Eva Air

Destination: Los Angeles (LAX) to Manila (MNL) – Manila (MNL) to Los Angeles (LAX)

Date: September 13, 2015 – September 24, 2015

Flight:

EVA Air 15  LAX-TPE – EVA Air 271 TPE-MNL

EVA Air 272 MNL-TPE – EVA Air 12 TPE-LAX

This is my first time to fly with EVA Air and I can say that the experience was Ok.  I booked this flight from Orbitz and it was almost last minute booking,  fortunately I really got a good deal with EVA Air.   I was able to find a flight that is quite reasonable in price, the airline ticket was only $690.80 for a round trip from LAX to MNL and MNL to LAX inclusive of tax plus a travel insurance of $51.81, giving me a very reasonable price of $741.61.

Can’t beat that for an international air fare!

Plus the fact that it was a last minute booking (less than 2 weeks) I really got a very good air fare.  It was not a full flight because there were vacant seats available and I was able to pick my own seat.

Departure was right on time, we boarded 40 minutes before the departure and it was organized and we were seated without any hassle.

The air craft was a Boeing 777 and it was fairly nice.  The seats are working fine and in full functionality.  I was seated at the economy class but still got the full service according to what I bought.  This airline like any other airlines, have modern services like the protocol when it comes to the safety and emergency procedures.  They have videos now on how to buckle your seat belt, the emergency evacuation instructions are all played through animation.  I like the animation because they showed famous people animated as their passengers.

What really disappointed me was the On Board WiFi, it does not work!  I tried logging in to their paid WiFi service but to no avail.  I was hoping that I might be able to do some blogging and work while flying, but it did not gave me the connection I needed.  It was Off!

Another thing that somehow disappointing was the demeanor of some of the cabin crews, I was hoping to see a smile on their faces, since being a flight attendant you must possess cheerful disposition in order to keep the passenger feeling relaxed and at ease.  I am not sure if it was just in their culture but my expectation from the cabin crew was not met.  Most of them would walk right through you without even saying excuse, and one even bumped me and I almost fell on the floor. She just gave me look without even saying sorry. Disappointing isn’t it?

The food was ok, I did not pay attention to what they offered because I was really tired and the flight was 00:50.  All I wanted was to get some sleep but could not, because I was seating right next to an old Chinese lady who keeps on coughing without covering her mouth.  My seat was in the middle isle so I decided to just ask one of the crew to find me a seat where I can be more comfortable, luckily she found me one.  The only problem with my new seat was the lady for some reason keeps on going to the restroom and I had to stand up and give her way out.

The flight was smooth though, the plane was quiet and they did a good job masking the noise coming from the engine.

The 13 hour flight was fine, although the sleep I was trying to get did not happened until the tail end of the flight.  EVA Air offers visual entertainment and I was able to watch 3 Animated Movies which helped me kill time and boredom.

The 2 hour flight from TPE to MNL was a breeze, the service was the same, no smile from the cabin crews and some of them are even hard to approach.  I am not sure if it is because of language barrier or just the culture again.

The physical appearance of the crews I can say was very pleasant and they look professional in their uniform.

The service cart they roll carrying the food and drinks needs cleaning though.  I saw some dirt on the side of the cart which should have been scrubbed more to show a much more sanitized service.

Their cups were smaller than expected, so try asking for a can or bottle to drink instead.

The food is ok, They offer full meal with appetizer, entre, dessert and fruits.  There was no menu announcement on what was going to be offered for meals or probably I just did not understand because the announcement was in chinese.

Sleeping was also hard for me because there was this old woman who keeps on poking me to have my seat up right (kinda inconsiderate), so I decided to just tell her that she is disturbing my sleep and it really bothered me.

To sum it all up, I can not wait to get out of the plane and head home.

Oh one more thing I did not earn any points or miles from this trip, because they claimed that my name in the infinity membership and the ticket are different.  DUH?

My rate:

Flight : 3 stars

Craft: 4 stars

service: 3 stars

Fare: 5 stars

Over all rating :  3¾ stars for EVA Air