With free stopovers and better availability on EVA’s own flights, there are some good reasons to transfer your Citi points over to EVA miles.

For this post, I’m not going to get into the details of the elite status aspect of the program and instead focus on the redemption side of the program.

Two banks partners with EVA miles in the USA

EVA Infinity Mileagelands (such a great name) partners with both Capital One and Citi ThankYou in the United States. In the realm of popular bank programs, Citi tends to be overlooked compared to the hotter names like Amex, Bilt, Capital One, and Chase. At some level, Citi probably could be thought of as an underrated program. Yes, it has a collection of oddball airline and hotel partners (Thai Airways, Accor, and Preferred Hotels). But it has many of the standard options.

The transfer ratio from Citi to EVA is 1:1 but the rate for Capital One is a less appealing 4:3.

EVA award flights can be booked 360 days in advance

As I am a planner by nature, I love me an award program that offers award bookings way far in advance of the flight. That’s because the only people I would then be competing with for flights are others like me. Well, count EVA Air as one of the best options for booking flights far in advance since they allow it a whopping 360 days prior to departure.

Ever wonder why it can be challenging to find EVA flights available on United and Air Canada? It’s quite simple (aside from EVA releasing more space to its own members). United can only book flights 337 days in advance and Air Canada is officially 355 days in advance (though you can cheese it into potentially showing 360 days in advance by playing with the calendar). More time for EVA’s own members to pick through the awards means that there is less for partners to book.

Award cancelation fees are reasonable

If you want to cancel or change a flight booked with your EVA miles, expect to pay $50US. This only applies if your ticket has not yet been used; partially used tickets are not modifiable. Additionally, if you have elite status with the program (Silver and above), there are no fees to modify your flights.

One other thing to be aware of is that changing your class of service will also incur a $50 fee (waived with elite status). This probably matters more to people who book economy with the hopes of eventually upgrading their flight to premium economy or business. While other programs might allow upgrades to happen free of charge, EVA will charge you for them.

Stopovers are allowed with EVA miles

Let’s walk through some of the rules for stopovers in this program:

• Stopovers are not allowed on the following:
  • Short-haul roundtrip award tickets. A short-haul is defined as an award that doesn’t touch Europe, America, or Oceania.
  • One-way award tickets.
• The stopover cannot be located in the same country as the origin or destination.
• One stopover is permitted on a long-haul roundtrip award ticket operated by EVA Air.
• Two stopovers are permitted on a Star Alliance roundtrip award ticket (one in each direction).

You’re better off calling up EVA to book these awards.

And while we’re talking about stopovers, I’ll mention it here but just in passing: EVA has Around the World awards, but don’t bother. You’re allowed up to seven stopovers on these awards, which is good for seeing the world, and there is no maximum distance to adhere to. But the problem is the price: 180,000 EVA miles for economy or 325,000 EVA miles for business. While you could manipulate the journey to maximize the distance traveled, it doesn’t seem worth it.

Award booked with EVA miles are zone-based

Chart for flights operated by EVA

The one thing that immediately jumps off the page when looking at EVA metal booked with EVA miles is the ratio of business class to economy class. With other programs, there is usually a higher surcharge attached to business class (in the range of 2-3x what economy costs). Here, long-haul flights see only a 50% surcharge. Keep that fact in mind for later.

Star Alliance award chart

As EVA is in Star Alliance, you’ll also be able to use your EVA miles to book their partners. The chart is a bit more complex than award flights on their own metal. The charts below all reflect one-way pricing. Once again, business class sees a modest jump in price above economy. First class gets the higher pricing you’d typically expect.

What are the sweet spots?

Booking long-haul EVA business class

Let’s go back a bit to the award chart mentioned above. Paying just 75,000 miles for routes like TPE-SFO, TPE-YVR, and TPE-CDG in EVA’s business class is a good value. Some of that is driven by others raising their prices, but it’s still a solid value. Flying from Chicago, Houston, New York, or Toronto might cost you an extra 5,000 miles, but paying that is cheaper than booking your own flight to reposition to the west coast.

Even better, you don’t need to go to just Taiwan for the price, but you can connect to anywhere in Asia at no additional cost. Remember that you get a free stopover if you’re booking these long-haul routes as a roundtrip.

Intra-Asia awards on EVA in premium economy or business

What appeals to me is being able to transit between North and South Asia for an efficient price. Economy pricing isn’t too appealing at 17,500 EVA miles, but the surcharge for premium economy and business class is tiny. Full-service airlines tend to fly a competitive premium economy product within Asia, so I’m inclined to lean towards that over business class.

North America to Europe on Star Alliance carriers in business class

Firstly, recall that you get two stopovers on a roundtrip Star Alliance flight.

Next, go back up and look at that complicated Star Alliance award chart. Specifically look at that pricing between North America and Europe. Only 65,000 EVA miles for that journey in business class in a single direction. That’s pretty good, especially as others have devalued their awards for that same itinerary.

Now combine the two. For just 130,000 EVA miles, you can visit a total of three countries while traveling in business class. The main downside to doing this is that EVA will pass along the cost of fuel surcharges (YQ). That means you’ll have a cash copay to pay. You can get around this if you focus on the right airlines (stick to United for transatlantic flights).

Intra-North America business class on United or Air Canada

Ringing in at just 29,000 miles one-way, paying for intra-North America awards in business class isn’t a bad proposition. That’s especially true when both United and Air Canada charge variable amounts to their own members for those same flights. What interests me the most are those flights where you can get a lie-flat seat (key flights out of EWR for United or YYZ for Air Canada). Of course, the “trick” here is actually finding the award space.

Flights between the Maldives and parts of Asia in business class

How does 47,500 EVA miles sound for a one-way business class flight between Taiwan and the Maldives? Or 42,500 miles for the flight between Southeast Asia and the Maldives? Both are good prices, and you’ll find they are cheaper than what Singapore Airlines charges their own members for the same flights.

We love visiting the Maldives and finding affordable pricing to get there helps offset the high cash price that always comes along with staying there. This particular routing appeals to us because we love stopping off in Asia along the way to extend the trip.

Infant awards are 10% of the cash price

Back when we flew internationally with an infant, we ended up sometimes paying a pretty penny to allow our child to sit in our lap. Without getting into the debate on the safety of the lap child, I can say it sometimes got expensive.

With most airlines, you would be forced to pay 10% of the cash price of the ticket. Say you found a flight for 75,000 miles in business class one-way. But if you want to bring your lap infant, you’d have to pay 10% of the cash fare, which could be thousands of dollars. A one-way flight is painfully priced high, and you might pay less if doing a roundtrip, but it’s still quite a dent. I’d say the rough average of what we paid for an infant was around $600 for the ticket.

Unfortunately, EVA does not offer paying for your lap infants with EVA miles. You’ll need to pay cash. If you booked your award flight nearly a year in advance, you might want to wait until a couple of months before your flight to add your lap infant as that’s when cash fares are generally cheapest. Or you can view some other considerations to keep costs down.

How to Best Search for Availability?

This is where some of the pain hits if you’re using EVA’s website to book awards. Their website simply isn’t that useful.

• The search calendar only includes results for up to five days.
• If your search doesn’t turn up results within those five days, you have to start over from the beginning.
• Booking for others is a complete pain where you essentially need approval from EVA to book for others (which is a method employed to try to minimize fraud).
• It can be tough to know if there is truly award space or if you’d just be added to a waitlist.
• The website sometimes shows phantom award availability on Star Alliance partners.

You might be able to avoid some of the pain of the booking process if you live close enough to an EVA ticketing office and can visit them in person.

The free third-party tools for identifying award availability, unfortunately, don’t tend to cover EVA’s program. That’s a shame given EVA offers more availability to its own members. That means you’ll need to suffer it out on their website to get the best picture.

Do Miles Expire?

Yes, after 36 months. The only way to extend the validity of the miles is to pay for another 12 months. This is one program where you don’t want to sit on your miles without a firm plan to use them.

Suggested reading:

• Review: EVA Air 777-300ER Royal Laurel TPE-LAX
• Review: EVA The Infinity & The Star Lounges
• How to Book Award Travel Like a Pro