Eva Air have recently launched their newest business class seat, looking very much like the new Weber‘s ‘Cirrus’ reverse herringbone seat, as launched on Qatar and Lufthansa amongst others. Titled ‘Royal Laurel Class‘ this seat will be offered on their Taipei-New York service and will be on board in June 2nd 2012 in a cabin with just 38 seats then rolled out in a $100 million improvement scheme across it’s 777 fleet.
Whilst no real press release has gone out, it’s easy to tell you about the seat due to it’s sister seats on the other airlines (if you were going to buy stock in a company, I think Weber Seating might be a good way to go!). It will have electronic lumbar support, a bed that is a hair’s length less under 2 metres and a 1x2x1 seating configuration.
The colour combination that Eva has gone for is a mixture of sage and sandy greys. A very neutral and calming environment, although I have to say, not a great fan of the green. It makes the seat look very clinical, as if you were in a hospital bed. Hopefully the lighting in the cabin will add to the effect and enhance the seat in a positive way.
This now gives EVA air a fourth style of business class seat, meaning their business class offering varies dramatically between routes, from nearly lie flat to lie flat, and this may put some travellers off, who pick an airline’s business class offering on its seat comfort. No doubt the seating options will start to become more coherent as their fleet undergoes a cabin renewal.
If this isn’t your bag, then why not go on one of Eva Airways new A330 Hello Kitty aircraft, with it’s own unique business class? There are two more a330’s offering fully laden Hello Kitty flights, from the check in kiosks to the food served on board for all classes, everything has the Kitty’s face staring at you. The fun livery is adorned with Hello Kitty graphics, and for a fan, this might literally be like overdosing on catnip. Just don’t forget to purchase some of the exclusive Hello Kitty Duty Free merchandise onboard.
If however, you just happen to fly on these routes, without knowing you are on a Hello Kitty plane, and you can’t stand the brand (like myself) I really do feel for you! As I’m not a cruel person, so here’s a cat’s-heads up. The routes these fly on are Tokyo Haneda, Fukuoka, Hong Kong, Seoul, Sapporo and Guam. If you want to paws for thought, here’s the website.
TheDesignAir 
Ive often heard people complain about the discomfort of EVA’s Premium Laurel product and the lack of lie flat seats. This is a welcome change indeed, now only if I had the money for a ticket.
you missed an important part of the story. EVA will increase business class tickets by 20%. for a typical LAX->TPE roundtrip ticket, that should cost $3600, it will cost $4320 on their sicma cirrus product.