sfo3388

Thank you very much for the info. I just used United miles to do Star Alliance Upgrade with a B-class ticket for a December TPE-YVR segment.

There is a long wait to reach an EVA agent in North America.

bocastephen

Tell me about it! I wasted almost 4 hours this past weekend on hold, including a few call disconnects after 40+ minutes trying to reach an agent to look into an upgrade issue caused by United. In the end I gave up and just called the Taipei reservations office and they were able to fix everything. The running joke is there is one agent answering calls on the US/Canada line.

p0rc3lin

I am also trying to attempt a United SAUA for a KUL-TPE and TPE-SEA ticket (Y fare). However, can't go very far without any UA miles in my account. I have UR points to transfer. Anyone know if I have to have the full amount of upgrade miles to proceed (and check availability)? Just don't want to transfer UR>UA and have them stuck if the SAUA upgrade doesn't go through for whatever reason.

p0rc3lin

​​​​​​​Is there a toll-free number for Taiwan office? I've always wanted to try calingl other country's but the international call charges scared me off.

bocastephen

Check availability first per the instructions I posted upthread before transferring miles. No toll free number to Taiwan, but Google Voice costs 2 cents per minute, and there is an option to request English service in Taiwan - most of the English speaking agents there are easier to understand than the staff working the US call center.

psychoidiot

I've never tried the SAUA upgrade route before but there's no availability using United miles for the business flight ORD-TPE-HKG that I want.
I confirmed with the Hong kong office yesterday (haha, the Taipei one kept disconnecting) that there was Z class fare availability for the date that I want to travel
I did try to actually perform this yesterday (bought a one way EVA Y-UP ticket couldn't find B class) on Chase, transferred the miles from Chase to United for the upgrade award, but United couldn't find the ticket (no ticket number only confirmation number and Eva was already showing the ticket).
I ended up cancelling it because I had second thoughts.

• If the upgrade is confirmed, is there a way to lose the upgrade? I know Y/B economy is the only way to use this but it's really difficult to search on Eva's website? It seems it would suck to be stuck with the more expensive economy fare ticket. (Jan 2023)
• I originally was doing it for a one way and wanted to upgrade only the ORD-TPE portion but realized that one way international flight gets eaten away in fees. I could buy a roundtrip instead (but YUP runs about 1.8k for an economy ticket or about 160k chase points) and try to randomly upgrade (Feb/March 2023 return)
• That runs a risk of the TPE-ORD flight having issues/getting bumped with a schedule change?
• I also have a HND-ORD booked in business on ANA for 88k United miles (yeah I should have used Virgin but I needed the flexibility to change it) but have to buy a cash ticket for HKG-HND (also the itineraries are obviously not connected together so have to get baggage and recheck again if I do that).

It seems pretty straightforward for this process but I've always just booked the awards and never thought about the upgrades (no status hah! and seems like it would be hard to clear normally). Is there anything I'm not considering?

bocastephen

For the first point, could you elaborate? Were you using the online SAUA tool for the upgrade? What was the specific error? Did you enter the correct from/to details for just the flight segment you want to upgrade with the correct flight number, date and name as it appears on the EVA ticket?

For losing the upgrade, do you mean EVA taking it away? I've never heard of that happening before.

psychoidiot

I guess I was reading some articles where people were saying that for example, if there's a schedule change, you weren't guaranteed the upgrade after that? So once Eva confirms, it's good?

I didn't keep the ticket error but it was something along the lines of member name not matching flight or something like that. I had pulled up the Eva website next to the United website and it wasn't finding my name (with a space, no space, no second part of my name). So I refunded it because then I thought maybe I should attempt with a roundtrip (it was a one way). The flight also was BR55 and I tried BR055, BR55 in all combination with my name but United could not find me.

tzhu

Hi all, first of all, thanks so much for the helpful tips above. This is my first time posting on this forum, so apologies if this question has already been answered.
I followed the steps mentioned above in this thread to use a SAUA on EVA, but ran into an issue when trying to use the Star Alliance Upgrade Awards website on the United website.

1. I called EVA and confirmed that the flight I'm interested in (SFO --> TPE) has Z class availability.
2. I booked a B class (economy up) ticket for this flight.
3. I transferred points from Chase to United, and confirmed that my United account has sufficient miles ( > 35K miles) for this upgrade.
4. However, after entering my flight info and personal info into the Star Alliance Upgrade Awards website, I received the error "We cannot process your request. Please wait 15 minutes before trying to request again.". I've tried this over 10 times in the past 12 hours and have seen the same error every time. I've also called United Customer Support but they are unable to help.

If anyone has any idea why this might be happening (or how to fix this), it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

bocastephen

do not put the ticket number in the upgrade request just your name, airline, flight number and date

bocastephen

You won’t lose the upgrade once issued.

Does the ticket name on EVA include any salutation or middle name? Jr or Sr? You want to issue the ticket without those.

tzhu

Thanks for the reply @bocastephen. I tried only putting my name, airline, flight number, and date (not ticket number) in the upgrade request but received a different error instead:

The operating carrier could not find your reservation.

Please ensure you have correctly completed all required fields. (Also, ensure the traveler name is consistent with the ticketed name, provide the operating airline reservation number, and check for typographical errors.) If you lack required information or have continued errors, please contact the operating airline and request your confirmation/reservation number.

I've double-checked that this info matches my ticket info as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dave510

Do you have a middle name, by any chance?

tzhu

Nope, no middle name or suffix.

I’ve also tried restarting my browser and different browsers (Chrome, Safari) but still seeing the same error.

sfo3388

I normally booked the B class ticket immediately after EVA told me Z was available. Then applied Star Alliance Upgrade from United.com. However, it had happened to me at least once that the upgrade request from United did not go through.

Did EVA agent tell you how many Z seats were available? If there are 2-3 Z seats and you are the only passenger, the chance is good. You have to understand that the upgrade spaces could be taken by other Star Alliance account holders at the same time. (Not just United.)

I would cancel the B ticket and apply for refund if it is still within 24 hours of purchase.