Background
This series covers a recent TPAC trip, which continues with a flight from Taiwan up to South Korea. BR operates 2x daily service TPE-ICN (in addition to their TSA-GMP service). The morning flight is operated by an A333 and the afternoon flight is operated by a B78X. OZ also operates 2x daily service and is currently operating an A380 on their morning flight. While the OZ A380 would have been the better experience, I needed to get to ICN as early as possible to ensure I could make my connection so I was left with BR170 on their A333 as my only option. The routing for this series thus continues as:
Flight routing
- 1
- 2BR170 - Business - Taipei → Seoul - Airbus A330-300
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
This report will cover the flight from Taiwan-Taoyuan to Seoul-Incheon and the BR Infinity Lounge at TPE.
Transit
Since Taiwan no longer requires transit security for passengers from the US as part of the OSS (One Stop Security) program, we are directly re-circulated into the terminal, which is very quiet at 04:45. Clearly well before the airport officially opens airside with just a few straggling passengers transiting from the first arrivals of the day.
All of the duty free shops were still closed so there is little to distract me from my mission.
Upstairs we go to the lounges and food court.
Well justified despite some inconsistencies in the regional product.
BR Infinity Lounge
All of the lounges and food court are located upstairs in T2. BR operates 4 lounges, I will head to the Infinity Lounge, which is dedicated to Business Class passengers.
The Star and The Infinity share an entrance across from the more exclusive The Garden. Entering the lounge an agent welcomed me in and scanned my boarding pass directing me to the right into the Infinity side. I went straight to the desk and requested a shower to try and beat the rush. There was no wait so I was given my shower room key and directed towards the shower rooms.
The shower rooms are clean and well appointed with all the amenities you would need.
Toto washlet and shower with L'Occitane products.
After my shower, I re-entered the lounge, which is very quiet around 05:00.
The seats along the wall are the only ones with power connections.
I opted for one of these to have more space, but again no charging in sight.
The breakfast buffet does not start until 05:30 so there was nothing to see in terms of food, so I will just report the liquor offering. I didn't notice this until later, but they do serve Leyrat XO Hors D'Age cognac in the lounge.
My liquid only offering. The special juice right now is guava orange.
I stayed in the lounge until 06:30 to catch up on some work and then went down to the gate area.
Boarding
Our plane was scheduled to depart from C5R, which is one of the bus gates. This is accessed by these escalators behind the duty free stores.
We will be leaving from Door 3, so I head off to the windows to kill time since they were still boarding the flight to HKG at Door 2.
The weather clearly turned for the worse since we arrived with heavy thunderstorms in the East China Sea. A view of B-16731, which was my ride to TPE from SFO.
A pair of BR B787s at remote stands.
BR B77W arriving as the rain starts to intensify.
We were finally called to board at 07:10 and Zone 1 was let into the bus first.
Some plane spotting on the way out to our plane.
The odds are high that this is our A333 to ICN amidst all the B787s.
I wait to exit the bus last to document our aircraft in the pouring rain. We will be on B-16336, a 2015-built A333 with a J30 Y279 configuration.
Up the stairs we go.
Entering the plane, the crew had laid out towels and were actively drying the floor. They scanned my boarding pass and directed me straight through the galley and to the left.
Flight
The A333s have 30 seats in a 2-2-2 configuration featuring Diamond seats.
The load factor was low at booking, and was still low on day of departure. There were only 10 passengers in the cabin (33% load factor), but with 5 FAs for our cabin, the service was definitely going to be good.
My seat, 10K, in the last row of the cabin. Pre-placed on the seat are pillow, blanket, slippers, and headphones.
The pillow is the same as what is offered on long-haul flights. The blanket is a nice throw, but will not be needed yet in this 34C weather.
The slippers and Thunder headphones.
Immediately after settling in, I was welcomed by one of the FAs serving our cabin and she offered me water, juice, or sparkling wine. I opted for the juice, which was accompanied by an oshibori.
The menus were pre-placed so we can look at those first.
Unfortunately, another breakfast service awaits. There are only 2 options available and there were no special pre-order meals online, which is really disappointing leaving their catering hub. Since I already had the Chinese option on my previous flight, I had pre-booked the Western option for this flight. The FA later came to confirm my pre-ordered option and take my drink order.
The regional drink offering is above average for Asian carriers with a strong wine list for the flight length and expansive non-alcoholic options. The 2006 Castelnau Millésime Brut is a decent option, but I will still request an Illy espresso for my breakfast. The FA promptly asks if I want a single or double, which I have never been asked before. I will take her recommendation and go for the double with a long day still ahead.
As boarding completed, the crew came down the aisle handing out arrival cards, which I unfortunately need to take since my bag couldn't be through checked.
A picture of the cabin as the doors close at 07:29.
With that, I'll do a seat tour. The most obvious thing is the side-by-side monitors. They are very large, but would be really distracting if you have a seat mate watching something else given the proximity of the screens.
Legroom is of course good, but the window seats are extremely narrow due to fuselage curvature.
I'm not going to be sleeping on this flight, but not sure what body parts could possible fit in this narrow hole.
Not only are the monitors side-by-side, you would also be extremely close to your neighbor, even more so than on a narrow-body recliner due to the stagger.
A look to the left shows the lack of privacy.
Above your left shoulder is the literature compartment (good luck accessing when seated) and a reading light.
The standard literature offering: safety card, air sickness bag, and SkyShop catalog.
The basic seat controls.
Your only storage is this compartment behind your right shoulder, that only a contortionist could reach when seated. Additionally, the lip is only ~3cm tall so things are prone to fall out during turbulence and landing. I lost my headphone case behind the seat mid-flight.
The IFE remote is behind your elbow and there is a single USB-A port with headphone jack ahead of it.
This armrest can be lowered when in bed mode.
Universal power outlets are on the front of the center console.
I get to watch the safety video play in stereo as we start our push back finally at 07:38. When the pilot announces a 11:12 arrival into ICN, I start to get nervous needing to check-in for my next flight by 11:55.
Plenty of spotting along the remote stands as we make our way over to the runway, though limited to just Airbus narrow-bodies.
BR A321.
TG A320, still with the Thai Smile paint scheme.
CI A321neo.
JX A321neo.
IT A320 in the Rakuten Monkeys special livery.
A BR B77W following us out.
We wait to let this JX A321neo depart before aligning onto Runway 23L for a southern take off. We finally take off at 07:55.
Our route out of Taoyuan will be the standard u-turn to start our northern trek across the East China Sea.
Spool up and take off on a rainy morning:
Goodbye Taiwan.
It was a very bumpy ride out of Taoyuan until we could rise above the cloud layer.
The A330s still have the old Star Gallery interface and have a non-interactive version of the moving map.
The A330s have Panasonic Wi-Fi. BR is very weak in this area and don't even make an effort to offer a competitive Wi-Fi offering. They use the same price structure as long-haul. Who is going to pay $40 for 2h of Wi-Fi? I used the complimentary 30-minute package twice (once on phone and once on laptop) and called it good. It had a strong signal throughout and decent transfer speeds.
As soon as we slow our climb, the FAs start the meal service by laying the linens on the large sturdy tray table. These tray tables cannot be swiveled so you are stuck in your seat when deployed.
The breakfast tray is brought out along with a selection of warm breads/pastries from a basket. The same tray is given for both Chinese and Western meal options.
Fruit plate.
Yogurt and Muesli.
Milk, butter, and jam.
Black sesame roll and a croissant.
My double espresso.
No shortage of cutlery and we get the Gudetama themed toothpick.
After I finish the fruit plate and sides, my main is brought out: Beef Hamburger with Cheddar Cheese and Savory Turmeric Rice.
This is very much what I expected, mainly a Japanese style hamburger that has the consistency of meatloaf with a lot onions, herbs, and bread crumbs inside.
It was very turbulent the entire flight, and the pilots came on and announced that they were attempting to find cleaner air taking us up to 41,000 feet, which is pretty much the ceiling for an A330.
It will be cloudy for most of the flight.
After the meal, the FA asks me if I want another espresso or just drip coffee. I ask for water, which is promptly brought with an oshibori.
The lavatories on the A330 are nothing special, but still have the old Acqua Colonia products. I'm guessing they will just use up the existing stock on the regional fleet before introducing the new Ideology products.
After clearing my remaining items, I'm again asked if I want anything else so I will take a Kavalan whisky.
I've already criticized this seat enough, but the placement of these USB-A outlets is one of the worst designs. Your arm bumps into it anytime you move.
Crossing over Jeju Island as the cabin starts to be prepared for arrival.
The purser comes down the aisle to thank each passenger and offer the standard selection of candies.
Korean arrival videos are played. Either Korea has not updated these in >20 years or BR is just using an antiquated version. I can't imagine how old this footage is with the old OZ livery on the Queen^^
Crossing into the Korean Peninsula.
Crossing over Jeonju.
KOGAS operations at the end of the Port of Pyeongtaek.
KOEN Yeongheung Power Plant.
Our approach into ICN.
After flying past Incheon, we start our u-turn to land from the northwest.
Short final into ICN:
We make up some time and touch down on Runway 16L at 11:05am, which eases some pressure on my connection.
MH A333.
UA B772 and LO B789.
YP B789.
We take our spot at T1 next to the LO B789.
Thanks to the low load factor, I am able to position myself near L1 ready to deplane. We will start the clock at 11:18 as we leave the plane.
Speed walking past the Transfer area and straight to Arrivals.
Immigration will start to see a trickle of passengers from Europe, but I am able to find a line with an acceptable correspondence time and clear into the baggage claim at 11:26.
Heading downstairs, the bags are already circulating with excellent punctuality by the Incheon ground staff and I am exiting customs to re-enter T1 at 11:28. 10 minutes from plane to land side is excellent work by Incheon. With 27 minutes to make it upstairs to the check-in counters, I can slow the pace. While I would certainly not recommend anyone else to assume one could accomplish this feat in a similar time, it is certainly possible depending on your stress tolerance.
I will leave off this series here as I begin my <30 minute stay in Korea. Thanks for stopping by!
Flight Details
EVA Air, BR170
Equipment: Airbus A330-300 [B-16336, delivered December 2015]
Departure: 07:30 (ATD: 07:55)
Arrival: 11:00 (ATA: 11:05)
Flight time: 2:10
Agree that Diamond Parallel window seats tend to have very narrow footwells as they window seats are really crammed up against the sidewalls. Aside from that part I personally don't mind Diamond Parallel seats and find them to be wider at the seat and shoulder level than most other lie-flat seats. But I guess that also depends on the aircraft. For lounging on shorter flights I like these seats better than Domestic First type recliner seats. I think EVA still have a few angled flat seats hanging around on the Hello Kitty A330s...I wonder if those are actually more comfortable for regional flights as they're really wide and facing forward.
The soft product looks quite good as expected. The coursed out service on a regional flight is certainly miles ahead of meal service within North America or Europe.
Thanks for sharing!
Hi Kevin, thanks for stopping by!
Exactly, I’m not completely opposed to Diamond seats, I think they make sense on A321s and B777s since they have more space per seat and carriers can install side storage compartments. For example, the version on CA’s B77Ws is much better since there is storage under the monitor and the USB outlets are near the monitor. Putting these seats 2-2-2 in an already narrow A330 is the problem. It’s about 2 feet skinnier than a B777, assuming the aisle is the same width that’s a 4” reduction in width per seat. There is absolutely zero storage in front of the physical seat, the only place to store items is behind you, which makes no sense.
Their soft product is really good, a coursed meal on a 2h flight is about as good as it gets.
Aah yep that makes sense. When I think about it, I don’t think I’ve ever had a Diamon Parallel seat on an A330, only A321, 757, and 777. I could see that it would be way narrower on an A330 cross-section in 2-2-2.
Yes, I can't think of any other carrier that has them on A330s. UA had them on B767s, but in that funky 2-1-2 to probably address this width issue.
Just QR off the top of my head.