Delays are rarely fun, but some airlines handle delays much better than others. My EVA flight from Amsterdam to Taipei was delayed two hours but that gave EVA a chance to demonstrate model-behavior on how to manage a delay.
Upon arriving at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, my brother and I were greeted by a large, handwritten “Flight Information” sign. The delay would be two hours, not long enough to qualify for compensation under EU Regulation 261/2004.
Too bad, we thought, but had no important engagement in Taipei. Arriving at 21:50 versus 19:50 into TPE was inconvenient, but we would have missed the evening reception in the Hyatt Grand Club either way. We expected to simply wait out the delay in the Menzies Lounge.
A very apologetic agent checked us in and handed us a lounge pass in addition to our boarding passes for both the AMS-BKK and BKK-TPE sectors.
Then she handed us each a 28,95EUR food and beverage voucher and told us to find one of her colleagues in the lounge if we needed additional vouchers! Even at a Western European airport, 29EUR was more than enough for a decent dinner.
Since the vouchers are all or nothing, meaning no change or residual value is given, we plotted how to effectively use them. Pizza always hits the spot so we used one of vouchers to get a couple pizzas and salads at an Italian restaurant.
That was more than enough food, but we still had another voucher to use. I spied one of my favorite things at a nearby concession: fresh squeeze juice. So while perhaps a bit overboard, we loaded up on freshly-squeezed orange juice and berry smoothies:
They went down quickly:
CONCLUSION
The flight boarded two hours late and we took off, landing two hours late in Bangkok and eventually in Taipei as forecast. I still had a light dinner onboard, but really did not need one. I appreciated that EVA handled the delay so professionally and gave me the chance to choose the meal I wanted. Perhaps this is commonplace in Europe, but not in the USA. I am used to a voucher barely sufficient for an appetizer or carts brought to the gate area with snacks and soda. This was a welcome change.
Boy oh boy, those pizzas look delicious. It’s lunch time on the east coast and I think I know what I’m having now
Eva airlines customer services are useless, we had a delay of 12 hours at Heathrow on the 11 th of July 2018 we were told that due to the severe weather in Taipei our plane could not take of on the scheduled time and there would be a delay of 12 hours our original flight time was 21.35 in the evening the new flight time was to be 9.35 am next day after being told at the check in after queuing for about 20 mininutes we were told that the flight was delayed and to go to the EVA inmormation desk to give us more information and after queuing for a further 35 minutes and seeing many disgruntled people leaving the desk the above information was given to us and I said so what happens now and they just said come back tomorrow at 6am to check in so I said and what are you going to offer me as compensation a hotel and a taxi return fare and all I got was we are sorry sir but we cannot provide you with anything at this stage you will have to take it up with the airline at a later stage, and how convenient it is that for over two weeks now the EVA site they keep directing me to is shut down supposedly temporary under repair I have now put this into the hands of a third party to get compensation. I have flown with Eva for many years but have never been delayed with them so this is a first time experience of there customer care and I will never fly with them again,
I flew with Omar airlines last year had a 2 hour delay at Heathrow and was told that we would miss our connecting flight and would have to catch the next one the following day in Oman but when landed in Oman they took us by bus to a beautiful hotel we had lunch and evening meal and breakfast taken back to the airport by bus and ushered into an private lounge until our flight was ready to board and was told to claim for any hotel and car hire for the one day missed out, now that’s what I call customer care ..
I strong agree with Youdan because I also had a trouble with the delay.
I took the flight BR160 on Aug 12th and the delay of 5 hours at Taoyuan was terrible.
Originally the flight BR160 is scheduled to departure on 15:15 but it was changed 15:50 and it was noticed.
It was okay but the problem is, after 15:50 we couldn’t took the flight! However, on the screenboard, the departure time was shown to 15:50 and the crews did nothing even if they should told to the passengers about the situations. More annoying thing is, after 15:50 there was other flight was still connected in our gate. OMG!!!
After arrival, because of a huge delay, there was no public bus/train/subway so we had to take a taxi. There was no choice. We paid a lot to go Seoul from Incheon airport. In Incheon airport, I couldn’t found any of EVA crews. Where are they? They should have focused on passengers especially in the issued flight. I’m totally disappointed with EVA Air.
Eva air are the absolute worst airline! We’re were delayed for 40hrs yes almost 2 days & we were treated like animals no information just kept giving out lame excuses & definitely No FOOD VOUCHER