Who is the cat that always wears her bow on the left ear? Hello Kitty! EVA Air’s Hello Kitty flights that feature aircraft with Sanrio themed liveries, as well as small tastes of the cat throughout the aircraft, have been a big hit with aviation enthusiasts and passengers alike.

The EVA Air BR055 flight I took was on Monday, June 25, 2018, flown on a Boeing 777-300ER (B-16722) that sports the Hello Kitty theme. I was seated in economy class, located at 49H.

EVA Air has a website with more information about their Hello Kitty flights as well as a schedule of when each of their aircraft flies at http://www.evakitty.com/.

Check-In

Check-in at Chicago O’Hare International Airport was located in the center of the row of check-in desks located in Terminal 5, conveniently located right next to the security checkpoint before entering the secure areas of the airport. As the flight was Hello Kitty themed, the screens followed the adorable Sanrio character themes.

EVA Air Hello Kitty themed check-in desks

Upon check-in, the O’Hare staff member presented various luggage tags that were also Hello Kitty themed to label luggage and carry-on baggage. The boarding pass is a must keep souvenir with a healthy dose of Sanrio decoration.

BR055 Hello Kitty boarding pass

Boarding

Since the flight departs at the middle of the night, Terminal 5 is generally empty and many stores are closed. Although there will be fewer people, a small number of additional international flights depart at this time, so security is not necessarily going to be exceptionally fast. Continue to observe the suggestion of checking-in and passing through security at least an hour before boarding in case of any hiccups during security, such as an operator change on the x-ray machines that I experienced.

Terminal 5 is not a planespotter’s dream. There are very few windows compared to other modern international airports and windows are not placed in convenient locations for viewing. If you are going to try to snap a picture of your ride, be prepared to roam to find a perfect spot. A friend of mine had to practically climb a shelf in a store to look out a window for a still-miserable picture, while I had to walk across a few gates and stores to find a window that finally faced the plane.

Boeing 777-300ER B-16722 at gate M7 at KORD.

Boarding is divided into five zones. If you prefer to board earlier in your zone, be prepared to stand up when boarding is called and wait in line while the earlier zones board first.

Upon entering the aircraft, some may consider the Hello Kitty theme to be strangely lacking. Given the adorable artwork painted on the exterior of the aircraft, my friends on different Hello Kitty flights by EVA Air agree that the expectation of Hello Kitty splatter everywhere was not met.

Economy cabin of B-16722

Reaching my aisle seat 49H, I was greeted with a complimentary pillow and blanket. I did take both with me off the flight.

EVA Air Hello Kitty pillow and blanket

The blanket is actually very comfortable and warm. The pillow, however, isn’t the fluffiest of all and is pretty thin, but does get the job done and features adorable Sanrio characters. Headrest covers on the seats alternate between purple and pink themes on each seat and are appropriately Hello Kitty themed. The seat width is plenty comfortable for me with an average waist size. Seat configuration on the EVA Air Boeing 777’s are 3-3-3, an incredibly generous seat width against some of the competition.

The in-flight entertainment (IFE) is a touchscreen monitor on the seat in front of you, while exit rows have a touchscreen monitor that pulls out from the arm-rest but must be stowed during takeoff and landing. Screen resolution appears to be pretty high and the touchscreen is fairly responsive, making scrubbing through movies easy.

There are the standard two-jack 3.5mm audio ports on the touchscreen monitor. There are headphones provided for each seat, but using my own single-jack 3.5mm headphones was not a problem. A USB port for charging is also located on the monitor. A word of caution is that when I plugged my Android smartphone in, I received a prompt for storage access, making it appear that there is an ability to transfer data between your personal device and the IFE. I couldn’t find a function to read files off of a plugged-in USB device in the IFE, so I would strongly urge to deny file access if you are prompted to on your smartphone.

EVA Air Boeing 777-300ER IFE ports

AC outlets are located under the seat between each seat and are illuminated by a green light. They are fairly universal outlets and will work with three prong, two pron, and European types of plugs.

EVA Air Boeing 777-300ER AC outlets

Seats are fairly comfortable to sit in. The headrest is a little too big for me, however, so the upright position for the seat is uncomfortably straight and stiff for me. Reclining the seat is accomplished with the normal button located on the armrest. The seat reclines by both pushing the bottom half forward and tilting back, reducing the effect on the passenger seat behind you. The recline does not go very far and could be difficult to actually move, but being able to recline without bothering the person behind you or having the person reclining in front without too much effect on your knees is definitely a plus.

If there is one safety card in your life to at least take a glance at, it would be the ones on this plane. They are outlined in a gentle Hello Kitty theme to spruce things up a little.

EVA Air Hello Kitty safety card

EVA Air Hello Kitty safety card

Of course, if you need a barf bag, there is one provided. Yes, it is Hello Kitty themed!

Hello Kitty barf bag

Flight

The flight is approximately 14 hours and goes directly from Chicago, USA to Taipei, Taiwan. It departs at 12:30 AM central standard/daylight time and arrives at 4:00 AM China standard time the next day.

EVA Air crew definitely have one of the better cabin services I have experienced on the flights I have been on. There are plenty of flight attendants staffed on these flights and communicating in English or Chinese is not a problem. All announcements are made in Chinese and English as well as Taiwanese on occasion.

As we were leaving Chicago O’Hare, flight attendants walked around with Taiwan Arrival Cards. Incoming passengers for Taiwan are required to fill out this short form in order to pass through immigration. By giving out the cards ahead of time, I didn’t have to worry about it later when we arrived in Taipei and could simply hand it to the immigration officer.

While I am not a renown food critic, the meals were good for me. The taste was satisfying and the portions were not too small. Some things do taste slightly off or have little taste, but that is to be expected with both airline food and being so high in a low-humidity environment.

First meal served

Second meal served

There were two meals. One was served a while after takeoff, another was served as we were approaching our destination over Japan. The platter cover and plastic eating utensils are appropriately Hello Kitty themed as well. A warmed wet wipe is also provided to clean your hands before indulging in your meal.

The time between meals that consists of the majority of the flight is mostly sleep time. Being a newer Boeing 777, the aircraft features smooth lighting as well as some color theming. Lights come on and off gently and will not blind you as they are switched on.

A calming blue atmosphere that is used for the majority of the flight

Purple and pink lighting theme

Passengers were awakened by a gentle theme of pink and purple before the final meal is served.

Throughout the flight, snacks are provided. They range from dried fish and seafood snacks as well as bread with some sort of filling I am unfamiliar with. Water and drinks are frequently served as well.

There is a rather limited selection of movies available for viewing in the IFE. More recent popular movies are not available for watching, but a few classics and less-known movies and TV shows are available. On a positive note, the interface is very easy to use. It appears to be running on a modified Android system, hinted by an Android theme that shows up in the map function. The map function, however, is fairly limited and the rate and type of information shown are automatically controlled. You cannot move around the map or click around on information about the flight.

Map view in the IFE

One of the most upsetting features on this aircraft is the reading light. The light is switched on and off via the IFE and may take a few seconds before the light actually comes on. Being in the aisle seat, the reading light is not positioned over me, but rather way on the side above the window passenger. As a result, the light is incredibly angled and covers a wide area. The light is also incredibly bright for a reading light. Afraid of awakening my seatmates next to me as well as shining a bright beacon light on myself and the aisle, I refrained from using the reading light at all.

This Boeing 777 was equipped with WiFi and SMS roaming service. I was not willing to pay for the internet, so I did not get to explore the quality and speed of it. My phone also does not have SMS roaming service, but I did inadvertently turn off airplane mode on my phone and could see full-bar SMS service and received a message from EVA Air about roaming services on the aircraft.

During the flight, I had also requested some poker cards from one of the flight attendants to serve as souvenirs for this flight. She happily gave me two different playing packs with adorable Hello Kitty themes.

Hello Kitty playing cards

Landing

The flight arrives around 4:30 AM local time in Taipei. It is essentially the only aircraft that arrives at this time, so the service at the airport is incredibly fast. Passengers were able to alight the aircraft rather soon after arriving at the gate. The airport is quite empty as it begins to wake up to welcome other flights throughout the day. Passing through immigration was incredibly fast, almost as fast as immigration for Taiwan citizens and those with a Taiwan passport. Baggage was already rolling out on the carousel as well once I passed a quick immigration process. Walking through customs was a breeze with no goods to declare, quite literally a stroll right by the customs officer.

My specific flight had actually arrived at Taipei much earlier than scheduled and I had passed through the entire immigration, baggage, and customs process in less than half an hour. As a result, I had some time to kill before my ride would arrive, so I logged onto the free airport WiFi to catch up. Connecting to the airport WiFi was incredibly simple to connect to and worked well, a sharp contrast to the difficult to use and poor WiFi service at Chicago O’Hare.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this was a positive flight experience for me. Even though the timing of the flight is incredibly odd, it is actually a rather convenient flight time. Airports on either end of the flight are fairly empty when this aircraft arrives, resulting in fast service. In addition, sleeping throughout the flight results in essentially a fast time adjustment to the new time zone, allowing you to begin exploring Taiwan right after you deplane. Finally, EVA Air service on this flight with the Hello Kitty theme was exceptional and it is definitely an experience I hope to have another time in the future.

Oh, and of course, the souvenirs are plenty from this flight!

EVA Air Hello Kitty flight souvenirs