Review: EVA Royal Laurel (Business) Class 777-300ER Singapore to Taipei to JFK

My final post in my SE Asia trip reports, sorry it took so long! This was one of the coolest parts of our trip, the business class flight home. Here are my previous posts:

I was going to do a post on our night at the Intercontinental Singapore, but for some odd and embarrassing reason, we cannot find a single picture from that stay, even though we took many pictures. Perhaps we just misplaced an SD card, but if I ever find those pictures, I’ll post that one.

After our (very nice) night there, we took the amazing Singapore train back to Changi Airport for our afternoon flight to Taipei, with a two hour layover there, then onwards to JFK. It would be a 5 hour initial flight, followed by a 15 hour leg, so I was hoping our seats were comfortable. Were they ever!

The exterior of EVA airlines is not all that impressive, I guess I wasn’t initially as struck by it as by other carriers.

Fortunately, we were able to board right away, and when we got to our seats, we were very pleased with what we saw. The cabin configuration is reverse herringbone in a 1-2-1 style, and the seats are all completely layflat. Even though the middle two seats somewhat face each other, there is still a lot of privacy with the center divider.

The amenity kit was by Rimowa, with a very convenient carrying case, which I’ve been using ever since for toiletries. There was nothing spectacular inside, but some nice moisturizers, toothpaste, nightmask, etc. We also got very well functioning noise-cancelling earphones, some comfy (and not bad looking) EVA pajamas, booties, and a super plush comforter, which I wanted to take with me but wasn’t allowed to.

Even though there were two separate flights, they were both essentially the same cabin layout, and had the same excellent service of the flight crew. The only real difference was the meal selections.

We did check out the Royal Laurel lounge in Taipei, which was huge, incredibly well-stocked with food and booze, and with incredibly conscientious staff, the type of which you just don’t find in the US. Me being classy and sophisticated, I went with a hot dog and beer. There are 4 different EVA lounges in Taipei, depending on which class of service you are, plus a transit hotel; we went with The Infinity lounge, which they describe as their futuristic lounge space. There are “themed” showers, but we didn’t have enough time to check them out.

The bathrooms on board the flight were large (not A380 large), well lit, clean and with excellent amenities. They were frequently cleaned throughout our flight.

The food on board wasn’t delicious, but it was very good, and plentiful, and came accompanied by some fantastic cocktails, including Dom Perignon, which I’m not a huge fan of honestly. Here is a representative selection of what is served.

Here is the stock photo on the website

Here is me greedily chowing down!

My wife and I both slept over 7 hours, I finished the two books I was working on, and we still saw several movies (15 hours is a long time, even in layflat business class). I had to get up twice during the flight to do some exercises, and the flight attendant was quite startled to see me doing dips between the seats while most of the passengers slept.

Overall it was an amazing flight. If I have to do another trans-Pacific flight, which I know I will be doing in the future, EVA will definitely be on my shortlist of go-to airlines.

Of note, on their TPE-JFK service, they offer complimentary shuttle service from JFK down to major cities in NJ then on into Philadelphia. We had not known about this until the day of our flight, and were supposed to have arranged it earlier, but they were very gracious and let us jump on to go to Philly as it wasn’t fully packed on the shuttle. Kudos EVA!

6 Comments

I think that the EVA’s new business class is very comfortable, and found the service to be well meaning — though English skills were lacking — but I was very unhappy with the food, and the fact that there was no Chinese selection on a flight from Taipei. What’s up with that?

I’m assuming the Rimowa amenity kit is only offered on the TPE-JFK but not the SIN-TPE?

I flew EVA from HKG-TPE-LAX last year as part of a military retirement present to myself.

I really, really liked the flight. The service from the FAs was a bit disjointed, but they were very eager and made the trip a pleasure.

So the FAs were not as polished as CX, but the flight is just as nice.

I have already been thinking about flying them again!

I second the opinions above. The seat was fantastic, great in flight entertainment, food was mediocre but not to the point that it ruined the overall experience. I would choose them again without hesitation (unless I had CX or SQ an alternative).

@Mak – I was wondering that myself. Perhaps they have a Chinese selection going to TPE.

@Icpteck – I can’t recall actually, but I think it was offered on both flights, but we only took the one.

@Mike – I’ve still yet to take a CX flight, but hoping too in the not too distant future!

@Ed – Agreed!

Just flew LAX-TPE on EVA this month. I agree with all of you- great flight, comfortable seat, nice pajama (I wore them off the plane), good entertainment system, attentive stewardess, and average food.

I know the food was going to be disappointing, so I pre-ordered lacto-ovo meals. It turned out satisfactory.

I also had iced chocolate and vegetarian instand noodles with baby bak choy- very satisfying!!

Definitely will fly EVA again!! As for English skills- don’t ask too much on this for Asian carriers. As long as it is communicable, let it be. I have never seen any white/ latin/ black flight attendants speaking Asian languages, and the reason is…?

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