My airplane prayers have been answered. Back in October I wrote a post entitled “EVA Air gives Seattle a taste of the good life… but not for long.” EVA Air presently flies to Seattle five times weekly using a 747-400, and the issue with that is that their 747s feature their ancient business class product with recliner seats. Meanwhile EVA Air’s Royal Laurel Class on their 777-300ER aircraft is spectacular, with fully flat reverse herringbone seats, which is the best business class hard product out there. I’ve sure enjoyed both of my longhaul flights on EVA Air, from Taipei to San Francisco and from Taipei to Los Angeles.
EVA Air 777-300ER Royal Laurel Class
Anyway, the premise of the post was that back in October EVA Air temporarily put some 777-300ERs on their Seattle route, but only for a period of two weeks. However, per airlineroute.net, it appears as if Seattle will be getting permanent 777-300ER service as of next August.
Starting August 6, 2014, three of the five weekly Seattle frequencies will be operated by 777-300ERs rather than 747-400s. From Taipei to Seattle the Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday frequencies will be operated by 777-300ERs, while from Seattle to Taipei the Monday, Thursday, and Saturday frequencies will be operated by 777-300ERs. As a reminder, the schedule for the flight is as follows:
EVA 26 Taipei to Seattle departing 11:40PM arriving 7:50PM
EVA 25 Seattle to Taipei departing 2:10AM arriving 5:10AM
I love that the flights are redeyes in both directions, since I’d love to spend a full day at home, go to the airport, get a good night of sleep on the plane, and wake up in Asia. The same is true for the return. It just doesn’t tempt me when the flight is operated by a 747-400, since you can take the “good night of sleep” out of the equation.
Taipei is in North Asia, so while US Airways still belongs to the Star Alliance you can book roundtrip business class flights on this route for 90,000 miles. Sadly I probably won’t be in Seattle anymore next August, so doubt I’ll be taking advantage of it. Or I may just be tempted to connect through Los Angeles anyway so I can catch the Hello Kitty service. 😉
Business class award availability on the route is excellent, though…
(Tip of the hat to Jason)
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