A short-haul flight operated by a longer-haul plane, in a lot of comfort!
I’ve woken up early in Macao, and need to get back to Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) to catch my next flight.
I take some breakfast in the hotel – finding a Pastel de Nata along with a Pineapple Bun, and some steamed sticky rice and veggie dumplings. Very filling!
I’m soon off to HKIA on the bus – the reverse of the journey taken in the previous post; I am quickly at the border crossing, checking my checked bag through to Taipei, where I will next see it. My AirTags confirm it has boarded the bus with me.
The journey takes no time at all – in fact I am back in HKIA very quickly, managing to get a seat on an earlier coach than initially planned. Being early is much better than being late!
WIth an Eva Air Business Class ticket, I am allowed admission to the SilverKris Business Lounge in Terminal 1 at HKIA. It’s still faily early when I enter – the lounge is long and thin, with business-style work pods going down one long side and more relaxed seating in the main area.
I set up in one of the work pods, as I aim to get some photo uploads done and catch up with my Photo-A-Day challenge group.
The supplies at the Lounge are plentiful. A bar with bartender for alcoholic drinks, some cola and sparkling soft drinks and waters, and a great selection of iced teas – as well as hot teas, coffees and some juice.
The food is topped up regularly – I pick up some fried gyoza, steamed har gau, sticky taro buns and some hot chicken in curry sauce. There’s a lot more to choose from – some western bread, cheese, meats, salads, toast, cakes and muffins, and the small hot Asian food selection. Various items are added and removed during my stay in the lounge – it’s more breakfasty when I arrive and lunchy when I finish, but I don’t want to have much food here – just a top up before getting on the plane.
The iced tea selection was excellent with four different kinds in cans – the green and oolong teas here were both wonderful, I also had a hot Jasmine green tea before closing the laptop and heading off to the plane.
The toilets were also lovely – everything very clean, excellent Japanese toilets, warm woody colours, nice scents and some really soothing hand cream!
The flight was nearly ready for boarding so I walked down to the gate – by which time the lounge was nearly full!
HKIA was starting preparations for Chinese New Year and some decorations had already gone up in the halls – I wonder what it looked like later on when celebrations began!
It was not long to wait before boarding was called.
The gates at HKIA are a thing of beauty. As well as listing the flight number and airline for the flight clearly and in large letters, you can see the weather conditions at your destination, a lovely animated picture of the conditions, and also the codeshares with other airlines, including their tail liveries! It’s just so much nicer and more informative than gates at many other airports.
Upon trying to board, I wasn’t able to – as I am not a Chinese, HK or Taiwanese citizen I don’t have my face biometrically saved in my passport. I was taken to one side whilst this process was done. I also wasn’t flying home straight away from Taiwan so the gate agents wanted to see proof of my onward flights just so I wouldn’t be denied entry to Taiwan. All the info was shared, my face was scanned and added to the passport data, and I boarded rather much later than everyone else in Business Class!
A cold water and hot towel delivery followed. Pushback was on-time. The cabin crew were attentive yet apologetic – as there would be no available hot drinks on the flight due to the time the flight was going to take – so I couldn’t try some of the teas they had on offer.
The entire experience was very welcoming – fairly shortly after this picture was taken, I was given some slippers for the duration of the flight – they were on the higher end of the hotel slipper range, really comfy, fit all sizes and slightly open-toed at the end, but also warm!
The cabin itself felt square, with all the suites having squared off headrests and swuare consoles, yet spacious. If I’d have had more information I would have picked a different seat that was somewhat closer to the window, but that is my personal preference – I love a window seat.
I didn’t get to turn the seat into flatbed mode, but it looked as if there would be a large foot cubby and the seat would be really comfy for all sleepers with a good amount of space.
The layout seemed quite open but also private – there is a mini screen to the side of passengers’ heads so you cannot see others in the same row. Passengers in front and behind also can’t see in as the console in front is quite high.
Seat setting modes
Takeoff was smooth, apart from a fellow passnger dropped a *lot* of things upon rising into the sky, which made quite a noise and startled a few people! I am not sure what was dropped but it made a heavy clunk.
I didn’t try out the entertainment on offer but there were some branded headphones which looked decent and sturdy. The flight map was excellent and useful, despite the flight only being very short!
The windows were pre-set to DEEP BLUE mode, as the sun was shining on one side of the plane. Some of my fellow passengers wanted to nap on the flight.
I pre-booked a meal on this service, which was to be of Asian style but low Gluten.
I was given a seafood paté salad – which would have been nice, however most of the contents of the bowl was still frozen – and pork steaks with potatoes, crushed roasted tomato sauce, yellow courgettes, asparagus and broccoli. For dessert was a small red bean paste cake over chestnut puree jelly. The cabin crew checked to see if I was low gluten or no gluten, and offered a gluten containing bread on finding out i was low-gluten – but the meal here was quite substantial so I didn’t want bread too! It was more of a western style meal than Asian, but was still good quality food and a tasty main, a bit of a shame about the starter being frozen, though.
The crew were very proactive clearing items away quickly and the cabin was clean and ready for descent into Taiwan Taoyuan airport (serving Taipei).
There were a lot of very cute informational videos shown on our descent about what you can and cannot bring into Taiwan, such as restrictions on meat products, vapes, batteries, and organic matter.
These were all animated videos with various different cute characters telling you what is banned and what you will need to throw away at the border if you attempt to cross with various banned items, it was very interesting to see the amount of cute characters being used to depict quite serious situations!
This sick bag instruction was so welcoming as well. We should always be careful and treasure the resources that we have without trying to use more!
I was on the right of the plane and could see Taiwan coming up close as we descended. It looked like a wonderfully varied landscape – lots of farming, some arid areas, some lush forests and green fields, and lots of hills, valleys and mountains.
We landed straight into Taoyuan airport after a 1:10 flight, with a superbly smooth landing amidst the driving rain.
A really good flight. I was disappointed not to be able to try any of the speciality tea, and a little disapponted that the starter was not defrosted, however the cabin was very comfy, service was excellent and I had everything I needed for a short time in the air. I’d definitely recommend EVA Air for long-haul flight too – if this was how they are on longer flights, I look forward to flying with them again!
Now off and into Taipei for more adventures…
Flight Track of BR868, 21 Jan 2026
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