Buy Eva Air Ticket, upgrade with Mileage plus

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

Sep 7, 2019, 1:37 pm

#151

AnalogMan

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SMF

Programs: MR Platinum

Posts: 407

Quote:

Originally Posted by E46M3

I'll be traveling from LAX-TPE-HKG-LAX most likely on EVA. I've searched and could not find the chart on the mileage needed to upgrade from PE to biz. How many miles do I need? And how do I book a specific class? Everytime I price out my trip, it just assigns the class for me. And is upgrading using SAUA a better deal than upgrading directly with EVA? For the life of me, I could not find EVA chart either! Thanks!

Using UA miles to upgrade on BR costs the same number of miles whether you are starting in Economy or Elite (Premium Economy), I think it is 25k UA miles.

On BR's web site, they have multiple fare options (Eco super sale, Eco, etc) - click on each until you see the fare class you want. Please note that it may not be possible to get the exact fare class you want. Also, I believe the fare rules dictate what fare class you can book, and there is very limited ability to mix and match.

Sep 7, 2019, 1:39 pm

#152

AnalogMan

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SMF

Programs: MR Platinum

Posts: 407

Quote:

Originally Posted by E46M3

Forgot to mention, you have to have BR miles to upgrade with EVA directly. If you have only UA miles, you have to use a Star Alliance upgrade. You also have to do it through UA (you can't tell EVA to pull miles from your United account, if that makes sense).

Sep 7, 2019, 11:33 pm

#153

E46M3

Join Date: Aug 2017

Posts: 33

I only have 10k in EVA miles. But I have loads of points I can transfer to UA. I called EVA today and they told me in order to upgrade using UA, I'd need to book the highest class in PE to qualify for UA upgrade. But the fair is $1000 more! Is this true? Also, is there a fee to upgrade thru UA?

Sep 8, 2019, 10:04 am

#154

yulbusdriver

Join Date: Mar 2019

Posts: 10

When choosing your fare click "fare comparison" it will open a window showing u if u can upgrade with miles

Sep 9, 2019, 10:23 am

#155

AnalogMan

Join Date: Aug 2007

Location: SMF

Programs: MR Platinum

Posts: 407

Quote:

Originally Posted by E46M3

Yes, IIRC only highest two Economy fare class and highest Elite fare class are eligible for SAUG. If you are definitely going to get the upgrade then there isn't much point in booking Elite. You can theoretically view upgrade availability using something like Expert Flyer (paid membership required) at the time to ticket purchase for some certainty. Or you can buy the ticket, try to upgrade, and cancel the ticket within 24 hours if upgrade doesn't go through (believe 24hr cancellation is only available to tickets bought in US). But ticket cancellation takes like around a week for the authorization to be removed from the credit card. Also, ticket prices will keep going up as seats are sold, so this isn't something that can be repeated indefinitely.

I think BR now charges for better economy seats, so a compromise could be buying Economy ticket, and paying for exit row/bulk head. Not sure if you get a refund of that better seat fee when business class upgrade clears though.