Review of EVA Air flight from Shanghai to Taipei in Business

Background

This series covers a recent TPAC trip, which continues with a flight from Pudong down to Taoyuan. As a major connection of economic hubs, there are an abundance of options between these two cities. BR offers two flights in the late afternoon/evening, which both connect well on to either BR18 or BR28. Since BR18 arrives into SFO at 16:00 and BR28 arrives into SFO at 20:00, I preferred the option to get home earlier, which requires starting the trip back on BR751 operated by a B77W. The later flight, BR721, is operated by an A333. The routing for this series thus continues as:

This report will cover the flight from Shanghai-Pudong down to Taiwan-Taoyuan.

Pre-Flight

I booked a ride targeting arrival at Pudong around 14:00 for my 16:00 departure. We made good time and were arriving at PVG T2 along the S32 at 13:50.

NH B789 departing as we approach the terminal.

Welcome to PVG T2.

Check-in/Security

After completing the explosives checks and proceeding through the metal detector, we reach the check-in hall.

A stop to look at the FIDS. Our flight is on-time with check-in at Aisle H.

Approaching the check-in area an agent was present to confirm if I was on the 16:00 or 20:05 departure, then led me towards the Priority lane.

It was a 5-10min wait to be helped with long lines at check-in for what should be a 100% full flight on a Friday afternoon ahead of the holiday weekend. The agent then checked my bags to SFO and handed me my boarding passes. She asked me if I wanted to use the Air China or China Eastern lounges (BR has a contract to send passengers to the MU Lounge). I told her the CA Lounge was fine so that she wouldn't have to prepare me a lounge invitation card since I wasn't planning on spending very much time there anyways.

Immigration was very busy with a stream of TPACs departing in the late afternoon and security was the typical mess. so I would recommend showing up more than 2h before your flight if departing international in the afternoon. After clearing all of those formalities, we arrive in the bright airy T2 airside.

After checking FlightRadar, I saw our plane was due to land in 5 minutes so I hung out by the windows to do some spotting. NZ B789 leaving for AKL.

MU B77W taking off.

Our plane arriving from TPE.

No. 71 Air China Lounge

After watching my plane land, I walked over to the lounge since it was enroute to the gate.

There is a lot of construction on-going upstairs that you have to walk through to reach the lounge.

After being scanned in, I went inside to find the lower level still quite quiet. Since there is only a small bar area downstairs, most people seem to gravitate upstairs by the food.

Upstairs, I just grabbed a water bottle and went to the corner to take care of some e-mails before boarding. The WiFI in the lounge had good speeds.

Boarding

I left the lounge after 20 minutes to go get some exercise and do some more spotting. SQ A380 arriving from SIN.

AC B789 boarding for YVR.

Our plane today is B-16727, a 2016-built Boeing B777-300ER in BR's 77M configuration with J38 W64 Y221 (in 3-3-3).

We were all called to line up for document checks to ensure on-time boarding.

At 15:35, boarding commenced and we were quickly scanned in using 2 lines. In addition to using MU's Lounge, BR also uses MU's ground handling services instead of CA.

With only 1 jet bridge engaged, we will board through L2. As I was greeted by 2 FAs, my boarding pass was scanned and I was directed to the right.

The rear mini-cabin with 4 rows in a 1-2-1 configuration.

Flight

My seat, 11A. As expected on a BR 77W, it will be the old Cirrus product, but with updated IFE.

Pre-placed on the seat was a pillow and blankets were located in the overhead bins.

Also present were the Thunder noise cancelling headphones and slippers.

Seat pitch is of course excellent in the Cirrus seats.

The IFE is of acceptable size and resolution, but as expected in most reverse herringbone seats, needs to be stowed for take-off and landing.

All of the useful items are located on the side of the console: reading light, 2x USB-A charging ports, universal AC outlet (110V), and the handset with touch screen.

The seat controls.

Our plane will be sporting new carpets that matches the B787 color palette.

The literature: safety card, airsickness bag, and Sky Shop catalog.

After settling in, the FA serving my row comes to introduce herself and asked what I wanted for pre-departure drink. The choices are the standard selection of water, sparkling wine, or juice. I opted for their orange/guava juice which was brought with a scented oshibori.

The menus on today's flight.

We get a choice of 3 mains on this flight.

If those aren't to your liking, there are also 2 additional options available for pre-order online. BR's pre-order service opens 21 days before departure when the menus are released. The FA came back and confirmed my pre-ordered meal and asked me what I wanted to drink with the meal.

The drink offering on BR regional flights is good with an extensive selection of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options.

AC B789 next door.

Cargo staged for the next flight.

The FAs then came down the aisles taking meal/drink orders. She confirmed my pre-ordered main and asked me what I wanted to drink with the meal.

The front doors closes at 15:55. Always amazes me how fast they can board wide-bodies in Asia, to board a B77W with one jet bridge in just 20 minutes is impressive. The safety video played as the plane was prepared for push back.

AC B789 pushing back for YVR revealing an SQ A380.

We have some plane-spotting ground crew.

He is photographing this HO B789, which is sporting the Colorful Petals special livery.

A QR B77W is quick to take the spot of the AC B789. After they pull in, we push back allowing a nice close up of the Paris Saint-Germain special livery.

Great to see PVG finally starting to fill up post-pandemic with a nice diversity of carriers.

A wave goodbye from the ground crew as we finally start our taxi at 16:30.

A350s of LH, ET, and AY.

We join the queue for Runway 16R next to this little MU A319.

We hold to allow a CA A333 to arrive.

Now our turn to align for take off at 16:41, about 40 minutes late.

Spool up and take off:

Lifting up over Pudong as we fly over the mouth of the Dazhi River.

Our route out of Shanghai with a holding loop east of the city before starting our trek south to Taiwan.

A look back at Shanghai as golden hour starts.

As soon as released, the crew gets to work. The tray table folds out and is bi-fold in design.

Here come the linens? I guess not. Another inconsistency in service that always seems to pop up on regional flights with BR. My tray as delivered.

A glass of 2006 Castelnau Millésime Brut.

The hors d'oeuvre: Smoked Salmon Crab Roll and Duck Breast with Honey Marinated Yam. 

My pre-ordered main: BBQ Duck Breast with Jade Rice. 

Breads were offered from a basket by the purser, but no Isigny Sainte-Mère butter.

BR's cutlery.

Fruit.

The dessert: Black Cherry Egg Pudding with Blueberry Jam.

As the meal concluded, another scented oshibori was handed out.

BR's entertainment is called Star Gallery and this plane has the newer interface. The content is below average, but on this flight I just had the moving map up, which is Voyager3D and fully interactive.

BR has Panasonic Wi-Fi, which had good connectivity throughout the flight. Again, they really need to re-think their pricing structures since the prices are already high for long-haul flights and absurd for regional flights. For this ~80-minute flight, I just used the complimentary 30-minutes service twice (you can use it once per device as long as you use different e-mail addresses).

A cup of Pu'er tea to close the service.

The lavatories were clean as always on BR and contained the older Acqua Colonia products.

The purser came down to thank me for flying and offered the standard selection of BR candies.

Our approach into Taoyuan today.

The first sight of Taiwan, unfortunately clouds obscure any views of Taipei.

The mouth of the Tamsui River.

TPE is visible in the distance as we continue our run down the coast.

A look down the western coast of Taiwan as we prepare to make our u-turn near Hsinchu.

We make our u-turn to approach the airport from the south.

Short final into Taoyuan during golden hour:

We had a smooth landing on Runway 05L at 18:17 and then taxied around the airport to reach Concourse C. Not much to see on my side of the plane, just a CI B77W hanging out by the CI hangars.

We take our gate next to our brethren at T2 as night falls.

We come to a stop at the gate at 18:25, which gives me just an hour before my flight to SFO boards.

The FAs quickly close the curtains between J and W to allow us to deplane first. A look at the cabin as I wait to deplane through L1.

Into the terminal we go. China is not a member of OSS, so we will all be sent into the terminal for transfer/arrival.

Since we arrived at the end of the terminal, it was a longish walk back to the center of T2.

Transfer security is located right around the corner of the transfer desk. The signage is actually not that good, you can see there is just small white paper hanging from the ceiling instructing you where to go for transfer security.

Arriving at the transfer security check-point, I was confused since it was all roped off. An agent came running up to open the barrier to let us in. Clearly, ~18:00 is not a major arrival time at TPE since there was no one ahead of us completing security.

After clearing security, you go up the escalator to re-circulate into T2.

I will leave off this series here as I begin my short layover in Taoyaun. Thanks for stopping by!

Flight Details

EVA Air, BR751
Equipment: Boeing B777-300ER [B-16727, delivered June 2016]
Departure: 16:00 (ATD: 16:41)
Arrival: 18:00 (ATA: 18:17)
Flight time: 1:36