Review: EVA Air Infinity Lounge Taipei Airport (TPE)

During my long journey to Abu Dhabi, I had a roughly four hour layover at Taipei Taoyuan Airport (TPE). I was arriving from Houston in EVA Air’s 777 business class, and was departing for Hong Kong in EVA Air’s 787 business class.

I spent most of my layover in the EVA Air Infinity Lounge, which is the carrier’s standard business class lounge. Honestly, for an airline as high quality as EVA Air, this is a pretty underwhelming business class lounge, far from the world’s best. It’s crowded, it doesn’t have many amenities, and it has an okay selection of food and drinks. At least the lounge has showers and bathrooms, unlike the Starlux Airlines Lounge Taipei.

So don’t spend more time in EVA Air’s lounges than you have to, but it’s also better than being stuck in the terminal. Let’s get into the review…

EVA Air Lounge Taipei access requirements

EVA Air has four lounges at Taipei Taoyuan Airport, all located near one another, and all with different entry requirements. The challenge is that the names of the lounges don’t tell you much about what differentiates them, so let me cover those basics:

• The EVA Air Infinity Lounge is the carrier’s standard business class lounge, and it’s open to all EVA Air business class passengers, as well as all Star Alliance first and business class passengers
• The EVA Air Star Lounge is open to all Star Alliance Gold members
• The EVA Air Club Lounge is open to all Star Alliance Gold members, plus Infinity MileageLands Silver members
• The EVA Air Garden Lounge is the carrier’s most premium lounge, open exclusively to Infinity MileageLands Diamond members (which is EVA Air’s top tier status)

So as you can see, one lounge is open to Star Alliance premium cabin passengers, two lounges are open to Star Alliance Gold members, and one lounge is even more exclusive, for EVA Air’s top tier elite members.

I currently don’t have any status with Star Alliance, so I exclusively had access to the EVA Air Infinity Lounge, which is what I’ll be reviewing here.

EVA Air Lounge Taipei location

All EVA Air Lounges at Taipei Taoyuan Airport are located in Terminal 2. If you’re originating there, it’s easy to find the lounges, as they’re right past the immigration checkpoint. However, finding the lounges is a different story for connecting passengers, as I find the airport to have horrendous signage.

There were no signs indicating in which direction lounges are located, and EVA Air’s website doesn’t even explain in any sort of detail where lounges are. So I first spent five minutes walking in the wrong direction, before eventually backtracking and going the other direction.

I still can’t actually clearly tell you how to get to these lounges, other than to recommend walking in the direction of gates A1-9 and D1-10, because at least from where I was coming from, that was the right direction.

This leads to the central part of the terminal, where you’ll find lots of duty free shopping. There’s a second level in this part of the terminal, so take the escalator up to find all the lounges.

At the top of the escalator there’s a monitor that shows in which direction the various lounges are. From where I was entering, the EVA Air Infinity Lounge was located to the left once at the top of the escalator.

This lounge gets a lot of traffic, so there were several EVA Air employees at the entrance with portable scanners to admit people. You’re then pointed left if you have access to the EVA Air Star Lounge (for Star Alliance Golds), or right if you have access to the EVA Air Infinity Lounge (for business class passengers).

EVA Air Lounge Taipei hours

The EVA Air Infinity Lounge Taipei is open daily from 4:30AM until 11:30PM, covering virtually all departures from the terminal. As you’d expect, the lounge has varying crowding throughout the day, with the early morning and late night being the busiest time, based on flight schedules.

EVA Air Lounge Taipei seating & layout

For an airline the size of EVA Air, the carrier’s only business class lounge seems quite small. As you enter the EVA Air Infinity Lounge, there’s one main corridor with seating to the left, and bathrooms and the business center to the right.

For about the first half of the lounge, there are two rows of chairs facing the windows, plus a long communal counter with chairs.

Don’t expect much in the way of views, as the lounge’s windows look inward at the check-in desks, rather than toward the apron or runways.

Then you can see the rest of the lounge seating below, which basically just consists of tables with an average of two seats each.

I guess I appreciate that EVA Air’s lounge design doesn’t feel super generic. But, like, does anyone understand what theme EVA Air is going for? Is it space themed? Is it 1990s chic?

In addition to the above seating, the lounge has a few more amenities back in the direction of the entrance. This includes a business center with three PCs and a printer.

There’s also a storage area for bags.

Lastly, there’s a baby changing facility, tying in nicely to the carrier’s Hello Kitty collaboration.

That’s the extent of it. I’d estimate that the lounge is around 6,000-8,000 square feet, which doesn’t seem particularly large for a flagship business class lounge.

EVA Air Lounge Taipei food & drinks

The EVA Air Infinity Lounge Taipei has a self-serve buffet area, which is where all food and drinks are available. I visited early in the morning, so breakfast was on offer.

Drinks included canned soda and soft drinks, boxed juice, a coffee machine, a cold and hot water dispenser, a selection of around 10 types of liquor (some of which were decent brands), two white wine options, two red wine options, and coolers with lemon water and beetroot juice.

The food selection included some yogurt and pastries, finger sandwiches, a variety of bread, salad, and cereal.

There were then many hot options, including hardboiled eggs, scrambled eggs, veggies, meatballs, waffles, noodles, dim sum, sweet potatoes, and more.

The hot dog setup gave very strong 7-Eleven vibes… not that there’s (necessarily) anything wrong with that.

In terms of dessert, some may appreciate the freezer with Mövenpick ice cream, which you could help yourself to.

The variety of food was pretty good, though the buffet experience was rather unpleasant. The buffet was constantly crowded, with people just practicing very bad hygiene, coughing all over the place, picking their nose and then picking up utensils, using their fingers to remove things from the buffet, etc.

EVA Air Lounge Taipei bathrooms & showers

The EVA Air Infinity Lounge Taipei bathrooms are located inside the entrance to the lounge and to the right. The men’s room had a handful of urinals, four stalls, and two sinks, and seemed to be pretty clean.

The lounge also has four shower suites. These do tend to get booked up during busy periods, so make sure you request one as soon as you get to the lounge, if you’re desperate for a shower (like I was). Fortunately there was no wait for a shower when I arrived in the lounge, so I took advantage of that.

For those wondering about the process, if a shower is available, you’re given a key for that specific shower, and then the receptionist holds onto your boarding pass. You then return your key to reception, and are given your boarding pass back. A sign in the shower suites asks guests to limit their use to 20 minutes.

Each of the four shower suites has a name — you could end up in “Metro Forest,” “Smile Zone,” “Fantasy Flow,” or “Star Drops.” Lol… I think?

I ended up in the “Metro Forest” (ironically enough?).

The shower suites are quite nice, probably the most impressive amenity in the lounge. Each shower suite has a sink, a toilet, and a walk-in shower, with excellent water pressure.

Toiletries were from L’Occitane, and were in reusable containers.

There were also a variety of amenities, ranging from slippers to a vanity kit.

Bottom line

For a high quality airline like EVA Air, the carrier’s Infinity Lounge at Taipei Airport doesn’t exactly impress. It’s the carrier’s only business class lounge, and it’s fairly small, with limited amenities. It does have a fairly extensive buffet and shower suites.

So I guess to compare it to the other excellent Taiwanese carriers based at the airport:

• The Starlux Lounge has a smaller but higher quality selection of food, including a small menu you can order off of; however, the lounge doesn’t even have private bathrooms or showers, which is a major shortcoming
• The China Airlines Lounge might just be the most impressive business class lounge at the airport, with nice decor, a more spacious layout, and an extensive food selection

So yeah, EVA Air doesn’t shine as much on the ground as in the air. And while the lounge was busy during my visit, it’s my understanding that it gets even busier in the evenings, when there aren’t even empty seats.

Admittedly I understand the challenge for airlines, though. Lounge real estate is limited, even if airlines want to expand capacity. Then again, EVA Air does have three other lounges at the airport, they’re just not open to business class passengers.

What do you make of the EVA Air Lounge Taipei situation?