even when there’s empty J seats it hasn’t meant they have the inventory to upgrade a B or Y Econ fare – but seeing if that’s changed?
Still need “I” class, but in this case the cabin was full.