On this trip to Jakarta, I flew on Eva Air for the first time. They are an air carrier from Taiwan) and do a very competent job. The service was very attentive and the food (if you like Chinese food) was quite good.

However, their older planes like the 747-400s I flew on don't have the amenities that I've come to expect from international business class (esp. trans-Pacific). In particular there is no power in the seats, there's no on-demand entertainment system, and the seats are old-school. The contrast to my flight on Air New Zealand was startling. I understand their new 777s are much nicer. Too bad they don't use them on the Seattle-Taipei leg yet.

The only other big complaint I have with Eva is that the they aren't part of any big airline miles systems, so I couldn't log the miles on any of my normal carriers; the closest I could get to a carrier I might fly again soon is Continental. Oh well.

On the older 747-400s like we were on, First and Business class are upstairs (get a window seat so you have the storage bins right next to you). Don, a nice guy I met on the flights who flies Eva regularly, says the Evergreen Deluxe class has the same seats but are downstairs in front and cost $1000 less. Good tip.

Anyway, I wouldn't hesistate to fly Eva again, especially since they were more convenient and less expensive to Jakarta than Northwest.