Originally Posted by
e90dude1
Any advice for a newbie here? I need to go LAX-TPE on EVA in November, I was going to use my UA miles to book the flight through UA economy...then was going to talk to BR about using cash to upgrade to PE. Does anyone know if this is possible or even a smart move, when booking through UA for award flight in economy which fare class is it?
My other option is to buy a higher class economy fare through EVA, then try to use my UA miles to upgrade through the SAUA site, does anyone know approx how many miles it usually takes to go from economy to PE using UA miles?
thanks for the help
All of this is published. If you use miles to purchase a ticket it is not upgradeable, period. If you want to sit in a higher cabin then you must use miles for that higher cabin, or use cash for an upgradeable class of service then use miles to upgrade that. Number of UA miles required to upgrade on BR is published in UA *A award charts... to business, not PE as that is not offered. And remember that your actual mileage cost is the award cost less miles that you will earn on the paid ticket.
There is much discussion in this thread about how to find out if upgrade is available before making the purchase, bottom line is there is no guaranteed way to find out, but your best bet is telephone to EVA and ask them to check for Z class. You should purchase the economy ticket at EVA web site as they let you select class-of-service that is upgradable (Y or B class for economy) and if you buy and then discover the upgrade is not available you can cancel if still within 24 hours.
DAK