Trip Report: HKG-TPE EVA Air Hello Kitty Business Class

For my first Hello Kitty flight I flew from Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE). This was one of the segments on my way to Seoul. There are lots of ways to get from Hong Kong to Seoul but only 1 itinerary that involves 2 Hello Kitty flights - HKG-TPE on BR858 and TPE-ICN on BR160. This required an overnight in Taipei which I was more than happy to do. EVA Air offers 7 flights a day between HKG and TPE and unfortunately the Hello Kitty flight is the second to last one around 9pm.

The route:

The plane:

Check-in
For once in my life I actually headed to the airport early. Over 3 hours early. I bought a roundtrip ticket on the Airport Express so I headed to Hong Kong station to board the train back to the airport. At the station, they had airline desks so I stopped by to see what they could do for me. They could actually do a lot. The check-in agent issued my Hello Kitty boarding passes and checked in my luggage. Sweet!

I was surprised and elated they had Hello Kitty boarding pass paper at Hong Kong station.

Airplane
Thank goodness I had access to the Virgin Clubhouse lounge. On my way out of the club, the lounge agents told me I could see the plane from the lounge. Good thing they said that because it actually was the best picture I got of the plane (which unfortunately was still pretty pitiful).

Who picked the Hello Kitty flight to be a night flight?? So not cool.

Obstructed view of the plane from the gate area. Ugh. There were a few opportunities for taking pics on the jet bridge but unfortunately due to the outside darkness all my pictures caught reflections of the jet bridge interior. Awful.

Business Cabin
The pillows on this flight featured a close-up of Hello Kitty's face. Adorable!

Lots of empty business seats

My window seat with green pillow

Hello Kitty boarding video

Hello Kitty safety card

EVA Sky Shop catalog and sanitary bag (aka air sickness bag)

Business cabin. A shame I didn't wait another second or two for Hello Kitty's face to splash across all the screens.

The framed Hello Kitty picture at the front of the cabin

Menu and Meal
Since it was a shorter flight (1 hr 45 min) I decided to order the kids meal. (I pre-ordered this meal online. Same place you can pre-order your adult meal entree.) I had done some research on the meals and found out that the kids meal is the most Hello Kitty themed meal on the flight. I figured I could enjoy business class meals on my other, longer Hello Kitty flights. I would recommend that if you are traveling with someone on a Hello Kitty flight to have one person order the kids meal to get the full Hello Kitty experience. Then share the meals.

Food and beverage cover

In case you are interested, here are the meal options from Taipei to Hong Kong.

Here were the meal choices for my flight, Hong Kong to Taipei. I wasn't a fan of any of the choices so I'm glad I got the kids meal.

Beverage options were pretty much the same on every flight.

I was a big fan of the Matcha Milk Tea. I was curious about the Salty Coffee though but never had the guts to order it.

And now for the amazing meal :)

Loved the box! This would have been the perfect picnic lunch.

Contents of the box. The apple juice box, candy, and utensils were all included inside the box as well.

The entree portion was meatballs and gravy with mashed potatoes and bok choy. The garlic bread came from a bread basket that the flight attendants were going around the cabin with.

The Hello Kitty pink mochi on the left was filled with red bean paste and was AMAZING!! (FYI red/asuki beans in Asia are sweet.) I would have bought a box of those if I could find them. And notice how the melon is the shape of Hello Kitty's head.

The ham was in the shape of an airplane but it looked questionable so I skipped it. The Hello Kitty shaped cheese was good though.

I have never been so delighted with plastic utensils. You don't get these with business class meals. They give you silverware. You might get them in economy class though. You betcha I took these home with me.

Similar to other Asian airlines, EVA serves a great meal on a short flight. For a kids meal, there is a lot of food! I highly recommend! There were a ton of flight attendants and they were all super nice and attentive. Unfortunately I forgot that EVA gives out free decks of cards so I did not get my Hello Kitty themed cards on this flight. :( For souvenirs, I bought a Hello Kitty travel set (neck pillow, luggage belt, and eye mask) and Hello Kitty puzzle planes from the Sky Shop.