When will EVA/BR open award / upgrade space for *A partners?
 

are there any plans to open BR availability? still completely non-existent

Seems a question for BR

i see returned availability in 2021. Even BR members are not able to get awards seats in the next month or two, although some BR members can waitlist for them.

I've been speaking to reps in my local sales office - upgrade and award redemptions are purposely zero'd out until end of the year, maybe longer. No upgrades, no redemptions, except with BR miles, so forget about *A awards of any kind.

the planes are going out more than half empty, that makes zero sense to me.

There is very little discretionary travel going on, so people are going to either fly (and pay whatever it costs) or not fly (no matter the price), rather than fly only if they can get a good award redemption. Opening award availability now would just reduce the number of revenue tickets sold, decreasing desperately needed incoming cash, rather than filling up flights.

bpe totally get it, what would make even more sense for me is releasing award inventory as travel date gets closer, just to fill it up, no?

No. Even if the tickets are free the flights will not fill up; few people want to travel internationally right now, especially since most of them cannot even enter wherever they would travel to. The only thing that releasing award inventory would accomplish is encourage the few travelers to not buy revenue tickets or let them cancel their existing revenue tickets, and use miles instead. Not having to deal with rebooking awards if flights get changed or canceled later on is probably another bonus for them, although a minor one.

(I'm not saying that they should or shouldn't block awards like this, just that I can see why they might want to).

I understand this approach, and BR's current prices are certainly not cheap! This prompts two observations:

- When circumstances arise that you particularly want to book award travel, it is not available.
- BR is not even interested in even allowing upgrade redemption, to fill J seats.

Moving from UA forum as EVA/BR is the decision-maker on this issue.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

No, they don't want seats filled, nor do other passengers - what they want is money. BR is now running 1x daily LAX/TPE while CI dropped to 1x weekly. I was at LAX and went with my father in law in the terminal to the BR gate and while we were waiting to board, there were people in head to toe hazmat suits, complete with face masks and ventilators - not sure if they were getting on a plane or stepping inside the Chernobyl reactor....so what BR wants is the highest possible revenue per passenger, and they are OK with fewer passengers, which is why they are only selling Y, K, L or J fares, no discounts, and upgrades are cash only - the amount we were quoted from PY to J for my FIL was $3,800.

I had multiple discussions with my BR contacts and the initial embargo was through summer, but now it's extended to 12/31/20 and might go longer depending on how things play out.

Nope, they want you to pay in cash instead. What circumstances would arise though, other than to save money?
Nope, they want you to pay cash instead. Same argument.

There is still a limited number of flights on competitors (maybe with awards still available, not sure), so if the prices are too high for someone it's not like BR has an absolute monopoly.

This is not a fair statement. On the contrary, normally the airlines are completely neutral on "your" circumstances. When flights are operating normally, it is completely possible to redeem miles for a ticket for a personal emergency, or a last-minute deadline, or a special occasion, or whatever individual needs you might have. This is just a unique situation where everybody, all over the world, is unwilling and/or unable to travel internationally unless they absolutely have to.

SAUA blocked on EVA
 

I have read the comments in this thread and it really doesn't make sense that they are blocking SAUA . If the issue is cash flow, I do not see how stopping upgrades reduces cash. WRT SAUA, one most book a more expensive fare to start of with, Y,B or K - they offer lower fares however, they do not qualify for upgrades. People will not decide to travel or not based on upgrade availability - even if they would, then EVA would gain due to the increased load. Having said that, in my case I have booked Toronto - Taipei ,return, departing mid Sept and returning March 2021. The ticket cost $2000 CDN , B fare. Was unable to get SAUA outbound but successful on 2021 return. This airfare is about 25% higher than the usual for this time of year. IMHO EVA may be blocking SAUA in the short term due to risk associated with solvency of airlines/star alliance.

well, if you really want business, you will pay cash to upgrade. Or you don’t really want it that much. In the meantime, BR can continue to sell full fare business class. Maybe it will allow you to upgrade during checkin.