Review of EVA Air flight Munich → Taipei in Economy

Hello everyone! Welcome to another new series of the flights to Asia. This time I was flying with EVA air directly from Munich to Taipei and this was also my first time to fly long haul route with the airline. The ticket costed me €1048 which was much cheaper at that time comparing with Lufthansa, Swiss, Cathay Pacific, or even Turkish Airlines. Another big advantage from EVA Air was the baggage allowance, there are 2x 23kg free checked baggage allowed. The inaugural flight of this route dated back to 3rd November 2022. EVA Air is offering 4 times a week with a B787-9. In 2022, besides Munich, EVA Air also launched non-stop flight to Milan.

3 days prior to my flight, I received an email that the EVA e-Library was available for downloading.

There was a great variety of magazines to choose from, ranging from newspaper, travel, finance, fashion, etc. 

On the day of flight, when I arrived at the S-Bahn station, the trains were out of service (as always) but luckily I found a taxi and brought me to the airport. The check-In counters of EVA Air were located at level03. There were just a few people at the counters and I went directly to the air-side after checking our luggage and received our boarding pass. I applied the automatic check-in beforehand, and 48 hours before the flight, check-in was completed automatically. For this flight from Munich to Taipei, and also the next flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, I had already selected my seat when I purchased the ticket.

The paper boarding card of EVA Air, the design is quite beautiful.

I already had my boarding pass on my mobile phone

Our gate was assigned at gate H24. Here was my plane to Taipei, B787-9, B-17881, delivered to EVA Air in September 2018. Currently EVA Air has 4 B787-9, all leased from ALC. There are 9 additional B787-9 to be delivered.

The boarding gate was already filled with passengers.

As the boarding time approached, I waited in front of the gate. 

At 11:23 am, boarding was started which was on-time. I was in group 4 of the boarding sequence. Passengers sitting at the back would have a lower boarding number and boarded first.

View of the aircraft from the bridge.

Here was my seat 35A, second last row of the first economy section. Despite the plane was just five years old, the seats were showing some signs of wear. Later I found that there was a reclining problem with my seat, the seat could not be kept at the upright position, when I leaned on it, it just slided backwards. Anyway, the middle seat remained empty, so I sat there most of the time.

Cabin view of the first economy section during boarding.

Mood lighting during boarding

Pillow, sanitising wipe, ear phone and blanket were placed already on the seat.

View outside my seat.

The welcome video was played on the screen during boarding. At 11:46am, the captain announced that we were going to pushback in 15 minutes and the flight time would be 12 hours and 13 minutes. Temperature in Taipei was 33 degree Celcius.

At 12:05pm, pushback was started. I was lucky to have the middle seat unoccupied.

Safety video was then played. This video was also better than the last version, in terms of delivering safety instructions to passengers.

An Lufthansa A350-900XWB was passing by.

Taxing to runway.

Passing through an Lufthansa A380

while we were taxing to the runway, it began to rain.

We lifted off at 12:21pm from runway 26L.

IFE soon became available after takeoff

The main menu of the IFE system, which was quite easy to navigate. 

I quickly went through the catering menu. There were two choices for the meals.

20 minutes after takeoff, snacks was distributed and I had an orange juice for the drink.

There weren't too much movies in the film database, and I started to watch the first movie of the flight, Dune.

At 13:37pm, lunch was served. I opted for Taiwanese Braised Pork and Egg. EVA Air served metal cutlery which was quite nice. The meal was delicious but the potion was not enough for me.

Fruit and salad.

Then I had a white wine as the complementary drink.

After the meal, I opted for a coffee.

We were flying over Black sea after lunch.

At 14:20pm, I visited the lavatory which was very clean.

Toiletry product by PAYOT.

Cabin view as I went to toilet.

Not long after that, I realized that we were flying along the north coast of Türkiye.

About 20 minutes later, the cabin light was dimmed. 

Leaving the Black Sea and heading east into Türkiye inland.

I went to the back of the plane to see if there was any food and drink.

so I took a Huober pretzels, apple juice and water.

After I finished the movie at 16:00, I checked the map again and we were flying Iran coast of the Caspian sea.

Then I started watching the second movie, Shylock's Children.

As we continue flying over Iran, the sun began to set.

30 minutes after the start of movie, I visited the same lavatory again, but this time, teeth brushes and eye masks were available.

Shortly before we went into complete darkness.

At 17:15pm as I was watching the movie and I began to feel sleepy and slept for roughly 30 minutes. When I woke up, we were flying over Pakistan.

Not long after that, we experienced a bit of turbulence thunderstorms nearby and seatbelt sign was turned on and lasted for about 30 minutes. Lightning could be seen from distance.

At 17:15pm, I watched the third movie of the flight, 7 Secretaries The Movie.

An hour later, I visited another lavatory, in the middle of the aircraft.

The wine and beverages menu.

By the time I finished the movie, we were about to enter China.

At 21:40pm, I watched the forth movie, The Black Demon.

At 22:39pm, about 2 hours prior to landing, the cabin light was turned on, the breakfast service began. 20 minutes later, I received my meal. I took the congee option which was tasty.

My wife chose the western breakfast.

A cup of tea as the drink.

The sun began to rise.

At 23:50pm, announcement from the cockpit that we were flying at 41000 fleet and going to descend in 20 minutes. Expected landing time was 6:53am.

We were flying along the west coast of Taiwan and on final approach we made a U-turn heading southwest to align on the runway.

It was quite foggy and could not see much of the land below.

Finally we landed on runway 23L at local time 6:48am. Total flight time was 12 hours and 27 minutes.

Once we landed, the windows on my side quickly got fogged up and I had no idea where we were taxing. When I got of the plane I found that we parked at gate B9. Last view of the aircraft.

Total flight route.

Thanks for reading!