If so, I'm curious how you've got on with the "guaranteed" booking. In the old days, as gold, I never really had a problem getting the flight I wanted. Its becoming increasingly common for me to be waitlisted for weeks on end for a seat against an existing ticket whilst EVA are still trying to sell the seats on the same flight to newcomers.

But a "benefit" of EVA diamond is:

Guaranteed booking. Diamond Card members who make reservations and register with membership card number 72 hours prior to flight departure are guaranteed a seat on EVA Air international flights.(please see note 1)

How have you got on with this? I remember meeting a guy who said it worked for him. 72 hours is still 3 days - and he complained that he would normally only know he was flying the day before. But generally he got a seat.

"Note 1" includes the exceptions:

....not available to Diamond Card members traveling with a....discount ticket, .....promotional fare ticket.....

I don't remember seeing this limitation in the past. Most tickets are promoted or discounted in some way.... so the "benefit" may not be great after all.

I've re-qualified as gold until 2009. But this year I might start using other airlines more which would mean losing gold next time around. On the other hand, I've had gold for ages and it becomes diamond after 8 years so if this diamond perk is really worth anything I might care more to maintain gold.