EVA Air: fiddling with Evergreen Club status qualification
May 15, 2009, 7:26 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hsinchu (Taiwan), Saigon, London
Programs: EVA (diamond), A3, BMI, VN
Posts: 2,960
EVA Air: fiddling with Evergreen Club status qualification
Just had an email from Evergreen Club.
Evergreen Club allows you to reach/maintain certain status levels by achieving minimum numbers of miles flown or sectors flown (or a combination of both in the case of silver).
It seems (not really sure) they are making it easier for people qualifying by sector count. I think for most long haul travellers it won't make any difference - but it will probably mean more short hoppers between Taiwan and the mainland/HK making silver. (Expect the lounge at TPE to be even more crowded.) No doubt once this happens, they'll panic and start trimming back the benefits again.
Anyone else care to interpret the change?
I ask myself, is all this fiddling around really necessary? I wonder why they don't just use status miles as the sole qualifier...
Details copied below (format slightly changed):
From May 15, 2009 to May 15, 2010 (travel date), members can earn double calculation on flight sectors for card status upgrade and renewal when taking EVA Air/UNI Air international flights.
Promotional Item
Flight credits for card status upgrade and renewal
Promotional Program
Flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal:
3 times for Business/Premium Laurel Class; 2 times for Economy/Elite Class
Regular Program
Flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal:
1.5 times for Business/Premium Laurel Class; 1 time for Economy/Elite Class
Note: Members holding R/H/G/D/W/I class tickets cannot earn flight sector credits. Please refer to updated Membership Handbook or EVA Air's website(www.evaair.com) for upgrade/renewal card status rules.
To grasp the opportunity, please check your flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal and arrange your travel soon. We look forward to serving you in your next flight with EVA Air.
Evergreen Club allows you to reach/maintain certain status levels by achieving minimum numbers of miles flown or sectors flown (or a combination of both in the case of silver).
It seems (not really sure) they are making it easier for people qualifying by sector count. I think for most long haul travellers it won't make any difference - but it will probably mean more short hoppers between Taiwan and the mainland/HK making silver. (Expect the lounge at TPE to be even more crowded.) No doubt once this happens, they'll panic and start trimming back the benefits again.
Anyone else care to interpret the change?
I ask myself, is all this fiddling around really necessary? I wonder why they don't just use status miles as the sole qualifier...
Details copied below (format slightly changed):
From May 15, 2009 to May 15, 2010 (travel date), members can earn double calculation on flight sectors for card status upgrade and renewal when taking EVA Air/UNI Air international flights.
Promotional Item
Flight credits for card status upgrade and renewal
Promotional Program
Flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal:
3 times for Business/Premium Laurel Class; 2 times for Economy/Elite Class
Regular Program
Flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal:
1.5 times for Business/Premium Laurel Class; 1 time for Economy/Elite Class
Note: Members holding R/H/G/D/W/I class tickets cannot earn flight sector credits. Please refer to updated Membership Handbook or EVA Air's website(www.evaair.com) for upgrade/renewal card status rules.
To grasp the opportunity, please check your flight sector credits for card status upgrade/renewal and arrange your travel soon. We look forward to serving you in your next flight with EVA Air.
May 15, 2009, 7:51 am
#2
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: TPE, MNL
Programs: AA lifetime GOLD, but still an AA Baby compare to people here. CX nobody. BR Silver.
Posts: 984
Very similiar to UA and AA Double EQM.
BUT UA and AA are using Qualified Miles, and BR is using Qualified Segments.
It looks that you can get BR Diamond for 25 TPE-HKG or TPE-PVG/PEK round trips. That will be total 50 qualified segments and 100 after double it.
I have no idea how many DIAMOND's are there. But I think the idea is just like UA and AA. After someone get the elite status, they will keep flying them.
Or maybe some mileage runner, if they are at 92 or 96 segments now, all they need it 1 or 2 round trip to get the DIAMOND and enjoy the upgrade.
BUT UA and AA are using Qualified Miles, and BR is using Qualified Segments.
It looks that you can get BR Diamond for 25 TPE-HKG or TPE-PVG/PEK round trips. That will be total 50 qualified segments and 100 after double it.
I have no idea how many DIAMOND's are there. But I think the idea is just like UA and AA. After someone get the elite status, they will keep flying them.
Or maybe some mileage runner, if they are at 92 or 96 segments now, all they need it 1 or 2 round trip to get the DIAMOND and enjoy the upgrade.
May 16, 2009, 12:47 am
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Hsinchu (Taiwan), Saigon, London
Programs: EVA (diamond), A3, BMI, VN
Posts: 2,960
I think that's the problem ... it really does skew the thing in favour of short hoppers between Taiwan and the mainland. Seems this is where EVA's focus is these days.
Eg: cheapest fare in U showing on EVA's site for Macau is NT$6577 inc tax, about US$199.
25 round trips is 50 sectors, doubled up to give a DIAMOND CARD for US$4975. GOLD works out at US$2487.
Now both are valid for 2 years... With diamond you get 4 upgrade vouchers - not a bad deal for under US$5000 if you were upgrading a couple of long haul round trips from Elite to PL. And you'd probably get at least a couple of OP-UPs during those two years.
Of course that's still alot of running. At a push you could do 3 round trips in a day, but at a more leisurely pace you could have your diamond card in a couple of weeks! (Perhaps paying slightly more for more flight choice HKG/TPE.) As yuchung5 suggests, if you're near your target in terms of sectors it could certainly be worth a few runs.
Eg: cheapest fare in U showing on EVA's site for Macau is NT$6577 inc tax, about US$199.
25 round trips is 50 sectors, doubled up to give a DIAMOND CARD for US$4975. GOLD works out at US$2487.
Now both are valid for 2 years... With diamond you get 4 upgrade vouchers - not a bad deal for under US$5000 if you were upgrading a couple of long haul round trips from Elite to PL. And you'd probably get at least a couple of OP-UPs during those two years.
Of course that's still alot of running. At a push you could do 3 round trips in a day, but at a more leisurely pace you could have your diamond card in a couple of weeks! (Perhaps paying slightly more for more flight choice HKG/TPE.) As yuchung5 suggests, if you're near your target in terms of sectors it could certainly be worth a few runs.
May 17, 2009, 5:05 am
#5
Suspended
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 749
This weekend it was announced to increase weekly flights between Taiwan and China to 270 per week in July hence the messing with tiers, they are gearing up to become an intra asia airline and as I posted many months ago the loss making long haul will not be tolerated by the board