Travel Thoughts: Booking an Eva Air Flight with my Frequent Flyer Miles


Finally, I managed to save up enough miles to actually redeem my very own ‘free’ ticket!

Since EVA Airlines has their Hello Kitty flight to Taiwan from Singapore, I figured I’d give it a try. It turned out that the timings were not that great, so I opted for a normal flight back, which had a slightly better timing, and a Hello Kitty flight from Singapore to Taiwan; at least half the trip would be adorable. 😝


Type: 💝Premium Economy💝

Price Range: S$636.60 (Premium Economy Special) to $1721.60 (Premium Economy Flex)

Actual Damage:
S$316.60 +$25 (transfer fee) = S$341.60

Savings:
about 50%

Credit Card: Citibank Premier Miles
*One (or two) of the benefits that I like about this card is that the miles earned practically never expire, and you can use them for a variety of airlines. The other benefit is that basic travel insurance is covered as long as you buy your tickets with the card.

Want to get up to S$120 cash back when you spend a min. of S$200 for 6 consecutive months? If you (previously) do not have a Citibank Credit card, you can apply for one here. Do note that this is just a recommendation and you should properly consider your finances and situation before applying for any credit card.


Mileage Needed

Economy: 35,000 miles (U.P. S$436.60-$1016.60)

Premium economy: 40,000 miles (U.P. S$636.60-$1266.60, paid S$341.60)

Business: 50,000 – 55,000 miles (currently this is out of the range, but one day)


With a standard one-time conversion fee of S$25 to convert credit card points to miles, not to mention the additional fee (fuel surcharge, tax etc…) of S$316.60, a business class ticket would be more worth it since you pay the same regardless of class (and S$341.60 for business class is definitely a deal). But I still managed to save about 50% off using miles for premium economy, which is still quite a deal, especially when economy class tickets can cost around S$600++.

Note: When you sign up to be a member, Eva Air gives you an additional 5,000 miles.


Hello Kitty Jets
If you really love Hello Kitty and friends, and simply must take a themed flight, then it would be best to check the official website to confirm which flights are the special themed ones.

From various blogs and online sources (previously), it would seem that the flights used to be BR215 and BR216, but when I checked to book my tickets it was updated to BR225 and BR 226 instead. The timings were also swapped, but the timings were still not the best (early in the morning for return from Taiwan and afternoon flight from Singapore).

Departure flights from Singapore to Taiwan
Departure Flights from Taiwan to Singapore

Since the return flight from Taiwan was (too) early in the morning at about 7am in the morning, I went for the non-Hello Kitty themed flight at a slightly (but still not so great timing) of 9:25am.

Now, with ticket purchased, all that is left is to anticipate for the flight and plan this semi luxurious pseudo ‘solo’ trip!



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When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.

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