artieb78

Did this work out for you, JackTripper? I just booked a B-class ticket on EVA that is showing Star Alliance upgrade award availability on ANA. When I go to UA, it says unavailable. According to ITA, the Y-class ticket is about $300 more than B-class (which is already about ~$300 more than non-upgradeable EVA ticket class).

Y-class is not an option for me on EVAair.com, so I would need to call and book the Y ticket. Does anyone know if cancellations/refunds within 24 hours of a ticket purchased over the phone go through as easily as tickets purchased online?

kniesel

Can anyone advise if they have been successful in paying for upgrade from full Y to J?

Thanks

JackTripper

I just saw this post. Yes, I was able to upgrade from my B ticket. If UA says unavailable try another date. Or, try Y, but you'll have to call them for the fare if it doesn't show in their site. I've never had to cancel with them so .i don't know how easy that would be.

artieb78

Here's my story:

My B ticket wouldn't upgrade, so I cancelled and purchased a Y ticket via travel agent (EVA website could not book Y, and when I called EVA they recommended I book through a travel agent and not directly through them - not sure why).

However, the Y ticket also would not upgrade on UA website even though ANA and UA were still showing business award availability.

I ended up calling UA several times and spoke to several different agents. They escalated it to a *A liaison for UA-EVA. I was supposed to check back "in a few days" and try again.

In the meantime, I went ahead and put in a UA Web Support request since I was convinced this was a technical issue and the upgrade award was in fact available. I even spoke with EVA and they confirmed over the phone that it was available. I included that tid-bit in the Web Support request.

About 30 minutes after the Web Support request, my flight was magically upgraded when I looked it up on EVA website! I'm not sure which channel of support got it to work: (a) calling UA and having the "liaison" figure it out, or (b) the Web Support request.

Although I am very happy that after all this time and effort it finally went through, I am still going to follow up and see HOW it actually happened because i would like to upgrade the return portion of my flight if and when it starts to show business award availability (only the outbound portion was currently showing availability on ANA).

Stay tuned.

JackTripper

Thank you for sharing. Let us know how it turns out.

For some reason when I checked UA award availability it showed none but after I booked the ticket and could see *A upgrade, it showed available for the same dates.

What flight are you trying to upgrade?

artieb78

Apparently this upgrade request went through by manual request from UA to EVA via the liaison, not through web support.

I upgraded SFO-TPE on BR27 (Royal Laurel).

silent129

Hi artieb78

I am having the same problem (finding 2 award tickets on EVA on the same date I'm trying to do an upgrade, but website won't push it through nor will the UA agents). The agent that I spoke to denied that there is a UA-EVA liaison and said everything is essentially a blind request. Would you mind sharing how you managed to get this issue escalated?

Thanks!

sfo3388

My experience today was quite smooth.

First I had a few dates in mind and called EVA (800-695-1188). I told the agent that I intended to use UA miles for fare class B ticket upgrade. She gave me the availability of the dates I suggested.

Then I had the EVA ticket issued. Went to United.com to request *A upgrade awards (http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps...rdUpgrade.aspx).

Both segments were confirmed instantly. United sent me receipts. Miles were deducted. I was able to select Royal Laurel seats on EVA.com. It all happened within a few minutes.

By the way, I am not sure if "*A upgrade" and "free award seat" are from the same inventory for EVA. I know some FTers said they were both from I class inventory. On United.com, it still shows no free award availability on the flight I selected. However, the EVA agent told me that there were 5 seats available for *A upgrade.

xtc

Congrats on the good news, thanks for posting the update on the time frame. With all of the changes with EVA in the past year or so, that gives an idea of when they might push through the upgrade.

Reverted to Green status so it's unknown if they'll do it. I made reservations a few weeks ago for Elite (class T fare) from LAX to TPE in early March, then put in a request for upgrade to RL through the website. Points were not deducted and I'm currently on the waitlist. In previous years as a Silver and prior to *A, if I didn't hear back approx 7 days before the trip, it was their way of saying, better luck next time.

xtc

Update: Just logged into the EVA website noticed that my itinerary details had changed in the past 24 hours, I was asked to call into the reservation center.

The rep had good news for me about an upgrade to RL available from Elite. My trip is about 10 days out and I wasn't sure about getting it since I reverted back to green status. After I looking through Expert Flyer for the least crowded RL travel day of the week, it turned out well this time around. In the past, I'd find a sparsely filled RL, but wouldn't be able to score the upgrade.

Thanks to everyone for keeping this thread updated.

yyzcdg

Hey everyone,

Would anyone be able to check *A upgrade availability from YYZ-TPE on BR 35 on April 25, 2014? I see there are J rewards seats available but can't see to upgrade my "Y" ticket. Thanks in advance.

cornellfOo

Interesting. This seems like the smoothest upgrade reported. To get this straight, you:

1. Asked EVA CSR about availability of *A upgrade using United miles
2. Bought & confirmed the ticket over the phone through EVA on specified dates
3. Upgraded your ticket through the United upgrade tool using the information from EVA

This may be the way I'll go if I ever need to do this. Thanks for sharing ^

gates1580

Booked an award ticket with Air Canada Aeroplan miles on EVA AIR Business Class for 2 Adults SFO to TPE to HKG:

Total Miles: 75K X 2 = 150K miles
Total Fees: $55 CAD

Used my AMEX MR points to transfer to Aeroplan. Transfer happened instantly while I was on the call with Amex agent. Then booked the award online on Aeroplan website. Surprisingly, Aeroplan is showing a lot more star alliance awards these days. Improved significantly in the past couple of years.

yyzcdg

Good to know that the Aeroplan website works to request star alliance upgrade awards. I tried requesting to upgrade my "Y" class ticket and it keeps telling me that no inventory is available. Oddly enough, for my date, there are supposedly 9 reward J seats...which do not make sense either.

chenchak

I'm trying to use my TG miles to upgrade TPE-SFO-TPE from Y/B to C. I used KVS and found that EVA seems to have C availability only about 32 days in advance(May 21st for both ways). Is it the EVA habits of releasing the *A quota not long before the departure date or the flights just happen to be coincidentally full in the later period so the quota is not available?