Introduction

EVA Air has been a fantastic redemption for those looking for a premium business class product across Asia from North America. Currently, there are a lot of saver award availability from their program, provided you utilize their own mileage program, which is called Infinity MileageLands program. I’ll go over the process and the good/bad off the program as well as seeing how it makes sense for those looking to book ahead of time.

Award Process Booking | EVA Air

Let’s get the negative out the way - if there’s a major hurdle with this amazing airline, it’s their archaic award booking process. Like many other travel bloggers out there, the online award process is one of the hardest to use. To begin your search, you need to create an Infinity MileageLands account, which is free and instant. Do keep your account number safe and in multiple backups, because recovering it with EVA Air will take almost forever.

Upon creation of your new account, you can search EVA Air award booking through this link here. It’s pretty simple - you can enter your origin, destination, dates and class. As you’re selecting a flight that is available, you may see that it still says unconfirmed. (cue Shocked Pikachu face, because that was my initial reaction). Based on experience, this implies that the ticket is available, but not confirmed until you fully book the ticket.

One thing to note - award prices do not show up until you select a specific flight, as you’ll be able to see the number of miles required listed on the top once your flights are populated upon selection. This is straightforward, while a bit convoluted in design. If there’s one thing to take away from this - do not attempt to book awards for multiple people, or redeem for a companion. OMAAT and Frequent Flyer has a post sharing their experience and it’s one that troubles a lot of experienced travelers. From completing various online service forms to emailing a rep to being blocked due to time - it’s simply easier to book awards out of separate accounts rather than utilizing it all on one account. In other words, ideally just transfer points to each individual’s account and book that way. It will save your brain and time.

Award Pricing & Availability

On to the good news - EVA Air’s program has a compelling award program, and you can utilize the charte below to see why it’s great for redemption.

If you don’t fly with EVA Air often, you can earn these miles through two program partners:

Citi ThankYou Points, transfers are 1:1
Capital One, transfers are 2:1.5

While i’d advise utilizing Citi ThankYou points for redeeming EVA Air, if you have a hoard of Capital One points and have a flight to try, it doesn’t hurt to trade those points in.

One-Way Business Class award tickets between North America to Asia (and vice versa) costs only 75K to 80K miles. What’s interesting is that you can still travel beyond Taipei to say Singapore for no additional charge or to Bangkok for just 5,000 more miles. That’s a fantastic price to pay for a business class flight from Taipei to Bangkok on a premium business class! Like all other airlines, EVA Air does pass on carrier imposed surcharges, but are within reason. Compared to say BA Avios, this is not a problem at all. At times, I’ve been able to find two business class award tickets available per flight.

When booking in advance, I’ve been seeing multiple availability on various dates, while even booking within a few months of today. EVA Air does provide a lots of North America to Asia flight saver award space. If you have CITI or Capital One points saved up and are eying a trip to Asia in 2024, you may want to hop onto EVA Air’s program to capitalize on this award space.

Additional Notes

EVA Air’s mileage program does have a strict mileage expiration policy, as they expire within 36 months after they’re earned, regardless of account activity. While this is slightly inconvenient, it’s not a dealbreaker and one that I assume won’t impact a majority of us.

Do note that EVA Air’s mileage program charges $50 for changes or cancellations on award tickets- while it’s not bad, just make sure when you’re booking you’re confident in the dates and timeframe.

Conclusion

Ultimately, EVA AIr’s airline program is a great way for those to access their own premium business class award space. While other competitors like China Airlines and Starlux have limited award space, EVA Air has plenty of space so as long as you utilize their own Infinity MileageLands Program. With a strong redemption cost (75 to 80K miles) from the US to Asia, it’s easy to transfer points from Citi and Capital One.

As long as you’re willing to go through the hoops via their airline program, you should have no problem. Compared to it’s competitors where a ticket is issued within minutes, EVA AIR takes days and certain blockers can occur if you’re not careful. Even with this hurdle, it’s still a great redemption and one that I’ve been using for my upcoming flights in 2024.