Taipei-based EVA Air has been nicely expanding their US service over the past few years, both in terms of increased destinations, as well as increased frequencies to existing destinations. While it has been rumored for a while, EVA Air has now officially announced their newest route.
EVA Air will launch 4x weekly flights between Taipei and Chicago as of November 2, 2016. The 4x weekly service will operate with the following schedule, per airlineroute.net:
BR56 Taipei to Chicago departing 7:50PM arriving 7:40PM [Sun, Tue, Wed, Fri]
BR55 Chicago to Taipei departing 12:20AM arriving 6:00AM (+1 day) [Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat]
Taipei, Taiwan
The new route will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, featuring 39 business class seats, 56 premium economy seats, and 238 economy seats.
The flight is blocked at 15hr40min to Asia, and blocked at 13hr50min to the US.
Chicago is a logical destination for EVA Air to expand to. Not only is it a big market in and of itself, but it’s also a United hub, so EVA Air will get quite a bit of connectivity there as a Star Alliance airline. While it hasn’t been formally announced, I suspect the new route will operate out of Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5, which is the international terminal used by most airlines. United operates out of Terminal 1, though their only partners which operate out of the terminal are ANA and Lufthansa.
EVA Air has a fantastic business class product. They have reverse herringbone seats, along with great amenities and champagne.
EVA Air’s 777-300ER business class seat
The food is hit or miss, though given the timing of the flights, I’m guessing most people will be sleeping for most of the flights anyway.
EVA Air business class catering
I’ve had the opportunity to fly EVA Air several times since they joined the Star Alliance, including between Tokyo and Taipei, Taipei and San Francisco, and Taipei and Los Angeles.
As far as award availability goes, EVA Air used to be great about making business class award seats available in advance. Nowadays they’re much stingier than they used to be. EVA Air typically makes business class awards availability to partner airlines at most two weeks out. If you’re booking directly through EVA Air’s frequent flyer program you’ll find space further out than that.
I suspect we’ll see a similar trend with the Chicago route, so if nothing changes in the coming months, you can probably find space pretty regularly last minute.
Bottom line
EVA Air is a fantastic airline, and it’s great to see them adding more destinations in the US. While I wish they released more business class award availability in advance, at least they’re good about consistently opening up space last minute, so they’re still a pretty reliable option for award tickets.
Anyone excited about the new EVA flight between Taipei and Chicago?
Just booked RT "Hello Kitty" ORD-TPE T class and upgraded to Z for 80k EVA Air miles overnight transferred from ThankYou. Effortless booking and upgrade on EVAAir.com.
Does anyone know if they serve peanuts or nuts in business/first class on EVA? I'm looking to go to TPE with my wife and she's allergic to peanuts. I know I can just fly United, but I was curious what EVA serves for snacks. Thank you!
Return flight from Cambodia on Dec 9 to Chicago , i lost a laguage for a week and still not heard . Hate the service .
In case anyone is looking, Eva just loaded space for several months in business class. I snagged two seats out of Chicago in February.
Xiamen Airlines got a new round trip XMN-SZX-SEA route approved starting 26th of Sep using their 787s. They are not famous for super fancy premium cabins but the service is much better than Delta. This is definitely a great alternative to Delta's SEA-HKG flight.
"The food is hit or miss, though given the timing of the flights, I’m guessing most people will be sleeping for most of the flights anyway."
Say what? People are going to spend an entire 14-16 hour flight sleeping but not eating?
Been waiting for this announcement! Flying out of RIC to FUK 1-2 times of year and having an additional carrier to use points for B-Class is huge since JFK is not an option for connections on Star Alliance. Plus, I really enjoy flying EVA over UA.
So excited to finally see the announcement of the long-awaited new EVA route to Chicago! I was hoping EVA would inaugurate the Chicago route in the summer (like their Houston route last year) by using 1-2 planes allocated in the summer season for increasing frequency on two of their existing US routes. I wonder why EVA decided to start a new route in the fall/winter season when the load factor is typically lower, especially to...
So excited to finally see the announcement of the long-awaited new EVA route to Chicago! I was hoping EVA would inaugurate the Chicago route in the summer (like their Houston route last year) by using 1-2 planes allocated in the summer season for increasing frequency on two of their existing US routes. I wonder why EVA decided to start a new route in the fall/winter season when the load factor is typically lower, especially to a city frequently and unpredictably hit with severe snow storms for several months? I also wonder why EVA decided to inaugurate the flight on a Wednesday as opposed to a Friday when more people (in both continents) could travel without disruption to work? Definitely not happy with the date of the inaugural flight!
Damn, I was hoping for an Asian carrier to Denver. United to NRT doesn't count.
This is great news! They have a fantastic J product.
Any chance of Hello Kitty flying to Chicago? Maybe taking the plane from Houston?
Hello Kitty! Will open up a great way for us ORD flyers to get to Asia. I love the midnight departure too. Can work all day then sleep through the beginning of the flight.
Yeah, agree with Oscar, the food has really improved a lot. I fly them a lot out of SFO to TPE, mostly for work in J, and it's a terrific product. The Rimowa amenity kit for J is awesome. The main thing I dislike about this seat is the fact that if you are 6ft+ and lay on your side when the seat is fully flat, so you can get your feet wedged by the seat housing that holds the monitor. Kinda hard to describe, but super annoying haha.
Will this route offer Rimowa amenity kits in business?
I'm ORD based, I'm guessing they will go out of T5
They have vastly improved the food.