Flying EVA Air to Taipei
- shortandsweetjoy
- Jan 20
- 5 min read
I flew EVA Air from San Francisco to Taipei (SFO - TPE) round trip, with connections to Shanghai. The outbound flight was in economy, and the return was in business class, or as EVA calls it, Royal Laurel Class. I booked the flights through Air Canada, for 50k miles for the outbound, and 75k for the return. The cash portion was $189.70 CAD, ~ $137 USD. Looking back I probably should have just purchased the outbound flight in cash.
The whole trip required a total of125k Air Canada points.
At the time, there was a 20 % Chase transfer bonus for Air Canada miles on the Ultimate Rewards portal.
125,000/1.2 = 104,166.67 points needed for this reservation
Since you need to redeem points in increments of 1000, I needed to transfer 105,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Air Canada. After transferring, I received 21,000 bonus Air Canada miles.
I didn't expect much from the outbound flight. I figured it would be like any other long haul economy flight, just sit still and try to pass the time. The Golden Gate Lounge in SFO is like most Priority Pass lounges in the U.S. There's cold food and beverage options, plastic chairs and tables, and a slightly more peaceful place to sit than the general boarding gate area.
I was meant to connect to Shanghai after landing in Taipei. Sometimes with award availability, the layovers are really weird. This one in particular had a 12 hour layover in Taipei. I figured sure why not? That should be enough time to at least get a decent lunch in the city.
However, once I arrived in TPE, I saw a gate agent holding a sign with my name on it. The agent told me that they ended up changing my flight to an earlier one. Instead of a 12 hour layover, I now had a 3 hour layover. I was relieved because it was pouring rain outside. So I adjusted my plans to explore the lounges instead. It was about 5am, and I wasn't sure if the lounges were open yet. I ended up browsing the food court first.
With many options, I was more curious than I was actually hungry, but I decided to go with some saucy braised pork rice, which is kind of heavy for breakfast.
The set comes with pork rib soup, and a bottle of tea. It was pretty good. The portion looks small, but it was more than enough for me since I also had breakfast on the flight.
I decided to take a walk afterwards to shake off the jet lag. Not more than a few minutes later, I came upon one of the Priority Pass lounges, Oriental Club Lounge. Gosh lounges in Asia, even Priority Pass, are so much better than in the U.S. I immediately wished I had checked on the lounge locations before spending money at the food court.
It was already much less hectic than the busy food court area. Inside there was comfortable seating, massage chairs, work spaces, bamboo steamers with dim sum options, beverages, etc.
Of course, I ended up ordering out of curiosity, despite not being hungry.
I was happily filling up my stomach while watching the rain. But I didn't stop there, onto the next lounge. I checked out a couple of Plaza Premium Lounges in the terminal, very nice but I think I liked the Oriental Club one the best. I did stop eating, but I still got some fat comments from grandma once I landed in Shanghai.
On the way back, I flew from PVG to TPE to SFO.
Here you can find terminals with hundreds of gates.
Anyone wanna pick up some crabs before boarding? I can't imagine getting stopped by customs and opening up a bag full of crabs.
Onto China Eastern Lounge
There was plenty of seating. I could easily take a nap while waiting to board.
I think it's quite apparent I love noodles, and I'm always down to enjoy a noodle bar. I especially love pickled fermented vegetables, 酸菜面.
Here I was snapping a photo from my seat, 1a. I don't think I had ever had a seat that far up before.
You can see that the cabin is nearly empty. I was surprised to see lie flat seats for such a short flight.
Time to relax...
with some bubbles.
I didn't think too much of the lunch, probably because I was already full from two bowls of lounge noodles. The best part was definitely not the fish, but the garlic bread was pretty good.
Back in TPE, here's a map of the lounges, facilities, and restaurants.
I had to try the milk tea in the lounge, just for the novelty of it.
Finally headed towards the final leg of the journey
This is the most unnatural looking steak I have ever seen, being such a manipulated rectangular prism. It was surprisingly tender and juicy.
I felt it deserved a pic of the cross section.
I slept well. I tried my best to not let myself stay up all night. Just getting to lie down on a long flight makes a huge difference. No leg stiffness.
As someone who doesn't usually eat breakfast, it was a little on the heavy side for breakfast, but it was delicious.
The Armani case is actually structured. I think it would be protective enough to keep something more fragile, like a small mirror. The eye mask is also very useful on flights. I also received some Jason Wu collabed pajamas. I wouldn't call them pajamas because the top is a light hooded sweatshirt. I still wear it.
The food was better than I expected, but the service was a 10/10. Everyone was so nice, so thoughtful and attentive. I would definitely fly with EVA again.
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