Review of EVA Air flight from San Francisco to Taipei in Economy

Intro+SFO airport

Due to a family emergency, we had to suddenly go back to the U.S. after already going there 5 months ago.

Originally, I wasn't planning on doing a flight review, but after flying BR8 to SFO, I thought the experience was so good, it was worth a share.

At around 8:35 AM, I found myself back inside the international terminal of SFO.

BR operates 3 flights daily from SFO: BR17 and BR27 are both red-eyes departing within a 20 minute window of each other, and arriving around 5:30 AM Taipei time. My flight, BR7 is a noon flight arriving at 6 PM Taipei time. I was actually very surprised that my mom chose BR7, instead of the in my opinion- better timed BR17/27. BR7 is good for those who want to arrive in Taipei sooner, or just want to sleep as soon as they get home.

EVA has 3 types of configurations for their 77W: B-16705-16717 has 323 seats with 38 business class seats in a 1-2-1 configuration, 64 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration, and 221 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. B-16718-16729 has 333 seats with 39 business class seats also in a 1-2-1 configuration, 56 premium economy seats in a 2-4-2 configuration, and 238 economy seats in a 3-3-3 configuration. B-16730-16740 the same amount of Business and premium economy seats as the 333 seaters, but with 258 economy seats instead, in a 3-4-3 configuration, adding up to a total of 353 seats.

Check-in was smooth and took 5 minutes. As soon as we got to the counters, a worker came up to us and asked us if we were going to BR7, and when we said yes, he led us to an available counter. For most people, BR7 is not a good option, as they'd rather book the red-eyes. We were told to go through security via the A concourse, but I really wanted to do it via the G concourse, because I wanted to go to the outdoor terrace.

My flight was BR7, with a 12:00 PM STD, and a 6:00 PM STA.

Security took around 20 minutes because for some reason, SFO has more than 5 x-ray machines, but they only use 2 of them at a time.

Since my dad had a certain credit card (idk which one) we had access to some lounges. I somehow managed to forget the name of the lounge, but I think it was called the golden gate club or something. I didn't feel comfortable taking many pictures of the lounge, so I apologize for that.

The lounge was relatively small with also a small selection of food to go along with, but it made for a good excuse for me to stay there for shorter.

I soon headed to once again, the outdoor terrace. The walk didn't take much shorter than last time (~25 minutes), since we went through security via the A concourse, but it was at the very end of the G concourse.

Some planes I saw on my way to the outdoor terrace.

The outdoor terrace is a small, yet comfy place for planespotting. There is usually not a lot of people there, which makes it perfect for socially anxious people like me.

JA798A would be operating NH7 back to NRT

N799UA would be operating as UA837, also to NRT

N228UA would be operating as UA888 to PEK. I was actually thinking about this specific registration during security, so I was happy to actually see it.

N2140U arrived as UA1960 from EWR

To my surprise, I saw N2639U, which would be operating as UA871, to TPE!

N784UA just arrived as UA876 from HND, delayed by around 1 hour

After around 30 minutes, it was time to head to my gate, which is A9. I saw. JAL 789 on my way.

My plane is B-16717, a 15 year old 323 seater 77W. BR uses their 323 seaters on BR8/7, 28/27 and their 353 seaters on BR18/17, so that's something that could come in handy when booking EVA.

Beside us was HL8538, which would be operating KE24 to ICN.

Flight

Boarding was called on time, at 11:20. There was extremely little people on today flight. If I had to guess, around 120 people, maybe less.

This is the best picture I got of Business class.

Premium economy

Finally, here is my seat: 50K on the right side of the plane.

As soon as you sit down, you will be greeted with a blanket, pillow, a safety card, and a magazine. Sitting down, the seat felt very comfortable, with a lot of legroom. However, I'm still a kid, so that's something to take into consideration.

Seat 50K has this really nice view of the flaps.

At around 11:35 AM, the pilot came onto the speakers and announced that we would be ready in 10 minutes, and the flight time would be 13:20 with an initial altitude of FL300, and at 11:41, the cabin doors closed. I was honestly expecting to push at around 11:55, but to my surprise, pushback started at 11:46, 14 minutes ahead of schedule. This is extremely uncommon for big airports like SFO, so I was very pleased.

After a 25-minute taxi, we lined up and took off of runway 28L at 12:11 PM, perfectly on time.

Once we passed 10,000 feet, EVA Air's complimentary wifi became available, and although it wasn't fast at all, it was still fast enough to run this website. I tried to do homework work using my laptop, and thought EVA was trying to ragebait me🤣. At least it was free, which is already uncommon.

Around 30 minutes after takeoff, meal service began. Unlike CI, BR gives you a menu you can read off of, and you can tell them what you want from that menu. I went with some pork with rice.

The meal was nicely presented, coming with fruit, scrambled eggs, some cake, and a piece of bread on the side. Similar to JX, BR gives out metal cutlery, but actually heats them up.

It was really good! The pork was made in a way that even people who don't like meat would enjoy (I know this because I don't like meat), the rice was made just right, the cake was made perfectly, and the fruit was amazing. I didn't eat the eggs.

At around 1:20 PM, soon after the meal service concluded, the cabin lights were dimmed, and everyone was told to close their window shades.

They also gave us complimentary water, which was nice.

I used this time to check out the IFE. It had music, movies, games, a kids section, and most importantly, a map.

Unfortunately, the map was not interactive, and clicking it could just lead you to the main IFE page. It was cycling through different views, so we couldn't pick a specific one.

Around 1 hour after departure, we step climbed up to FL310.

At around 1:30, I decided to get up and use the restroom. When I got to the restroom, it was occupied, so while waiting I took a picture of the basically empty cabin section behind the L4 and R4 doors.

The lavatory was pretty average, with everything you would expect to find, including some soap. You could actually adjust the temperature of the water, which is a really nice touch.

I brought my own cup noodles to eat in case I was hungry, and when we asked for hot water, not only did the staff give us water, they also gave us a pair of chopsticks and some napkins.

After finishing the noodles, I decided to try and sleep, but woke up after around 1 hour.

I spent the next few hours in a constant cycle between trying to sleep, and playing geometry dash. Eventually, I managed to fall asleep for around 3 hours. I woke up to us already at 34,000 feet, and with around 7-8 hours left of the flight. The seatbelt sign was on for most of the flight, given the amount of crosswind and headwind. We didn't take the great circle route today, since the winds were better directly across the Pacific. At around 21:00, we went into some especially intense turbulence. I did manage to get some more sleep, but only for around 1 hour.

Something I really admire about EVA is the fact that during the flight, the flight attendants go out with small baskets of snacks or drinks and offers them to you around every 3-5 hours.

We eventually climbed up to FL360, and at around 23:05, the cabin lights were turned back up, and the 2nd meal service began.

This time, it was a choice between Savoury Congee with Fish and Corn, and Beef Ragu with Penne Pasta. I went for the Penne Pasta.

It was again, very nicely presented, with fruit , bread, salad on the side, and metal cutlery that wasn't frozen.

I wouldn't be lying if I said this was among some of the best, if not the best, airplane food I've ever had. They somehow managed to make the beef into pasta sauce, and that going along with the Penne Pasta just made the whole thing better. The fruit was amazing too. EVA did a great job with this.

By this point we had around 1:20 left of the flight, and the sunset was just barely starting to appear.

Around 40 or so minutes before T/D (top of descent), I went to the lavatory again. On my way there, a flight attendant was blocking my way (or I was blocking her, idk which one), so she moved into a row of empty seats to let me pass, which really nice of her. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the lavatory was still clean, which meant that flight attendants has cleaned it. Around 5 minutes after I got back, the seat belt signs were turned on, as we were going through some turbulence.

Around 20 minutes before T/D, I checked flightradar24 and saw the winds were 03016G28 (blowing from 30 degrees at 16 knots, guesting up to 28 knots), so I was half-expecting a go-around. I also saw that almost every plane approaching RCTP had to do at least 1 holding pattern, so that was also something I was expecting. When we flew BR8, we did a basically 0 visibility landing into KSFO, which I thought was cool.

At around 17:00 TPE time, we started out descent, initially descending down to FL340, and at around 17:05, we started descending further.

We touched down at 5:54 PM, 6 minutes ahead of schedule. The landing wasn't that bad, especially when the winds are this strong. We had to hold position due to traffic at the airport.

All in all, and absolutely amazing experience onboard EVA Air, and I think I have reminded myself why this is my favorite airline. The staff was amazing, the food was good, and the seats were a solid 9.5/10. If I had to choose between BR's 77W and CI's 77W, I would choose BR, no doubt. Now it's time for Starlux's A359 to compare with BR's 77W😆. Would definitely fly EVA again.