I’ve already made my feelings about EVA Air known. It’s a great airline, especially in premium classes, though I’m not sure that it fully lives up to the hype that other bloggers have built around it.
One thing that makes the carrier even less attractive to me? It’s no longer anywhere near as easy as it once was to use award miles to book EVA Air tickets. This is especially the case if you plan to use partner programs like United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, rather than EVA’s own Infinity MileageLands program.
Nonetheless, I’m going to provide a run-down of everything you need to know about EVA Air award booking. And I’ll cross my fingers that it’ll end up being of use!
It’s Harder Than It Used to Be to Fly EVA Air “for Free”
In the mid-2010s, it was easy to score an EVA Air mileage ticket, particularly if you lived in the US and had a United MileagePlus account. In fact, I’d say that EVA Air was the most common option for flights from North America to Asia, especially in business class and regardless of whether Taiwan was your final destination. I saw availability so often that it almost made me not want to fly the airline.
Unfortunately, in recent years (and, in particular, since the pandemic), EVA has drastically tightened the award inventory it releases to partners like United, Air Canada and Avianca. In fact, I only see a handful of long haul seats released every month; it’s still reasonably easy to score tickets for travel within Asia. Conversely, award availability through EVA’s own Infinity MileageLands program is still pretty decent—well, if you have access to miles.
5 Things to Know About EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
Transfer partners are limited
For US-based consumers, the only realistic way to use travel credit cards to earn EVA Air miles is through a card that earns Citi ThankYou points, such as the Citi Strata Premier card. While this is a lucrative card with a nice sign-on bonus and good ongoing earning potential (namely, 10x points through hotels booked via Booking.com within the Citi travel portal), it’s also the one and only option. Adding insult to injury, transfers usually take 72 hours.
Earning rates on travel are decent
Of course, if you fly Star Alliance often and plan to use Infinity MileageLands as your main frequent flyer account, you might have enough miles for EVA Air award flights quicker than you think. That’s because unlike most programs in the US and Europe, Infinity MileageLands still awards points as a percentage of miles flown, instead of based on the fare (in USD) that you paid.
Booking is easy
Once you’ve signed up for an Infinity MileageLands account and are logged in, it’s reasonably easy both to search for award availability and to book award tickets. Note that there is an annoying two-factor authentication, which you can’t turn off. It requires you to receive a code via email, which can take a minute or two to send, even though it’s only valid for three minutes. Obnoxious, right? Thankfully, the EVA Air award chart is pretty competitive.
Cancellation is cumbersome
If you want to change simply the dates for your EVA Air reward flights, you can do this quickly and for free online, presuming there’s availability on your new dates. Want to change your departure or arrival city, or any of your flight numbers? In this case, you’ll need to manually cancel your ticket and request a refund; refunding your miles can take a few days, during which time availability may evaporate.
You can buy miles, but it will cost you
Unlike some mileage programs in Asia-Pacific, EVA Air sells miles to members from all countries, Unfortunately, unless there’s a sale going on (and there almost never is), these miles are expensive, priced at 0.04 USD per mile, which is higher than just about any other points currency in the world (most cost 0.033 USD per mile). Unless you have to top off a few thousand miles to book an award, this is not an ideal option.
Booking Travel on EVA Air With Partners
If you don’t have an Infinity MileageLands account or simply don’t have a way to accrue a critical mass of miles, all is not (necessarily) lost. For one, as I mentioned earlier, it’s still reasonably easy to book short-haul awards. Given that EVA Air flies long-haul 777s and 787 Dreamliners between Taipei and destinations like Bangkok, Tokyo and the Chinese mainland, this isn’t necessarily a bad use of Aeroplan or MileagePlus points.
In terms of EVA Air award travel for longer haul travel, there are some strategies you can employ. Most notably, I recommend using a service like Seats.aero to set alerts that trigger whenever award seats become available. This way, you can book them before someone else snags them. This requires a premium membership, though this pays for itself in only a few successful alerts per year.
Other FAQ About Booking Award Travel on EVA Air
Does EVA Air have a mileage program?
EVA Air does have a mileage program, which is known as Infinity MileageLands. While it’s not nearly as useful (or easy to use) as mileage programs in North America and Europe, it is the most reliable way to score availability on EVA Air flights, particularly if you wish to travel in business class.
Can I transfer EVA Air miles to United?
You can’t travel EVA Air miles directly to United’s MileagePlus program. However, you can use EVA Air miles to book travel on United, given that United is one of EVA Air’s Star Alliance partners. Keep in mind that United might not release as much award availability to EVA as it does for its own frequent fliers.
Do EVA Air miles expire?
EVA Air Miles expire three years (and some change) after you earn them. For example, if you earned miles on January 15, 2024, you can expect them to expire on January 31, 2027. In other words, they’ll expire a full three years later, on the last day of whatever the current calendar month is.
The Bottom Line
When it comes to EVA Air award booking, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that if you are a member of EVA’s Infinity MileageLands program (and have or can acquire tens of thousands of miles), availability is good, even if managing your booking can be a cumbersome experience. The bad news? Availability on partner airlines is spotty at best, with long haul flights to the US and particular difficult to book with miles from carriers like United and Air Canada. Need personalized help sorting out air travel, whether you plan to explore Taiwan or just transit though Taoyuan Airport? Consider hiring me to help!
