Hi

It might also be worth taking a look at and asking in the dedicated EVA Airways topic in the flights forum http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=87004&hilit=eva

One of my friends is not long back from Thailand and flew with them and was very impressed, so they must have been good as he is very fussy

I find EVA superior in most things compared to Thai. I've flown their economy and premium economy and prefer it for the entertainment, and the fact that you get a very similar seat pitch.

Seat Pitch - Marginally Better on Thai
Entertainment - Hands down EVA
Food - Prefer Thai, but EVA is OK, and pot noodles between meals suit me!
Service - Thai wins as it does against most airlines, but EVA is fine.
Planes - EVA more modern, quieter 777's vs Thai's antiquated 747's.
Flight times - OK, twice as many Thai flights, so twice as much choice - but I like EVA's day flight on the return - I find it better for beating jet lag as I don't sleep on planes anyway.

Also note that EVA have tie-ins with Bangkok Airways, so you get discounted onward flights to most destinations within Thailand. Worth considering (you won't get this online).

When booking connecting flights (London - Bangkok then Bangkok to Samui), no stop-over in Bangkok - is an hour long enough to leave?

Travel Agents telling me you need to leave over 2 hours, EVA telling us that it doesn't matter because if you get delayed and miss the planned flight, they will put you on the next available..!

Who is right!?

They are both right. If it's one ticket, then technically 55 minutes is fine. However with a Bangkok Airways flight every hour, why not take the stress out of the potential of you, and your luggage missing the onward connection? Things such as block times allow most flights about an hour from ETD to actually taking off don't come into consideration for most people, so the best case scenario would be you probably worrying you're going to miss your connection for the entire duration of your London - Bangkok flight!

Remember you will only be put on the 'next flight' if seats are available. There are big chunks of the year that Bangkok - Samui flights are packed. So the 'next flight' could in fact be several hours.

So, you could try and minimise your connection time. I always leave 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Don't know if this reply is too late ???
Just returned from Thailand (15th Aug) travelled with EVA air.
First word of warning............pre book your seats !!!!!.
We arrived at Heathrow over 4 hours before departure only to be told there was only 4 seats left that were avaliable. This meant that we were all split up on a 12 hour flight. I was lucky that a man sitting next to my husband changed seats with me. Our friends were not so lucky. I find it hard to believe that the whole plane had been pre booked except for us 4 ????.
Anyway, not bad legroom, comfortable seats, pillows and blankets given out. Decent in-flight movies etc.
I would use EVA again, but would definatley book my seats.
By the way, the check in staff booked our seats together for the return journey.

You can pre book your seats on the Eva web site up to 100 days befor you fly