I see a rather long post on Baht Stop about flying EVA to Thailand, and I'm not a poster on Baht Stop, so I thought I would start a new thread here. I have had several serious issues with EVA that I had discusssed with my travel agent prior to my last flight. Sadly, I predicted EVA's behavior prior to the flight. Following is the letter that was sent to my travel agent...it explains the whole situaation in detail. Legal complaints have been filed since returning to LAX. Have any of you had a similar experience with EVA while flying out of of LAX?

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I have been sitting on this letter for three weeks now trying to decide if I were overly emotional or had really been discriminated against by EVA. I think that I have now arrived at the considered conclusion that we were discriminated against in favor of some Taiwanese people by EVA, so this is what has been on my mind since arriving in Thailand. I may be filing official complaints with the both the LA City Department of Airports and the FAA's Office of Civil Rights after returning to the USA, because there are both Federal laws and City codes against this type of discrimination

For the last five years I have bought many tickets from you to Asia only on EVA. I fly there several times a years. I have, also, as you know, referred many people to you to buy EVA tickets. Several trips ago things with EVA began to change and I have addressed those issues with you in the past. I cannot express to you in words how disappointed and disgusted I am at this moment with EVA. The flight attendants are wonderful and always most helpful, my issue is either with their corporate policy and/or the discriminatory behavior of their LAX ticket agents in assigning seating.

As you will remember from our conversions before this trip, I discussed with you in your office EVA's LA ticket agents repeated attempted to seat me and my travel companions against the bulkhead/toilet wall even thought we had other reserved seats. And that it was always an issue of showing them our seat numbers and then someone fumbled around and like magic they found us not our reserved seats, but other equally good seating, and always it was Taiwanese businessmen setting in the reserved seats that I had already paid for. You will also remember that at that time you gave me the tickets for the NOV 30 flight I expressed two concerns with you about our NOV 30 FLT 1 to Taipei and FLT 67 to Bangkok, concern one being that without reserved seats that we would get the bulkhead toilet row, concern two being that EVA's LAX ticket agents engage in profiling and/or other illegal discriminatory practices when assigning seating on their planes. I have noted, and said to you in your office, that almost without exception the people sitting on the toilet wall are either very old Asian people or white people that are the one time tourist type: in other words the kind of clients they don't care about and can easily get away with discriminating against without consequences.

We paid for Elite Deluxe seats but what we got was not only much less that Elite Deluxe seats, it was less than economy seats. It was TOILET SEATS. Row 27 seats F&G on a 777 should not be sold they should pay people to sit in them. I consider the money that I paid for these seats to have been stolen from me. The service promised by EVA was absolutely not delivered.

I had the worst airline travel experience of my life on this EVA flight, and I have traveled the world for many many years. We spent not only 14 hours to Taipei in those toilet seats, they gave us exactly the same toilet seats for an added 4 hours from Taipei to Bangkok. So, in total we spent 18 hours with a very loud toilet flushing within two feet of our heads, and all of the smells that go with a bathroom periodically whiffing through our nostrils.

I want to explain to you in detail what sitting in one of those seats is like...And I challenge any EVA executive to sit in either of those two seats for 18 hours and then look me straight in the eye and tell me that it was not a terrible experience and that I don't deserve an apology and refund.

For 18 hours you have a very loud toilet flushing nearly continuously within two feet of your head which makes rest and sleep nearly impossible, but that was only the beginning of the flight from hell. Every time the door opens the smell of either the deodorizer used in the bathroom, deodorant, hair spray, or human waste is smelled. Also, 777's are not larger enough to accommodate people standing waiting for the bathroom, so for much of the flight you have people standing with their buttocks' within inches of your face chatting and passing gas. Then to add to the misery the magazine rack is less than one foot from the top of your head, so people are leaning over you reaching for and looking through the magazines, but the real fun is when they return the magazines: they simply drop them in the rack making another loud unexpected banging sound with in inches of your head. Now moving right along on this flight from hell lets chat about the fact that row 27 is the last to be served at all times by the flight attendants, so for both dinner and breakfast they were out of all but the least desirable food when they reached us. For dinner Gary had a tofu something that was not good and I didn't have dinner, I ate only the side dished. At breakfast the only item left by the time they reached row 27 was Chinese porridge, which most people with western taste just simply do not like the taste of, so no breakfast either, side dishes only.

I am told that EVA is seeking a larger share of the American travel market to Asia. My question to EVA is, If this is how they routinely treat a customer that has been flying them for years and has been sending new clients to my travel agents to buy EVA tickets how do you think you will ever capture a larger share of the American travel market?

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