After leaving the abysmal lounge at O’Hare International Terminal 5, we boarded through door 2L and turned left to our seats in EVA Air Business class.  We elected to use United MileagePlus Miles for our international flights on this trip.  We were able to find tickets from Chicago to Yangon at preferred times at Saver Prices — so this trip cost us 80,000 miles each, in Business Class from Chicago all the way through to Yangon.

Flight: EVA Air 55 (Business Class)
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300
Seat: 3D
Departure: 00h20 (00h00)
Arrival: 05h00 +1 (04h36 +1)

Pre-Departure

Royal Laurel Class occupies the first ten rows of the Boeing 777 and is broken into two cabins. The first with six rows and a galley separating the final four rows.  All seats offer aisle access and are arranged in a 1-2-1 configuration. The reverse herringbone layout is one of my favorites. It offers you privacy as every seat faces away from the aisle. Although it isn’t even fully enclosed suite, so people can see you, but it’s pretty difficult.

The view from my seat on EVA’s Royal Laurel Business Class. I kind of dig the cabin art work.

We were one of the last to board in Royal Laurel Class. Of the 22 business class seats in the forward cabin, 19 were occupied.  I found my seat and began getting prepped for the flight – grabbing my tablet and headphones. I noticed the Rimowa Amenity Kit was already and the my seat. It was filled with Harnn products, including lip balm, hand lotion, a hairbrush, a toothbrush and even a screen cleaning cloth. The real beauty of this kit is the carrier itself. Made by Rimowa, this hard sided case is really practical for future uses – United offers those tin amenity kits from time to time and they dent and bend so you’d never want to or be able to use them again. I snagged one of these kits when we flew First on Thai a few years ago.

My seat for the next 15+ hours. Loved every minute of it.

Seat and Controls

As I sat in my seat, the flight attendant approached asking if I would like a pre-departure beverage. She also addressed me by name – as did every other flight attendant on board. I wasn’t allowed champagne, but could get some sparkling wine. The tax laws in the US frustrate me. If the airline opens a bottle on the ground they pay tax on it, but not in the air. I had a lovely sparkling wine and a water while we boarded. I was also quickly told that I couldn’t leave my tablet in the stowage area near my seat…and she stood there until I moved it.

We are ready for take off – I’ve got my chocolate, a beautiful amenity kit, a hot towel and a glass of sparkling wine.

The menus were handed out at that point – a food menu plus a separate wine list were opened to the appropriate pages (English language and direction of travel). I was excited to see EVA was serving Krug on this flight, I thought they were serving Veuve Clicquot Grande Dame, but they made a change. The champagne was good…just not enough of it, as they ran out halfway through the flight.

Dinner Menu

Snack and Breakfast Menu

With about five minutes to review the menu, the flight attendant came back asking about my selection. I had been researching the options for a couple of days, so other than the Krug, I knew what was up. I was surprised when they were quasi demanding our selections right then. Pajamas were handed out while the dinner orders were being taken too.

I love airline Pajamas. Yes, I am the guy who complains about people wearing yoga pants to fly, but that is different…somehow.

The captain came on telling us details about the flight and that the door was closed and we were ready to depart…20 minutes before schedule. The Taiwanese appear to be an efficient bunch.

In Flight Service

Climb out of O’Hare was about bit choppy, but just a few minutes off the ground the flight attendants jumped into action, serving our drinks and setting our tables. Before my table was set, I took off for the lavatory to change into my pajamas. Surprisingly they fit pretty well…maybe a little short in the legs, but that is to be expected – I’ve got long legs.

I’m modeling the pajamas offered to Royal Laurel Business Class Passengers. I guess black isn’t as slimming as people say.

The tray tables are very large and we’re covered with a beautiful cloth – not those thick white bland clothes United uses, but a delicate fabric with a beautiful and intricate design.

Beautiful Table Cloth was rolled out for every meal and snack service.

Dinner was served.

Amuse Bouche of Bresaola and Grilled Pumpkin , Brie Fig Chutney Topped with Green Grape.

After the amuse bouche, the bread course was served.

Veal Tenderloin and Grilled Artichoke with Truffle Cream Sauce.

Lobster with Cashew Nuts and Braised Pork with Mixed Vegetables and Steamed Rice.

Fruit and French Kiss Strawberry Cream Tart

Throughout dinner I was watching the Brad Pitt movie Allied, which I thought was pretty good,  but was it just me, or did you think you were coming in late to the movie?

From the time we took off until dinner service was completed and cleaned was less than two hours. I just hate when the meal service takes a long time. A flight leaving at midnight has two types of people, those who want a sleep immediately and those that want a quickly eat….then sleep immediately.

I converted my seat into and bed, cozied up under the duvet and went to sleep. While it wasn’t solid sleep, it was good sleep. I woke up and few times. It always surprises me how freaking hot it gets on these planes. That’s what really kept me from getting proper sleep…it was just too blazing hot. That being said, I woke up at 09h30 (CDT) after going to bed around 02h15…that’s pretty solid sack time for an airplane.

When I woke up, I polished off a bottle of water and order another meal. This time I wanted the chicken and rice in a lotus leaf. I hit the flight attendant call button and before I could even ask myself “Wait…did that work?” the flight attendant who had been taking care of me all night was by my side. I ordered the chicken, some water and a glass of champagne, which is when I found out they were out of champagne.

Steamed glutinous rice with Chicken Wrapped with Lotus Leaf.

This on demand meal took about 10 minutes to arrive as they had to make some more rice. The midnight snack was really great. I paired it with as French white wine. I wasn’t sure if you were supposed to eat the lotus leaf that the chicken and rice was wrapped in, or not. Cutting it was nearly impossible with the cutlery on the plane, so I made the assumption that we weren’t to eat that. What do you think?

After my midnight snack, I decided to watch Arrival, which was on my list since it came out in the theater, but I kept dozing off.  The seat was quite comfortable for napping, I’ll give them that.  After a few attempts, I finally made it through Arrival. Afterwards I decided to watch A Street Cat Named Bob, which was surprisingly good – if you haven’t seen it, put it in your queue.

Breakfast was served about 90 minutes before landing. I had the western style breakfast – I just can’t get into congee – can you?  The breakfast service was fine – the fruit was really fresh, although, I’m not a big fan of papaya, kiwi, cantaloupe or honeydew — the pineapples and berries were quite good.  The yogurt they served with breakfast was very thick – like paste from a school project. The thick texture and a slightly off flavor from a traditional yogurt.  I tried a few bites of it, but decided I’d hold off. I still had two more international flights in Business Class this day, I did eat the omelette with bacon and grilled veggies. It was great – even for a guy who doesn’t really like eggs.

A surprisingly good omelette with bacon.

Breakfast was finished about 45 minutes before landing and I decided to order a Bloody Mary, which was on their cocktail listing.  It was a little watery and not all that flavorful – I’d skip it if I were you.

My watery Bloody Mary – I didn’t drink much of this.

Landing

About 25 minutes before landing, I headed back to the lavatory to change into my street clothes and brush my teeth.  The lavatory was stocked with toothbrushes, individual mouthwashes, toothpicks as well as soaps, lotions and facial sprays.  The lavatory was a little tight for changing. I was constantly concerned my street clothes would fall to the ground and thus need to be burned.  Airplane bathrooms are so gross.  That being said, the lavatories on EVA were all cleaned by flight crew immediately after a passenger used it.  As I was waiting to change, a passenger came out of the lav and a flight attendant asked me to wait a couple minutes, while she refreshed the area.  Very nice.

Toiletries by Harnn in the Business Class Lavatory

Personal care items stocked and restocked in the Business Class Lavatory.

Something as simple as a flower in the lavatory can really brighten up a traditionally gross airline bathroom

We landed in Taiwan about 25 minutes earlier than scheduled and headed off to the lounge for a shower and to wait for our flight continuing on to Bangkok.

At the end of the day, I really enjoyed this flight.  The seats on EVA’s Royal Laurel class are second to none for an international business class product.  They offer privacy that can only be beat by a fully enclosed suite – which is tough when traveling with someone – it is almost impossible to have a comfortable conversation with them.  The flight crew was stellar – they weren’t hovering over you (except during boarding when they were taking orders and being very strict about certain rules), but when you needed them they were there in a flash.  While I have not flown Cathay Business Class from Chicago, I’d say EVA provides the best business class product and service from Chicago to southern China and for only 80,000 MileagePlus miles, you’d be hard pressed to find a better value.

After May 31, 2017, EVA will be operating this flight with their Hello Kitty Branded Plane from Chicago.  I’m torn; on one hand I don’t care about Hello Kitty and I’m glad we weren’t annoyed with all the HK branded materials on the plane, but on the other hand, it is such a unique product, I’d like to give it a try — maybe next time!

Have you flown EVA?  Were you surprised they they called themselves E-V-A (the actual letters, versus Eva, a name)?  What is your favorite ultra-long-haul product out of Chicago?  When are you taking EVA Royal Laurel Business Class?