EVA Air Online Check In Requires Visa, so cannot Select Seat ???

[jaizan]

I'm going on a long trip to Thailand, over 100 days, with a little side trip to another country.    I don't need a visa, as I have flights to another country booked with a different airline, just before my 60 days are up.

 

However, EVA are requiring me to supply visa details in order to permit the online check in.     I have no visa.

 

However, I'm quite keen to get an aisle seat !

 

Do I:

1  Phone EVA during office hours to see if they can sort this out ?

2  Pay the £46 or so to reserve an aisle seat ?

3  Check in early, at the airport & hope I get an aisle seat ?     When I did this a few years ago, it wasn't successful, as I think too many people had checked in online.  This might be a matter of considering how many other people are defeated by the 2024 online check in process.     I guess most will not require visas & therefore should have no problem checking in. 

4 Check in online with an old visa number, then sort it out at the airport, having already bagged my seat ?

 

Or ??

 

 

Edited Thursday at 11:03 PM by jaizan

[Denim]

Pay the 46 pounds.

 

Eva Air flights are often full these days since BA no longer fly direct to Bangkok. When I flew last year all seats were taken. I stumped up the cash to reserve a seat just to avoid the possibility of not getting a seat at all. No point spoiling your holiday by risking getting sandwiched  between two large people.

 

If I were rich the one thing I would spend my money on every time is getting out of economy class. When you are young and strong you can take the pain of a bad seat but when you get older it is just not worth the money saved.

 

As for Eva Air , because of the overcrowding not as good as they used to be but if you want a direct flight the only other option is Thai or maybe soon BA to Gatwick. For my next trip I am considering giving up direct flights and maybe go via Singapore or the middle east.

[AlwaysThere]

3 hours ago, jaizan said:

I'm going on a long trip to Thailand, over 100 days, with a little side trip to another country.    I don't need a visa, as I have flights to another country booked with a different airline, just before my 60 days are up.

 

However, EVA are requiring me to supply visa details in order to permit the online check in.     I have no visa.

 

However, I'm quite keen to get an aisle seat !

 

Do I:

1  Phone EVA during office hours to see if they can sort this out ?

2  Pay the £46 or so to reserve an aisle seat ?

3  Check in early, at the airport & hope I get an aisle seat ?     When I did this a few years ago, it wasn't successful, as I think too many people had checked in online.  This might be a matter of considering how many other people are defeated by the 2024 online check in process.     I guess most will not require visas & therefore should have no problem checking in. 

4 Check in online with an old visa number, then sort it out at the airport, having already bagged my seat ?

 

Or ??

 

 

 

Just make them up. Do you think they verify them instantly?

[Keeps]

7 hours ago, jaizan said:

I'm going on a long trip to Thailand, over 100 days, with a little side trip to another country.    I don't need a visa, as I have flights to another country booked with a different airline, just before my 60 days are up.

 

However, EVA are requiring me to supply visa details in order to permit the online check in.     I have no visa.

 

However, I'm quite keen to get an aisle seat !

 

Do I:

1  Phone EVA during office hours to see if they can sort this out ?

2  Pay the £46 or so to reserve an aisle seat ?

3  Check in early, at the airport & hope I get an aisle seat ?     When I did this a few years ago, it wasn't successful, as I think too many people had checked in online.  This might be a matter of considering how many other people are defeated by the 2024 online check in process.     I guess most will not require visas & therefore should have no problem checking in. 

4 Check in online with an old visa number, then sort it out at the airport, having already bagged my seat ?

 

Or ??

 

 

You need to be Silver or above membership status to get free seat selection on EVA flights. Otherwise, I don't think you have any option other than to pay the fee or hope for the best at check-in.

 

I would sign up to the membership program before your flight even if you do not plan on using EVA again in the future. I assume you booked directly with EVA online or using the APP? If you sign up prior to the flight your upcoming journey should be linked to your profile. It won't mean much at this stage but you MAY get a sympathetic response when checking in if they see that you are a member.

 

I actually got a free upgrade flying from LHR to BKK last month. The flight was full and I was a lone traveller with EVA Gold card. Doesn't happen often at all these days but was a welcome surprise.

 

Tier membership details on link below:-

 

https://www.evaair.com/en-gb/infinity-mileagelands/about-infinity-mileagelands/tiers-and-privileges/membership-benefit/

Edited 21 hours ago by Keeps
Typo

[expat_4_life]

5 hours ago, Denim said:

Eva Air flights are often full these days since BA no longer fly direct to Bangkok.

Just an FYI, BA resumed direct flights to Bangkok late October, albeit from Gatwick.  Initially 3 flights per week.

[SunsetT]

September 23 I flew with Eva to BKK and was unable to reserve a seat at online check in within 24 hours of flight time, and no aisle seats available at airport check-in so I was stuck with the online check in seat that I was allocated. On the return flight I managed to secure an aisle seat for free when selecting within 48 hours of the flight time which is when online check-in is available I believe. So I concluded that I left it too late on the outbound flight.

[chilly07]

Don't  bother! 

Eva Air turfed me out of my on line reserved aisle seat when I boarded in favour of a supposedly sick passenger who hadn't bothered to pre-book theirs. Won't be travelling Eva Air again!

[Denim]

I just checked today and a return flight to London in March with Singapore airlines is about 1008 Singapore dollars , around 27,000 baht.  Good price but you don't save much because of the Bangkok connecting flight and it will take longer. On the other hand I read somewhere that their seats are a bit bigger. Hmmmmm.

[jaizan]

9 hours ago, Denim said:

Pay the 46 pounds.

 

Eva Air flights are often full these days since BA no longer fly direct to Bangkok. When I flew last year all seats were taken. I stumped up the cash to reserve a seat just to avoid the possibility of not getting a seat at all. No point spoiling your holiday by risking getting sandwiched  between two large people.

 

If I were rich the one thing I would spend my money on every time is getting out of economy class. When you are young and strong you can take the pain of a bad seat but when you get older it is just not worth the money saved.

 

As for Eva Air , because of the overcrowding not as good as they used to be but if you want a direct flight the only other option is Thai or maybe soon BA to Gatwick. For my next trip I am considering giving up direct flights and maybe go via Singapore or the middle east.

Thanks.   I have paid the £46.

I agree with the sentiment over paying for to fly further forward on the plane.   In fact, for several years, I did pay to fly in Premium Economy, when the extra was only around £300, admittedly booked well in advance.   Divide that by 24 hours for a round trip and it was acceptable.
Then post covid, every time I look, it is ~£1000 extra to fly in Premium Economy.    Which works out at over £40 per hour.  
So I'm back in economy for now.    
[Incidentally, about 10 years ago, I used to get an economy emergency exit seat over 90% of the time, just by being the first to check in at the airport.  That stopped working with online check in.] 

Due to Covid and other disruptions, I've also tried some indirect flights.   I dislike flying via the Middle East, as it means waking up and walking around some enormous airport in the middle of the night when I want to be sleeping.      If I must go indirect, I'd prefer to transfer in Europe.  

Edited 18 hours ago by jaizan

[Keeps]

30 minutes ago, jaizan said:

Thanks.   I have paid the £46.

I agree with the sentiment over paying for to fly further forward on the plane.   In fact, for several years, I did pay to fly in Premium Economy, when the extra was only around £300, admittedly booked well in advance.   Divide that by 24 hours for a round trip and it was acceptable.
Then post covid, every time I look, it is ~£1000 extra to fly in Premium Economy.    Which works out at over £40 per hour.  
So I'm back in economy for now.    
[Incidentally, about 10 years ago, I used to get an economy emergency exit seat over 90% of the time, just by being the first to check in at the airport.  That stopped working with online check in.] 

Due to Covid and other disruptions, I've also tried some indirect flights.   I dislike flying via the Middle East, as it means waking up and walking around some enormous airport in the middle of the night when I want to be sleeping.      If I must go indirect, I'd prefer to transfer in Europe.  

A friend of mine has flown the last three times with EVA Air from Schipol, Amsterdam despite living in the UK. He is paying around £850 return in premium economy. For the similar flight from LHR it is around £1,700+. There are of course additional costs involved getting to/from Amsterdam but he still makes a significant saving. The flight times are not dissimilar to the EVA flights from LHR. This does involve staying a night in a hotel near the airport on the return leg as there are no suitable flights from Schipol back to the UK at that time in the evening. He did say Schipol airport itself is a bit chaotic and the EVA lounge is crap but the savings are worth it in his opinion.

 

I always used to do premium economy both ways (paying around £880-£950) but have now started flying LHR to BKK economy (I am guaranteed emergency exit window seat at front of economy as I book well in advance combined with the Gold card). I am happy to do this as the flight departs around 9.30pm. I'll have a few drinks in the lounge, get the emergency exit talk from the stewardess out of the way, pop a pill and sleep most of the journey. I then return premium economy and every second or third flight upgrade to Royal Laurel using points. Even the economy outbound/premium inbound is still costing around £1,400.

 

EVA are not the 'bargain' they once were but I continue to use them as I like a direct flight, the times both ways suit me and the rewards program I find useful.

 

 

[Jimjim1]

42 minutes ago, jaizan said:

If I must go indirect, I'd prefer to transfer in Europe.  

You can pick up a cheap fight to any European country and go direct from there, but I recently flew to Thailand on EVA and on both ways I was invited to bid for an upgrade from economy, presumably that would have been to premium eco however I did not partake but has anyone done that, and if so what was the outcome and how much was the bid to achieve it?

[Keeps]

30 minutes ago, Jimjim1 said:

You can pick up a cheap fight to any European country and go direct from there, but I recently flew to Thailand on EVA and on both ways I was invited to bid for an upgrade from economy, presumably that would have been to premium eco however I did not partake but has anyone done that, and if so what was the outcome and how much was the bid to achieve it?

I got the bid email from EVA on my trip out here last month. It is done on a 'swingometer' basis (low bid, fair, strong etc). To upgrade from economy to premium economy the starting offer was around 500 Euros which showed as 'poor'. I think you need to be in the 'fair' zone to even stand a chance of them accepting it which was around 700 Euro. To upgrade my return leg (this coming Sunday) from premium economy to Royal Laurel 1,100 Euros was shown as 'poor' and 1,450 Euro crept into the 'fair' zone.

 

Ridiculous prices - almost as much again as the original flight ticket. Needless to say I didn't take up their kind offer. As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I did get a free upgrade from economy to premium economy about 10 minutes before boarding on the outbound leg from LHR. Happens rarely these days. 

[jaizan]

5 hours ago, Keeps said:

A friend of mine has flown the last three times with EVA Air from Schipol, Amsterdam despite living in the UK. He is paying around £850 return in premium economy. For the similar flight from LHR it is around £1,700+. There are of course additional costs involved getting to/from Amsterdam but he still makes a significant saving. The flight times are not dissimilar to the EVA flights from LHR. This does involve staying a night in a hotel near the airport on the return leg as there are no suitable flights from Schipol back to the UK at that time in the evening. He did say Schipol airport itself is a bit chaotic and the EVA lounge is crap but the savings are worth it in his opinion.

Now that is tempting.  
Both in terms of price & sticking it to our current & previous governments, for over taxing people flying from British airports.

The part I don't like is being liable for any delays or cancellations in getting to Amsterdam.    So I would probably end up building in a silly safety margin.
 

[Denim]

13 hours ago, Keeps said:

 

 

I always used to do premium economy both ways (paying around £880-£950) but have now started flying LHR to BKK economy (I am guaranteed emergency exit window seat at front of economy as I book well in advance combined with the Gold card). I am happy to do this as the flight departs around 9.30pm. I'll have a few drinks in the lounge, get the emergency exit talk from the stewardess out of the way, pop a pill and sleep most of the journey. I then return premium economy and every second or third flight upgrade to Royal Laurel using points. Even the economy outbound/premium inbound is still costing around £1,400.

 

EVA are not the 'bargain' they once were but I continue to use them as I like a direct flight, the times both ways suit me and the rewards program I find useful.

 

 

 

I got the emergency exit seat both ways last year. Free to London but had to pay an extra 150 to get it on the way back. 

All getting pretty expensive.  Used to be able to change return flight date for free. I had pay yet another 150 pounds to change it this time. Definitely pays to plan ahead carefully.

[Keeps]

10 hours ago, jaizan said:

Now that is tempting.  
Both in terms of price & sticking it to our current & previous governments, for over taxing people flying from British airports.

The part I don't like is being liable for any delays or cancellations in getting to Amsterdam.    So I would probably end up building in a silly safety margin.
 

My friend tends to get to Schipol mid morning on the day of his flight which departs around 9pm. He travels light so is not bothered about carting luggage around although there are storage lockers at the airport.

 

He then gets the train from the airport into Amsterdam Central station, has a mooch about and a few Heineken's, a bite to eat then heads back to the airport early evening to check-in for the Eva flight.

 

I'm with you. I would need that safety margin in case the UK to Schipol leg has problems.

 

He stays near the airport on the return leg from Bangkok then usually gets a flight back to the UK around 7am next morning.

 

I know he did pay £729 for his last return flight in premium economy both ways but he did have some Eva reward miles to redeem against the cost. That's another reason to sign up to the Eva rewards program. Can use cash+miles to book or redeem miles for an upgrade.

Edited 1 hour ago by Keeps
Add

[Keeps]

2 hours ago, Denim said:

 

I got the emergency exit seat both ways last year. Free to London but had to pay an extra 150 to get it on the way back. 

All getting pretty expensive.  Used to be able to change return flight date for free. I had pay yet another 150 pounds to change it this time. Definitely pays to plan ahead carefully.

£150 is unfair for the emergency exit seat but the airlines know somebody will pay it for the extra comfort.

 

I'm quite lucky in that I usually know my travel plans well in advance so can plan ahead carefully. I book the fare class that suits me best considering the circumstances of the upcoming trip. For instance, for a trip next February I paid an extra £100 for the fare class on the return leg from Bangkok but that allowed me to redeem points to upgrade to Royal Laurel. The cheaper option did not. 

 

On a separate note, the last time I used points to upgrade from economy to premium economy on the London to Bangkok leg I was hit with an additional charge of £104 when checking in. This was the long haul tax that the UK government imposes. As I was no longer flying economy I had to pay the difference which would have already been priced into the premium economy ticket.

 

I was not happy but not much I could do. As I've mentioned previously, happy to fly economy now on the London to Bangkok leg in the front row emergency exit seat.