skimthetrees

When you say the legs "cleared about 2 weeks prior to the flight dates", does that mean you had an upgrade request waitlisted with EVA and it cleared automatically at some point later? Or, did you call and when they processed the upgrade over the phone you call that cleared? Getting on an upgrade waitlist would be nice.

dkc192

Yes, it is possible to waitlist for an upgrade only when using BR miles.

BuBu4

i believe they call you to confirm your upgrade. if u miss their call, they usually say to call back before blah to confirm the upgrade.

skimthetrees

That's pretty awesome. Thanks!

hlee628

Yes. If you have miles in EVA's own program you can waitlist upgrades. Usually over the phone the agent will ask you if they should process the upgrade automatically when space becomes available, or if you want to be notified first. If you choose to be notified, they usually give you 24 hours notice before moving on to the next person on the waitlist.

PaclantFlyer

It looks like BR is tightening up upgrade space for the SAUA this summer. My SAUA did not clear for a Z class available flight for my itinerary in July.

PaclantFlyer

After churning through several tickets and calling for availability over 4 days, Z class availability is running at a 25% SAUA success rate for me now (previously near 100%) for a standard direct RT. Admittedly, this is the first time I've flown during the summer in a long while as I generally target the December/January holidays or Spring.

Observations

• The weekend United States BR office didn't seem to provide an accurate view of availability, as Friday and Monday agreed better in terms of what was available. Saturday and Sunday claimed lots of availability with 0/2 clearing on Sunday.
• Even though Friday and Monday agreed better, only 2/6 segments cleared on Monday.
• I attempted to apply the SAUAs immediately after getting off the phone. Even when the SAUA failed, BR would still report that Z class was available in subsequent calls.

Warning for UA SAUAers
Upgrading with UA? You may have noticed that the website can only process one segment at a time whereas previously it permitted two. Make sure you verify availability using the UA SAUA tool for all segments before attempting to apply the SAUA for all segments. This means that you should cancel out of the SAUA flow right after it tells you an upgrade is available and check the next segment.

You may think (as I did) that you can cancel your itinerary and try again. For UA specifically, attempting to SAUA a previously canceled segment (same flight#+same day) will fail with "The traveler has the same name as an existing traveler on this flight"! You will not be able to try again with that segment!

wilsliu

Thanks for your observations here. First time I'm attempting to use a SAUA so I'm sorry for the noob questions. Here is my situation
Just booked 4 tickets (single reservation) on a multi-segment itinerary directly through BR website. I'm trying to use SAUA from LAX to TPE next month. When I type in just one of the names, I get the The traveler has the same name as an existing traveler on this flight error.

Is this because I booked 4 on one reservation and so have to do all 4 at the same time? If so, does anybody have the typical rate now? According to charts I think I saw 30,000 to go from Y to J; is that still accurate?

Also, before I top off my MP balance as I'll need an extra 60K if it will be 120K to upgrade all 4, do I call Eva to confirm that there are at least 4 upgrades available for SAUA?

PaclantFlyer

If you haven't applied a SAUA to your ticket, then you might have the bad luck of having a common name perhaps. All of the conditions of triggering this error aren't completely clear. Given that you're a 1K, you might want to give the 1K line a try.

Quote:

Is this because I booked 4 on one reservation and so have to do all 4 at the same time? If so, does anybody have the typical rate now? According to charts I think I saw 30,000 to go from Y to J; is that still accurate?

When I had multiple passengers on a single PNR, I would upgrade each person one at a time. However, I don't recall if I did all of those through UA or UA+A3.

In the past, UA bundled the SAUA chart and MP chart together. When they pulled the MP chart, the SAUA chart subsequently disappeared. My experience has been 30K UA RDMs per segment for a Y upgrade to J from the US West Coast to North-ish Asia. SFO-TPE is 30K UA RDMs at minimum..

Quote:

Also, before I top off my MP balance as I'll need an extra 60K if it will be 120K to upgrade all 4, do I call Eva to confirm that there are at least 4 upgrades available for SAUA?

You generally want to call before even booking the ticket. However, I've never seen 4 seats available 3-4 months out available on a single segment. Maybe LAX-TPE has more availability?

carlos.htx

try adding the ticket number, this worked for us.. also, 4 passengers should not be an issue

wilsliu

Only way to check availability for SUAU is to call right?

bocastephen

Yes, but do not tell the BR agent you are doing a *A or United upgrade - just ask for Z space, and if pressed, say you will be using EVA miles otherwise the agent will refuse to tell you anything

PaclantFlyer

Just as an FYI, even though UA's SAUA Terms and Conditions state the following:
if you cancel your BR ticket, this will not occur 24-48 hours after the cancellation!

However, if you chat UA's MP support and send them a copy of the original confirmation (to link the PNR and ticket number together), a screenshot of the PNR cancellation, and a screenshot of the ticket number refund, then they will redeposit the miles.

godbreath

Has anyone tried to change dates on a flight that has SAUA applied to it?
Right now I have 2 SFO<>TPE tickets booked in B class and upgraded using UA SAUA for both passengers on both segments. I need to change the dates of one of the segments and wondering what the best way to do it is.
1) Would EVA be able to find a new segment to change to that has an available upgrade and automatically apply it to the new segment so I don't have to deal with getting it refunded with UA and applying for the upgrade again?
2) Or since B class has $50 refund fee, I can try just book my new flights and apply the SAUA online, and if it works, cancel my old reservation. That way I don't have to talk to an agent. I tried calling the Eva office for a week back in Feb and they never picked up.


Giving an update on my experience. I was able to finally connect to a call center. They said to do any changes to the ticket, they would have to cancel the United SAUA, change the date, and then I would have to reapply the SAUA. However they were not able to say if there was upgrade space or not for SAUA. They did say there was Z space for EVA upgrades. However I tried buying a new ticket with the flights I wanted and tried to apply a SAUA and there was no space available. So another data point that Z space available does not mean there is space for SAUA.

unluckyflyer

This is really good to know thanks! Do you know how long it took for the miles to get redeposited? I just chatted them with the supporting documents and they said they requested it to be redeposited with 7-10 business days but could not guarantee it given that it's not a united program or flight...