Review of EVA Air flight from Shanghai to Taipei City in Business

This series covers a recent trip to Shanghai, please refer back to Part 1 for the background.

Since I couldn't leave Shanghai until the afternoon, my return options were either PVG-TPE at 20:00 operated by a A333 or SHA-TSA at 19:40 operated by a B78X. Since I was going to spend the night in Taipei and take BR8 the next day, either option was workable and I decided that transiting from TSA to TPE is easier than the hassle of getting out to PVG on a Friday afternoon. The added bonus is the chance to fly to TSA for the first time and also try out BR's Vantage XL seats. The routing for this trip is:

This report will cover the flight from Shanghai-Hongqiao to Taipei-Songshan and a look at the V02 Air China Lounge at SHA T1.

booking

At the time of booking, there was an abundance of window seat options left so I picked 9K as a true window seat in the rear of the cabin.

Pre-flight

BR's check-in counters at SHA only open at 17:20 for a 19:40 departure, but I went ahead and booked an early ride to the airport to try and avoid some traffic. The traffic is always bad on the G50 that connects SHA T2 and SHA T1.

My driver dropped me off outside of T1 at 16:50 and I went inside to the international side of the terminal.

After clearing the security check (explosives testing and scanning of all bags), you arrive at the sad state of T1 that has never recovered post-pandemic with no open shops.

The FIDS showing the limited international operations from SHA.

The BR check-in counters are queued up with everyone awaiting the opening at 17:20. Upon talking to the MU ground staff, she escorted me into one of the priority lines.

The MU agents came out promptly at 17:20 and efficiently started checking in passengers. I was handed my boarding pass and a lounge invitation card with instructions on how to access the lounges. We would be allowed to use either V01 (MU) or V02 (CA).

Immigration and security was empty since ours is the only flight departing in this time block (all OZ/FM passengers to GMP likely already filtered through). Exiting security, you can find the map of the tiny terminal.

SHA's mascot.

The lounges are all located upstairs on the 4th floor.

v02 Air China Lounge

The MU Lounge is sporting the BR FA cutout, which everyone else was heading towards, so I decided to take the road less traveled into the CA Lounge with the panda to welcome me.

Heading inside, my boarding pass was scanned and I was escorted in.

The lounge is huge and completely empty. I was the only person in there for probably ~45 minutes before a couple others arrived. The main dining area with buffet in the back.

The buffet had an abundance of hot options that were just put out for dinner.

Photos of the offerings.

Soups and pizza.

Steamed items.

Cold items.

Drink offerings for the brave.

Packaged noodle tower and loose leaf tea near a hot water dispenser.

Noodle bar with 4 options.

One of several drink stations located throughout.

A large diversity of seating areas throughout.

I ordered some noodles and took a seat in the corner with good access to charging ports.

Wi-Fi is available, but requires a Chinese number that can receive SMS.

My offering, the cold dishes were very good and I went back for seconds of the duck.

boarding

10 minutes before boarding, I let the lounge and went back down to the main level to start the walk down to our gate.

A MU A333 enroute.

Our gate, where the agents were already organizing people.

Our steed of the day.

Boarding was called on time and I joined the back of the Group 1 line. A closer look at B-17811, our 2023 built B787-1000.

Distracted on the jet bridge by a CA A333 next door.

Last look at our B78X before boarding.

flight

Entering L2, I was greeted by 2 FAs (including a rare male for BR) and directed through to the left. A first look at the J cabin on this B78X featuring 34 Vantage XL seats.

The staggered configuration along the windows.

My seat, 9K.

Pre-placed on the seat were pillow and slippers.

Sitting down, the first thing you notice is how little privacy these seats have relative to the B77W when the privacy shields are retracted.

Seat pitch is of course good and the foot well does not look too bad although I did not try to put the seat in bed mode.

Off the shoulder is a small compartment that contained the headphones and a mirror.

The IFE remote, power ports, and seat controls are a little bit far away since on the opposite side of the side table.

A more accessible basic seat control bar next to the seat for when the seat is in flat bed mode.

Literature compartment with the standard safety card, airsickness bag, and Sky Shop catalog.

Blankets are only available on request and I was promptly handed one.

After settling in, a FA came by to introduce herself and welcome me on board. She asked what I wanted for pre-departure drink (water, sparkling wine, or guava/pineapple juice). My juice and scented towel were quickly returned.

The FAs came down the aisles offering menus, but didn't give me any since I had pre-ordered my meals online. She only confirmed my meals and asked me what I wanted to drink. Luckily, I knew the regional offerings based off the previous flight. A paper copy of the drinks menu would have been nice, but they do have it on the IFE so I won't complain.

The meal offering on this flight… never mind, the IFE still is showing the TSA-SHA menu. For the actual offering on this flight, I only have the online menu to refer to which contained 2 additional entrees available by pre-order (starting 21 days in advance).

The drink menu.

Before preparing the cabin for take-off, arrival cards were handed out.

The safety video played as we awaited pushback.

Our neighbor was the aforementioned MU A333. We fired up our engines and started the taxi on a rainy day in Shanghai.

The cabin lights were dimmed, but the IFE screens kept playing ads for duty free. This made any further photography out the window impossible. They don't play these ads on the B77Ws so seems to be specific to the B787 IFEs.

We took off at 19:47 giving some night time views of southwest Shanghai before disappearing into the clouds.

The privacy divider does provide a little bit more seclusion when deployed.

A view of the cabin as the service starts up.

The tray table, which cannot be adjusted to allow aisle access when deployed.

Linens were laid.

As on the inbound flight, the crew worked as a team and I had my tray laid down at the same time a second FA brought the champagne to pour. No water was proactively offered on the tray unlike the last flight.

The starter consisted of salmon and shrimp, which was accompanied by a fruit cup.

My pre-ordered main was Deep Fried Thyme Lamb with Potatoes Anna.

Warm breads were offered, but no Isigny Ste Mère butter.

The dessert, which was some sort of panna cotta.

After my meal was finished, the FAs proactively refilled my champagne and offered coffee/tea. I took an espresso and asked for a Kavalan whisky.

She returned with my drink and scented towel.

The IFE is large, but the screen is high gloss so has a lot of glare.

Star Gallery's content is very average, but easily navigated.

Surprisingly, this was the only flight that had a reliable Wi-Fi connection. I was able to instantly connect and access the complimentary 30-minutes of Wi-Fi. FYI, you can do this multiple times using different e-mail addresses to register so don't really need to pay…

The lavatories on the B787s are decent and contain the expected Acqua Colonia products.

On these short regional hops, there is little time to relax post meals before the cabin is prepared for landing. The purser was through offering the standard choice of candies from a tray.

We made landfall right along the Tamsui River. We did a corkscrew descent over the city to align for arrival into TSA. Since TSA is also a military base, we had the announcement to refrain from photography during landing and taxi so this is all I recorded since we were arriving from mainland China. Arrival into Songshan into the heart of the city is a lot more exciting than Taoyuan.

After landing 20 minutes early, we were at the gate quickly being one of the last arrivals of the day. A last look at the cabin as we were escorted out through L1.

Thanks to Songshan's small size, it is an easy walk down to the baggage claim.

Our bags were quickly off with priorities respected and I was out through immigration/customs in a matter of minutes.

I was in my Uber leaving TSA less than 30 minutes after touching down highlighting the efficiency of Songshan.

I will leave off this series here as I begin my 12h stay in Taipei. Thanks for stopping by!

flight details

EVA Air, BR771
Equipment: Boeing B787-1000 [B-17811, delivered April 2023]
Departure: 19:40 (ATD: 19:47)
Arrival: 21:45 (ATA: 21:22)
Flight time: 1:35