EVA "Super First Class"?
 

Hey all, I'm in the process of giving early thought to my honeymoon (well, I get married in two weeks...with deferred honeymoon). Anyway, I want to go somewhere far away and want to use some of the 400K+ miles I have. That said, I'm debating purchasing and upgrading or going flat out for a reward seat.

I was looking at the reward charts on the CO website and they list EVA's "Super First Class" at 220K/ticket! What's the deal with that? What's so special about it?

Nothing-- at least not compared to any other Asian carrier's F product. Interestingly, TPE-JFK in F on EVA is about as cheap as any F ticket Asia->US you'll ever see-- regardless of whether it is ticketed on BR, CO codeshare or AA codeshare.

Here's some discussion of "super first class."
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum71/HTML/009713.html

And their "super business class"
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum71/HTML/007647.html

The only exceptional thing about "super first class" is the amount of miles CO gets for it. A ticket on CX F (which is obviously superior to EVA) to anywhere in Asia/ S. Pacific can be had for a mere 140,000 miles.

...just not OnePass miles.

[This message has been edited by JonNYC (edited 08-01-2002).]

Jon's words being said, let's clarify that it often happens to be that most awards on partners tend to be greater than on the host program's airline itself.

That you mention EVA, you might want to consider outright booking their Evergreen Deluxe Economy class. I'll let whoever is so inclined to do the search and post the links, but in a nutshell, it's a business-class seat at the front of a 747 for a few hundred dollars more than a ticket bought at bulk fare. One of the best values in the air, in my opinion. Check it out.

It's more like a domestic F class seat. Not really up to today's intl. business class standards.

One thing though. I know you get OP miles since they are a partner. But do the miles count for elite status?

I think I read somewhere they don't.

That's the impression I'm under as well-- just an "enhanced" (sorry) economy seat (which is how I describe some domestic F seats as well.) I have heard Evergreen Deluxe Economy is a good deal for the money and quite comfy for it's very reasonable price. And, after all, anything is better than CO coach...

As far as an airline mileage-gouging when it comes to "selling" mileage rewards on it's partners...well, let's just say not all airlines do that. 'Nuff said.

It's not what I would call exotic, but it is far away. You can fly QF to Australia. It's 135,000 for a first class ticket through CO and there is availability.

Evergreen Deluxe is definitely not comparable to international business class, but also definitively a very good value for money.
8 seats abreast in a 747 (2-4-2), a seat pitch of 38”, personal video.
When taking into account the price (discounted tickets), it is a really good product in my opinion.

The only negative point is the food, very Asian-oriented (but it is difficult to complain, on my Europe to Taipei flights the vast majority of passengers are Asian, the product is not very well know by Europeans).

Since it's Duhey's honeymoon, I think it's only fair to point out that scoring more than one QF F seat is very difficult. If you can be very flexible with your dates, QF J seats for 105,000 miles each are also available, and slightly easier to come by. You might want to do a search of the CO threads for QANTAS help, if you decide to go that route. There's a lot of helpful info posted here by those of us who have gone before you.

Thanks for the insight Dux. I think I might actually be willing to burn 270K miles on two F seats. But, now that you point it out, it doesn't suprise me that getting two seats may be tough. I've always been one to horde my miles but if I was going to Oz or NZ, I'd want to do it right and go F the whole way (sounds like their F is pretty bad a$$ too).

Another question, does this ticket get me only from a "gateway" or will CO give me connecting service from IAH (F or BF I hope)?

Confirmed connectiing (Y class) service is included in the reward ticket. They will "waitlist" you for F, so they say.

Try to get the connection on NW though, where they will confirm you (I think) in F. I did it on HP when HP was still an optipon.

Duhey -

I've heard similar things about QF F class, but I thought the J class was better than BF, if you get my drift... I've also heard that QF is further upgrading their J class as well. You really can't go wrong as long as you are not in Y...

As Babu said, you'll be in Y, waitlisted for F if you fly CO to the gateway. The words, "service to the gateway city is only provided as a courtesy, as is the waitlist for First", was the most memorable part of the whole CO award experience.


[This message has been edited by duxfan (edited 08-02-2002).]

My mom flew on EVA from LAX to SIN. She got OnePass miles for the flights. However, only the LAX-TPE segment was elite-qualifying. The TPE-SIN portion was considered non-elite segment, though, she got the miles for it. I'm not quite sure the rationale behind that...
As far as for JFK-TPE, I would incline to think it as elite-qualifying... but I could be wrong.

I believe CO codeshares the EVA LAX-TPE flight (flight number 9000+?); perhaps that explains the elite qualification difference.

I fly the EVA JFK-TPE route often on evergreen delux class. You will get 7793 elite miles one way!