#4 out of 94 Airlines A minimum of 10 flight-reports within the past two years is required to appear in the rankings.
142 reviews
This report is a continuation of this nearly month long journey combining work and leisure that will take me >24,000 miles.
After spending a week in Shanghai on vacation, it was time to continue this trip to Houston for the Easter weekend before returning to Los Angeles. I obviously wanted to take any option not named UA into Houston. That's easier said than done since there are limited TPAC options into IAH. Only CA via PEK, NH via NRT, and BR via TPE met these requirements. A quick call to OZ showed J award space on NH, but no F space. I temporarily took the J award ticket PVG-NRT-IAH hoping F award space would open NRT-IAH, but that never happened. So instead, I cancelled the award ticket on NH and booked a revenue BR ticket PVG-TPE-IAH for $1,650. I felt that was better value than the NH J award ticket with the lucrative mileage haul. The final IAH-LAX segment was booked as a Basic Economy fare for $120 on the shiny new B781s that were doing domestic warm ups (I will not report this flight, but it will be in the bonus of the BR52 report).
The routing will thus be completed as follows:
This leg will be the “domestic” hop from PVG to TPE on BR's B77W workhorse.
After a week enjoying some spring sunshine in Shanghai it was time to continue this trip.
After lunch in the city, I took Line 2 from East Nanjing Road all the way to PVG. It is definitely economical, but a long trip and takes a lot of effort to find space for suitcases until the metro thins out closer to the airport.
Arriving at PVG Terminal 2, there was the baggage check to enter the terminal. Check-in at BR's counters was quick and I was handed my boarding passes to IAH. The remains of my boarding pass for this sector.
In standard PVG fashion, it was about 30-40 minutes to clear security and immigration. Entering the airside of the terminal, I walked over to the CA Lounge near Gate 71, which was on the way to my gate.
The lounge was quite full, so I took a small offering of fruit to kill the 20 minutes I had before boarding.
After spending 10 minutes in the lounge, I wandered around the empty Terminal 2 towards my gate.
CA and VN A359s.
Our BR 77W readying for its trip back to TPE. No surprises, an EK A380 arrives in the horizon as a HO A321 taxis by.
EVA Air, BR 751
Equipment: Boeing 777-300ER [B-16736, delivered March 2017]
Departure: 16:00 (ATD: 16:53)
Arrival: 18:00 (ATA: 18:28)
Flight Time: 1:35
Boarding was delayed by 25 minutes. Eventually, things kicked off and I joined the back of the business class line. The welcome on board was warm and I was directed to my seat in the forward J cabin with the standard BR music playing in the cabin. The cabin was obviously very full on this premium shuttle between these large economic hubs. The BR Cirrus seats are not too different from CX's and are obviously overkill on such a short flight. The footwell in the bulkead is very roomy.
Settling in to my seat, I was offered a PDB, a hot oshibori on a tray, and the menus for today's flight. An apple juice for me.
The shiny slippers pre-placed at the seat.
Boarding was done quickly and we were soon pushing back over 35 minutes late. Passing some *A friends, a LH A343 and a SQ A380.
EY B789 at a remote stand taking an afternoon siesta before heading back to AUH.
We aligned onto Runway 35L, which is slightly atypical for departures, and were soon on our way lifting up into the rain clouds gathering over the water.
Sunshine above the clouds covering the East China Sea as we start our run south to Taiwan.
The menus for this flight. Very elegantly designed featuring Taiwanese farmland.
I pre-ordered my meal online, stuffed beef rolls, but the menu will give the PVG-TPE and TPE-PVG options for Q2.
The drinks menu, quite expansive for such a short flight, but some obvious downgrades in the wine selections from the long-haul offerings.
The linens are laid.
My tray is delivered along with beverages. I chose to try BR's signature cocktail, the Evergreen Special. Warm breads were soon offered from a basket. The tray contains the starter, entree, and fruit (dessert).
The beautiful dragonfly napkin ring.
The Evergreen Special cocktail. It looks like mouthwash and tastes like mouthwash. One sip was enough.
The starter, Salmon Roll with Cream Cheese and Smoked Duck Breast, is very nice. Two high quality proteins and even included some asparagus.
The main, which was beef rolls with fried rice and steamed vegetables. This was not a very compelling offering. The beef was stuffed with cheese, but was quite tough and hard to cut. It was just an average dish and unremarkable catering by BR, when compared to what the starter was.
After my tray was cleared, I went up to use the lavatory which was very clean and contained a large selection of Harnn products.
Coffee/tea service was done as the cabin was prepared for landing. A cup of coffee in their nicely designed china.
We were soon in sight of the eastern coast of Taiwan on a rainy day.
We approached from the south with a u-turn to land on Runway 23.
We taxied back to Terminal 2 and pulled into our gate about 45 minutes late, which will truncate my transit in TPE significantly. I'll leave off this series here as I begin my layover, thanks for stopping by!
BR's regional product is good, especially on B777/B787 aircraft with long-haul cabins. Across the board, they were consistently above average on every metric and don't have any glaring deficiencies.
PVG:
- Terminal 2 is always backed up for security/immigration, but then has large portions of the terminal that are empty.
- The CA Business Lounge is across 2 floors. The upper area near the buffets is always crowded, but downstairs by the "bar" is usually quiet for resting.
BR:
- The Royal Laurel cabin on the B77Ws is arguably not as nice as the newer B787 cabins, but the Cirrus seats are still more than you would need on a 90-minute flight.
- The cabin crew did their jobs well, but the service was non-memorable. I didn't find BR's service to stand out to the standard for the region.
- The IFE is fully loaded, but the content is not very extensive. This is not an issue on a short regional flight, but was an issue on the next flight.
- The pre-order meal option is nice to have. The overall meal was correct for the length of flight, I don't expect a real dessert on a <2h flight. The starter was good, but the main was lackluster. Drink options are quite extensive for a regional flight.
TPE:
- Transit security can be slow and the airport is definitely in need of the Terminal 3 expansion.
4 Comments
$1600 o/w in J from Asia sounds like a good deal, especially on a premium carrier like EVA!
Wow, you made it to Gold so fast! Good for you, Congrats! I'll be back to Silver again next year, though lord knows I've done enough flying, just can't get the reports out haha.
Happy Holidays!
It was good value for BR and surprising to see such a low fare a week before departure. Their overall product is good, but I feel like their crews lack the polish you see on the other major competitors.
Happy New Year!
I would say that I was rather impressed by the overall BR offer by looking at your pictures, but the comments weren't as nice as the pics.
The mouthwash cocktail made me laugh. The tray also looked good but seems you didn't enjoy it that much :(
A bientôt !
I think the rating is still very high for BR, but there are certain gaps in their product. The crews seem less polished/experienced as the other major carriers in the region (CX/NH/JL/OZ/KE) and the catering while very good could be elevated (e.g., real dessert). The main was good, but not excellent. I would certainly fly BR again when cost/schedule align.
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