REVIEW – EVA Air: Royal Laurel Business Class – Bangkok to London (B77W)

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Unfortunately for EVA Air our final flight made it 4 for 4 in terms of delays. Although generally speaking I find that most flights nowadays both short and long-haul are at least somewhat delayed. This is a trend which has really been increasing of late. Come to think of it, given the complexity of some of my itineraries, I’m lucky that I’ve yet to misconnect. Although thanks to FlyerTalk I have a good idea of what to do, should that day ever come.

You’ve already seen the seat, the PJs and the amenity kit on my review of the outbound flight so I’ll concentrate on the differences between day and night flights between LHR and BKK.

Once service began, I asked for a glass of Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame. This time the rice crackers were served in a bowl rather than a packet. Very premium.

What followed was an epicurean mega-banquet, the likes of which I’ve seldom witnessed on a plane.

Course 1: Starter

Course 2: Soup

Course 3: Salad

Course 4: The Main Course

Courses 5 and 6: Fruit and Cheeses

Course 7: Dessert

The finale came by way of a trio of desserts: Creme Brûlée, Raspberry meringue and Apple crumble pie. They were all ridiculously good, although at this point, given my pre-pre breakfast at The Landis in Taipei; pre-breakfasts in the TPE airport lounges; my champagne dim sum breakfast on the TPE-BKK flight; the noodles and dim sum in the BKK lounges and the six courses I had just consumed on board immediately preceding this one, I was in danger of this happening:

My solution?

One of these:

Followed by one of these:

I managed to sleep for around 5 hours and woke up to see the beginning of a sunset which was prolonged by several hours as a result of the fact that we were headed West.

What an amazing sight to wake up to. The engines on a 777 are absolutely enormous. I felt utterly dwarfed by the power this beast was generating.

Despite waking up inordinately full, I also knew that it would be a few months until I had the chance to go all out and indulge in vintage champagne and food served to my bed. So I decided to plough ahead with the breakfast:

…I had my next full size meal some days later.

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Conclusion

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So what did I learn from this weeklong trip to Bali, Bangkok and Taipei?

• • • When required to do so, I will develop the digestive habits of a serpent, consuming a weeks worth of food in a day in order to get the required pictures for a flight review
    • Taipei is more of a sleepy town than a thriving, energetic city
    • Bali is awesome. Better than the hype. Definitely somewhere worth returning to.
    • EVA Air has the best food and beverages of any airline I’ve ever flown in Business Class. The service is varied but capable of being excellent. The seat is second only to SQ and the amenities are second to none in business class, as well as being an improvement on the first class offerings of a number of airlines.

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