Star Alliance Upgrade Award on EVA

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Feb 16, 2024, 2:19 am

#496

nichojo

Join Date: May 2009

Location: Singapore

Programs: Show me the points!

Posts: 1,224

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkc192

FWIW, managed to confirm a SAUA on a TPE-LAX flight that had Z3 11+ months out. I didn't check the seat map before applying, but was surprised to find ~8 seats already occupied after the upgrade had confirmed. Guess I got lucky.

Nice work. LAX seems to be about the easiest upgrade route they have. Did you call to confirm Z beforehand?

Feb 16, 2024, 12:46 pm

#497

bocastephen

A FlyerTalk Posting Legend

Join Date: Sep 2002

Location: LAX/TPE

Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC

Posts: 42,211

Quote:

Originally Posted by dkc192

Did you grab the overnight flight or the morning flight?

Feb 17, 2024, 12:03 am

#498

dkc192

Join Date: May 2007

Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 5,459

Quote:

Originally Posted by nichojo

Nice work. LAX seems to be about the easiest upgrade route they have. Did you call to confirm Z beforehand?

Yes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bocastephen

Did you grab the overnight flight or the morning flight?

Overnight-ish: BR12 at 19:20. The morning BR6 had Z4 and the midnight BR16 had Z1.

Feb 27, 2024, 9:13 am

#499

sfo3388

Join Date: Sep 2010

Location: San Francisco, CA

Programs: United Plat

Posts: 500

Starting February, the following (new kind) of error message has shown every time when I applied SAUA on United.com with a BR-issued B class transpacific ticket:

Your paid booking class is not eligible for upgrades.

Once I removed the ticket number and reapplied, this is the error message:

The traveler has the same name as an existing traveler on this flight.

Had to do 24-hour cancellation a few times due to above error messages. Or just paid more to be on Premium Economy.

The good thing I found out this month is that once the ticket is cancelled, the miles used for SAUA are returned from BR to UA almost immediately. It was not the case before this year.

Feb 27, 2024, 10:11 am

#500

liligood

Join Date: Feb 2023

Posts: 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfo3388

Did you turn out to resolve this error by rebooking several times? You could also try NH/AV to apply SAUA.

Mar 19, 2024, 5:27 pm

#501

sfo3388

Join Date: Sep 2010

Location: San Francisco, CA

Programs: United Plat

Posts: 500

Quote:

Originally Posted by liligood

Did you turn out to resolve this error by rebooking several times? You could also try NH/AV to apply SAUA.

Please check the most recent update on United.com:

Star Alliance Upgrade Award | United Airlines

For EVA, only K class (the most expensive premium economy class) is eligible for Star Alliance Upgrade using United miles. Y and B are not eligible anymore.

Last edited by sfo3388; Mar 19, 2024 at 8:02 pm Reason: fixed typo

Mar 19, 2024, 6:16 pm

#502

dkc192

Join Date: May 2007

Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 5,459

Once again, I'm almost certain this is not true, at least policy-wise. There used to be a statement saying that Y and B classes are upgradable on all *A airlines at the top of the table. The table merely lists additional fare classes that are upgradable on certain airlines. For example, it would be very strange if M and U (lower than Y and B) were upgradable on LH but not Y and B.

Mar 19, 2024, 10:38 pm

#503

bocastephen

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Quote:

Originally Posted by sfo3388

Well that's sure crappy news - the last sweet spot for affordable J travel to Taiwan or Asia is now gone. EVA finally found a way to get rid of the pesky *A upgraders

Mar 19, 2024, 11:19 pm

#504

liligood

Join Date: Feb 2023

Posts: 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfo3388

Hey sfo3388, I don’t think this explain why short-haul flight within Asia can still be upgraded with original fare class being Y/B.

I don’t know if they intentionally do this or it’s just an implementation error, but I’m leaning towards it being a bug, as other carriers’ SAUA policy still says Y/B being upgradeable, and SAUA is a alliance-level thing (so they should be consistent)

Mar 20, 2024, 12:27 am

#505

dkc192

Join Date: May 2007

Programs: UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 5,459

I'm almost certain it's a typo/omission on UA's website, and thus nothing to worry about other than the seemingly ongoing glitch of not being able to upgrade certain BR flights/classes using the UA tool at the moment.

Mar 20, 2024, 12:34 am

#506

bocastephen

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Join Date: Sep 2002

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Quote:

Originally Posted by dkc192

But these issues seem linked in a way - so further investigation is warranted

Mar 20, 2024, 6:48 am

#507

claimui

Join Date: Mar 2019

Posts: 220

Quote:

Originally Posted by sfo3388

If you click the link for "See which class of service is associated with each fare class listed." and then under "Star Alliance partner airlines", you will see that it says:

Quote:

Business class C and D fares and Economy class Y and B can be upgraded, and other fare types may also be eligible depending on the airline.

So the list just means that for EVA, K class can be upgraded in addition to the usual Y and B class.

Otherwise Air Canada also only has one fare class listed (O), which wouldn't make much sense either.