ltspongebob

A related question.

I'm still a newbie when it comes to awards flights.

I recently used miles for an award flight that will be on Eva Air from LAX-TPE. The booking class is "Business (I)", however I see that the 777-300ER has royal laural, elite, and economy.

Does the booking class "I" equate to Royal Laurel or Elite?

Thanks!

bocastephen

Royal Laurel - miles don't book into or upgrade into Elite Class

ltspongebob

That's good to hear.

Thanks!

bigbellytraveler

I hear the 777-300ER royal laural is pretty nice. was thinking pf burning my miles to try it before the devaluation

bocastephen

The seat is very nice - the service excellent - the problem is catering - EVA still has a long way to go before they complete an upgrade to food service and brings it to the same level as competitors with a similar seat.

I wouldn't waste a full mileage ticket on the product given the availability of affordable Y/B fares you can upgrade to with 25k miles each way.

bigbellytraveler

food is no good? matter of taste or just no good.


instead of food pics I can always hope to be on the hello kitty plane. and try to get pics of that.

mdpdjx

A blogger recently gave a very detailed trip report on Eva Air business class. Too bad my daughter is not a fan of Hello Kitty. Otherwise I would definitely arrange a trip for us.

http://boardingarea.com/onemileatati...san-francisco/

bigbellytraveler

looked at the menu and food pics from the blog.

looked ok... but I can see what the other poster meant about the food.

twkidM3

Looking to book an award ticket from San Francisco to Taipei Taoyuan Intl Airport for June 2014. I see a lot of open seats available on award travel. What I want to know is, are there "Economy Plus" seating for EVA air when book with award travel? How does the leg room compare to standard 747 flights on United?

mherdeg

EVA does have a "premium economy" product, which is a bit different from United's Economy Plus. If you hold a UA award ticket in coach on BR, you are unlikely to be able to buy-up to "premium economy" before day of travel.

UA's "Economy Plus" product is the same seats and service but with a little bit of extra room in between the seats.

BR's product, which they call "Elite" class is a "true" premium economy — wider seats with a better recline.

It is reportedly impossible to buy-up in advance from economy to Elite class on economy award ticket booked by United on a flight operated EVA Air. See one traveler's experience at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...leageplus.html and see some further discussion at http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...-ua-miles.html . If you ask in person at the airport, you may be able to ask to buy up (paying cash for a space-available upgrade to the premium-economy Elite class or the business Premium Laurel class). Expect to pay a fair amount of money (hundreds of dollars).

For info about the seating arrangement of your flight, check what kind of plane is operating it and look up their seat map on Seatguru. I think BR SFO-TPE is operated by 777s in June.

transportprof

In my experience, you can have either E+ on BR, or an award ticket, but not both. MP does not book into E+ buckets on *A partners, unless there is a trick that FT sages will share below.

bocastephen

The PE cabin on BR sells out on virtually every flight, so the chance of getting a buy-up at day of departure is very slim. The award ticket will only book into standard coach and there are no redemption options of any kind in PE.

I would look at a business class redemption as the new J product should be operating on the SFO route by now.

TakeTheATrain

EVA's premium economy is a separate class of service unlike United which groups Economy and Economy Plus in the same cabin. That being said, EVA's Elite class features wider seats and much more legroom (38 pitch with 19.5 width) than what United's Economy Plus offers. You unfortunately cannot use United miles for EVA's premium economy and can only book Economy or Business.

I would recommend, however, looking into whether there are some cheap Y or B fares available. EVA has fairly decent Y and B fares, which are upgradable with United miles (and without a copay!). I was able to clear an upgrade on TPE-SFO without even waitlisting.

twkidM3

So I forgot to note, I'm United 1K.
But from what I gathered, not possible to book award directly onto Premium Economy on Eva.

TommyC80

Supposedly you can pre-order your meals on EVA from a menu that has tons of selections on it (included lobster, etc). I think I read the same review you did and the poster mentioned that he did not do the preorder.

I'm flying EVA to DPS later next year, so I guess I'll find out when that trip starts approaching. Either way, I'm not flitting them for the food. I'm flying them for the seat…and the unlimited Dom.