EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Program: Everything You Need Know

EVA Air isn’t an airline that most U.S.-based travelers think about often (or have even heard about). However, EVA is one of the two largest Taiwanese airlines and a member of Star Alliance since 2013. Plus, EVA Air is a transfer partner of both Capital One Rewards (2:1.5 transfer ratio) and Citi ThankYou Rewards (1:1 transfer ratio).

While the airline’s frequent flyer program, known as EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, doesn’t get much attention, this program may be worth paying attention to as it offers several unique advantages. For one, EVA Air is known for offering an amazing business class product, which can be booked through any Star Alliance partner program. However, EVA Air is known to make many more business class award tickets for its own flights available through its own program than any of its partner programs. This means that EVA Air is often the best program to book business class awards on EVA Air for multiple passengers.

On top of that, for booking Star Alliance awards, Infinity MileageLands is often overshadowed by other programs, such as Turkish Miles&Smiles, that are full of sweet spots. However, Infinity MileageLands allows you to add up to two free stopovers on round-trip itineraries operated by Star Alliance partners, meaning that you can visit up to three cities for the normal price of a round-trip itinerary. This can provide excellent value per mile if you have some time and flexibility and you’re willing to do some research. It’s worth noting that you can also book open-jaw Star Alliance award flights for the same price as a normal round-trip itinerary, but you can’t add stopovers on a one-way itinerary.

Apart from that amazing feature, though, EVA Air’s Star Alliance award chart isn’t anything to get overly excited about. Most of the award rates you’ll find on this chart are higher than rates you could get from other Star Alliance partner programs.

Nevertheless, in this article, we’re going to go through everything you need to know about EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. That includes the airline’s elite status program, how to earn EVA miles, how to redeem EVA miles and which of those redemption methods offer the most value per mile.

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Program Overview

EVA Air was started in 1989 as an offshoot of Evergreen Marine Corporation, a Taiwanese container transportation and shipping company. If you’ve passed by a shipping yard, you’ve probably seen a massive shipping container with the name “Evergreen” painted across it. The president of Evergreen Marine Corporation announced at the company’s 20th anniversary celebration in 1988 that they would be starting Taiwan’s first private international airline. Only a year later in 1989, EVA Airways Corporation was formally established.

The airline would become known as EVA Air and would enjoy significant expansion throughout the 1990s. In 2001, EVA Air became a publicly listed company on the Taiwan stock exchange. Then, in 2013, EVA Air significantly expanded its codeshare network by joining Star Alliance.

As of October 1, 2023, EVA Air has 87 aircraft in service, including 34 Boeing 777-300ER models. The airline’s route network includes flights to Europe, Asia, Oceania, North America and Central America.

Plus, through EVA Air’s Star Alliance partners, you can fly almost anywhere in the world. Here are all of the current members of Star Alliance:

On top of its Star Alliance partnerships, EVA Air also has partnerships with several airlines that are not members of Star Alliance. These airlines include:

• Bangkok Airways
• Hainan Airlines
• Shandong Airlines
• Hongkong Airlines
• Juneyao Airlines

With all of these partners (both Star Alliance partners and non-Star Alliance partners), you can both earn and redeem EVA miles. However, by electing to earn EVA miles on partner flights, you’ll be forfeiting the opportunity to earn that airline’s native rewards currency. So, you need to be absolutely sure that EVA miles is the currency that you want to earn before doing so.

You can also earn status miles and qualifying segments, the metrics used to earn elite status with EVA Air, when flying with EVA Air and any Star Alliance partners. However, you can’t earn status miles or qualifying segments for flying with non-Star Alliance partners.

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands Elite Status Program

Like many other frequent flyer programs, EVA Air allows Infinity MileageLands members to achieve elite status by racking up a certain number of status miles or qualifying segments. These status miles or qualifying segments can be earned by flying with EVA Air (or its subsidiary UNI Air) as well as with any Star Alliance member. You won’t earn status miles for flying with any of EVA Air’s non-Star Alliance partners.

The Infinity MileageLands program has four membership tiers: Green, Silver, Gold and Diamond. You achieve Green status as soon as you sign up for the program. Regardless of how many flights you take per year, you’ll always retain Green status. In order to upgrade to Silver, Gold and Diamond status, you need to accumulate a certain number of status miles or qualifying segments within a 12-month period. In order to renew whatever status tier you achieve, there are varying thresholds of status miles and qualifying segments that you’ll need to achieve in a 12-month period.

Here’s a breakdown of how many status miles or qualifying segments you need to earn in order to upgrade to and renew each membership tier:

These rules are a bit confusing and different from how most airline elite status programs work.

To clarify, for example, if you want to earn Gold status for the first time, you must already have Silver status and then earn either 50,000 status miles or complete 50 qualifying segments within a 12-month period while your Silver status is valid. Then, your Gold status will be valid for the following two years from the date that you completed those requirements. However, if you want to retain your Gold status after that two-year period has ended, you need to have either earned 80,000 status miles or completed 80 qualifying segments during any 12-month period while your Gold status was active.

For international EVA Air/UNI Air flights, the number of status miles that you earn will depend on the actual mileage of your flight as well as the fare class that you’re flying in. Likewise, the number of status qualifying segments that you’ll earn for EVA Air/UNI Air international flights depends on the fare class that you’re flying in. Here is a breakdown of the status miles and status qualifying segments that you’ll earn in each fare class for EVA Air/UNI Air international flights:

EVA Air also has a Mileage Calculator tool that allows you to enter your flight details, booking class and status tier and see how many award miles and status miles you could earn for that flight.

When it comes to earning status miles and status qualifying segments on Star Alliance partner-operated flights, each partner has its own mileage accrual chart. You can view those charts on EVA Air’s website here.

Now you understand how to upgrade and renew membership tiers within the Infinity MileageLands program. Let’s take a look at why you may want to do so in the first place. Here are the benefits that are available to you at each membership tier:

As you can see, many of these benefits only apply when flying on EVA Air. So, if you don’t tend to fly with EVA Air often, it’s probably not worth trying to earn Infinity MileageLands elite status. However, if you do fly internationally with EVA Air often, then earning elite status can help you gain benefits such as bonus miles, EVA Air VIP Lounge access, reservation privileges and preferential treatment at the airport.

How to Earn EVA Miles

There are many ways to earn EVA miles, the most obvious of which is to fly with EVA Air or its subsidiary UNI Air. However, you can also rack up EVA miles by flying with one of EVA Air’s many airline partners (including all 26 Star Alliance members), spending on one of EVA Air’s co-branded credit cards, booking hotel stays or car rentals through EVA Air, subscribing to magazines and more.

It’s also worth noting that you can earn up to 1,000 EVA miles just for enrolling in the EVA Air Infinity MileageLands program. All you have to do is sign up, verify your email address and then add your physical address to your account.

In the following sections, we’ll take a look at all of the different ways to earn EVA miles and which of these ways are the most effective.

Flying with EVA Air/UNI Air

Of course, you can earn EVA miles by taking international flights with EVA Air and its subsidiary UNI Air. Unfortunately, you can’t earn EVA miles by taking domestic flights within Taiwan on either airline. When it comes to how many miles you could earn for a particular international flight with EVA Air or UNI Air, it depends on the fare class that you’ve booked, the actual mileage of the flight in miles and your Infinity MileageLands status tier. The following chart shows how many miles you could earn in each fare class:

The award miles accrual rates for each fare class are the same as the status miles accrual rates. That means that the number of award miles that you earn for a particular flight will be the same as the number of status miles you earn, unless you have Silver, Gold or Diamond status with the Infinity MileageLands program.

Silver elite members earn 15% bonus award miles and Gold and Diamond elite members earn 25% bonus award miles. Elite status members don’t earn bonus status miles on flights.

So, to demonstrate, let’s say that you take a flight with a distance of 1,000 miles in Premium Laurel class (fare code J). That means that, if you’re an Infinity MileageLands Green member, you’ll earn 1,500 award miles (1,000 miles flown X 150% = 1,500 EVA miles). However, if you took the same flight and you had Gold or Diamond elite status, you’d earn 1,875 award miles with the 25% bonus miles that you’re entitled to at those membership tiers.

Once again, though, EVA Air has a convenient Mileage Calculator tool on its website that can tell you how many award miles you could earn for any EVA Air/UNI Air international flight based on your origin, destination, cabin class and Infinity MileageLands membership tier.

Flying with Star Alliance Partners

EVA Air allows you to earn EVA miles for flying with any of its Star Alliance partner airlines. To do so, you can simply choose EVA Air Infinity MileageLands as your frequent flyer program of choice when making your booking. Unfortunately, by electing to earn EVA miles for a partner flight, you’ll be forfeiting the opportunity to earn that airline’s native rewards currency. For instance, if you elect to earn EVA miles for a United Airlines flight, you will not be able to also earn United MileagePlus miles for that flight.

The number of EVA miles you’ll earn for a Star Alliance partner flight depends on the specific partner that you’re flying with, the actual distance of your flight in miles and your fare class. Each Star Alliance partner has its own mileage accrual chart, which you can find on the Star Alliance Airline Partners page on the EVA Air website.

These accrual charts work pretty much the same way as EVA Air’s own mileage accrual chart. For instance, here’s the mileage accrual chart for United Airlines:

So, if you were to take a United Airlines flight with a distance of 1,000 miles in Economy class (fare code L), you’d earn 500 EVA miles (1,000 miles flown X 50% = 500 EVA miles).

Flying with Non-Star Alliance Partners

EVA Air also has partnerships with several non-Star Alliance airlines that allow you to earn EVA miles. These airlines include:

• Bangkok Airways
• Hainan Airlines
• Shandong Airlines
• Hongkong Airlines
• Juneyao Airlines

However, EVA doesn’t publish mileage accrual charts for these airline partners on their website, so it’s difficult to tell how many EVA miles you could earn by flying with them.

Booking Hotel Stays

EVA Air allows you to earn award miles for booking hotel stays through their booking portal (known as EVA Mileage Hotel). To do so, you can simply select the “Earn award miles” option and enter your destination, travel dates and number of guests, then hit the “Search hotels” button. From there, you’ll be brought to a list of results that match your search query as well as the number of miles you could earn for booking at each property.

The number of miles you’ll earn for each stay depends on the specific property you book.

If you’re planning on booking a hotel stay anyway and EVA Air MileageLands is your frequent flyer program of choice, then you may as well pick up some extra EVA miles by booking through EVA Mileage Hotels.

EVA Air also partners with several hotel chains and hotel booking engines that allow you to earn EVA miles for booking stays and adding your Infinity MileageLands number to your reservation. The following chart includes EVA Air’s hotel partners and how many miles you could earn for staying with them:

Car Rentals

You can also earn EVA miles for renting cars from several popular rental companies. The following chart includes all of EVA Air’s car rental partners and the amount of miles that you could earn for booking with them:

It’s worth noting that all of these car rental companies also partner with several other frequent flyer programs. So, before you elect to earn EVA miles on your next car rental, you may want to consider whether you’d prefer to earn some other airline rewards currency instead.

However, if EVA Air Infinity MileageLands is your frequent flyer program of choice, then you may as well earn some extra EVA miles for your next car rental.

Transfer Partners

For many of our readers, the most relevant way to earn EVA miles is going to be to transfer points from either Citi ThankYou Rewards or Capital One Rewards.

Capital One Miles transfer to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands at a ratio of 2:1.5 (which makes this a rather unattractive use of Capital One Miles considering that they transfer to almost every other airline partner at a ratio of 1:1). Citi ThankYou Points transfer to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands at a ratio of 1:1.

Transfers from these two partners can be instant or they may take up to 48 hours, so keep that in mind when making your transfer. Here are a few credit cards from these two issuers that could help you boost your EVA miles balance:

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card ($95 annual fee)
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card ($395 annual fee)
• Citi Premier^® Card ($95 annual fee)
• Citi Rewards+^® Card ($0 annual fee)

It’s worth mentioning that you shouldn’t transfer your credit card points to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands unless you have a specific redemption in mind.

And, once again, transferring Capital One Miles to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands is usually a poor idea as you can get more value out of your Capital One Miles by transferring them to an airline partner with a 1:1 ratio (instead of the 2:1.5 transfer ratio offered by EVA Air).

You can also transfer Hilton Honors points to EVA Air Infinity MileageLands at a transfer ratio of 10:1. The minimum transfer amount is 1,000 Hilton Honors points, which will equal 100 EVA miles. Obviously, this is a very poor deal. You’re much better off using Hilton Honors points in their native program than transferring them to the Infinity MileageLands program.

EVA Air Co-Branded Credit Cards

EVA Air offers a variety of co-branded credit cards from several different issuers, including American Express, HSBC, Cathay United Bank and others. Unfortunately, none of these credit cards are available to U.S. citizens. If you happen to be a resident of Taiwan or Australia and EVA Air Infinity MileageLands is your frequent flyer program of choice, then you may want to look into signing up for an EVA Air co-branded credit card.

You can view the full list of co-branded credit cards on EVA Air’s website here.

Subscribing to Forbes Asia

Another interesting way to earn EVA miles is to sign up for a print or digital subscription to Forbes Asia. Here are the three available subscription packages and how many EVA miles you could earn for each one:

• A one-year subscription for 2,400 New Taiwan dollars earns 1,500 EVA miles.
• A two-year subscription for 4,250 New Taiwan dollars earns 2,500 EVA miles.
• A three-year subscription for 5,400 New Taiwan dollars earns 3,200 EVA miles.

This offer is limited to subscribers in the Asia Pacific area, so U.S.-based travelers won’t be able to take advantage of it. However, if you live in the Asia Pacific area, this could be a good way to earn some extra EVA miles.

Other Ways to Earn

EVA Air has several other partners with which you can earn EVA miles. The following table includes these other partners and the amount of EVA miles that you could earn with each:

As you can see, most of these partners are located in Taiwan and aren’t very relevant to most U.S.-based travelers. However, if you live in Taiwan and you already use one or more of these services, then you should take advantage of the opportunity to earn some extra EVA miles.

How to Redeem EVA Miles

There are many ways to redeem EVA miles, from booking award flights to covering the cost of merchandise purchases to getting the chance to experience a state-of-the-art flight simulator (if you’re a Gold or Diamond elite member).

However, in general, the best way to maximize the value of your EVA miles is to redeem them for award flights with EVA or one of its partner airlines. Of course, not all flight redemptions offer the same value per mile. So, it’s important to assess the value of each potential redemption.

In particular, EVA Air has very generous routing rules for its Star Alliance partner award flights, which can help you get a lot of value per mile if you use them correctly. EVA Air Infinity MileageLands also allows you to book Star Alliance round-the-world awards. And, while there are better programs out there through which to book Star Alliance round-the-world awards, if you already have a large balance of EVA miles, booking a Star Alliance round-the-world award could be a good way to maximize the value of those miles.

Let’s take a look at all of the different ways that you can redeem EVA miles and which of these ways offers the most value.

Flying with EVA Air/UNI Air

Of course, EVA miles can be redeemed for flights with EVA Air or its subsidiary UNI Air. Unfortunately, EVA Air’s award chart for its own flights isn’t all that favorable. Here are the award prices for international award flights operated by EVA Air or UNI Air:

The prices listed above are for round-trip itineraries. If you want to know the one-way price, you can simply divide these prices in half.

As you can see, none of these prices are very favorable. So, if you want to book an EVA Air-operated award flight, you may be better off doing so through another Star Alliance partner program. For instance, Avianca LifeMiles is a partner of most major transferable points programs (including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards), doesn’t pass on surcharges for partner redemptions and has an award chart that offers several nice sweet spots.

However, if you already have a balance of EVA miles, one of the best ways to use them is to book EVA Air flights in Business Class (or Premium Laurel Class or Royal Laurel Class) within Asia for 50,000 miles round-trip. For instance, we found a one-way EVA Air-operated award flight in Business Class from Taipei to Denpasar-Bali for 25,000 miles.

If you were to book the same exact flight on the same date with cash, it would cost you 20,705 New Taiwan dollars (which is equal to about $640 at the current conversion rate).

That means that this redemption would yield a value of about 2.5 cents per mile, which is pretty good.

So, it is possible to find solid value on EVA Air-operated award flights. Unfortunately, unlike with Star Alliance round-trip award itineraries (on which you’re allowed up to two stopovers), EVA Air only allows you to add one stopover to its own round-trip award flights. You can’t add stopovers to one-way award flights with either EVA Air or any of its Star Alliance partners. If you want to book an EVA Air-operated award itinerary with a stopover, the only way to do so is by contacting a local EVA reservation office by phone.

You can also use miles to upgrade your cabin class on EVA Air and UNI Air flights. You can view EVA Air’s upgrade award chart on their website here.

EVA Air’s website is fairly outdated and is difficult to use to find award availability. But, if you have a balance of EVA miles already, then looking for EVA Air-operated award flights within Asia in Business Class (or Premium Laurel Class or Royal Laurel Class) is a pretty good way to get solid value out of your miles.

Flying with Star Alliance Partners

You can also use EVA miles to book award flights operated by any member of Star Alliance. This is often the best way to maximize the value of your miles. Unfortunately, EVA Air passes on all fuel surcharges from its partners, which makes it even more important to find high-value redemptions. EVA Air has one award chart for all Star Alliance partner awards:

Star Alliance partner award itineraries can be booked directly through the EVA Air website unless the itinerary includes one or more stopovers. Star Alliance partner award itineraries with stopovers and Star Alliance World Travel Award Tickets (round-the-world awards) can only be booked over the phone.

Even though you’ll have to make a phone call, it’s worth looking into adding stopovers to a Star Alliance partner award itinerary. That’s because EVA Air Infinity MileageLands has some pretty generous rules when it comes to routing on Star Alliance award flights. Here are the main rules to be aware of:

• You’re allowed two stopovers on round-trip itineraries.
• The turnaround point and stopovers can’t be in the origin or destination country.
• A maximum of six sectors are allowed for each round-trip ticket.
• Open-jaws are allowed for the entire itinerary (but the open-jaw must be in the same area as your turnaround point).
• Stopovers can’t be in the same countries as the origin or destination.

So, if you really want to take advantage of these rules, you could create an itinerary with two stopovers and one open-jaw at the turnaround point. These stopovers have to be within the same region as the origin and destination, but they can’t be in the same countries as the origin or destination. For instance, if you’re booking a round-trip flight that departs from Tokyo, Japan, you could book a stopover in Seoul, South Korea, because it’s in the same region as Tokyo but not in the same country.

You can redeem EVA miles for upgrades on Star Alliance partner flights. You can view EVA Air’s Star Alliance partner upgrade award charts on their website here.

Let’s take a look at how to utilize stopovers, Star Alliance World Travel Award Tickets and other ways to maximize the value of your EVA miles with Star Alliance awards.

Utilizing Stopovers on Star Alliance Awards

As previously mentioned, you could potentially create a round-trip itinerary with two stopovers and one open-jaw at the turnaround point for no additional cost, meaning that you could visit up to five cities in one itinerary for the price of a normal round-trip ticket. This is probably the best way to utilize EVA miles if done correctly.

However, once again, you’ll have to keep your stopovers within the same region as the origin and destination. Here’s a potential itinerary that you could book in the North Asia region:

• Fly from Seoul (ICN) to Chuuk (TKK) with a stopover in Palau (ROR)
• Fly from Chuuk (TKK) to Tokyo (NRT) with a stopover in Guam (GUM)

This itinerary would utilize both stopovers (in Palau and Guam) as well as the open-jaw (since you’d depart from Seoul and return to Tokyo.

And, this whole itinerary would cost the exact same amount of miles as a normal round-trip ticket within the North Asia region, which costs 30,000 miles in Economy, 55,000 miles in Business Class and 75,000 miles in First Class.

By booking an itinerary such as the one in the example above, you can get incredible value out of your EVA miles and take yourself on an epic travel adventure. However, you’ll have to do some research and comply with EVA Air’s rules regarding stopovers and open-jaws on Star Alliance partner awards.

Star Alliance World Travel Award Tickets

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands typically isn’t the best frequent flyer program through which to purchase a Star Alliance round-the-world award. In most cases, you’re better off booking these awards with ANA Mileage Club (through which Star Alliance round-the-world awards in Economy class start at just 38,000 miles) or Air Canada Aeroplan (which doesn’t have a true round-the-world award available but allows up to one stopover and up to six segments per one-way ticket).

However, if you happen to already have a large balance of EVA miles, then redeeming them for a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket is one of the best ways to maximize the value of those miles. Here are the prices of Star Alliance World Travel Award Tickets in each cabin class:

• Economy Class: 180,000 miles
• Business Class: 325,000 miles
• First Class: 480,000 miles

In order to book one of these awards, your itinerary must conform to certain rules set out by EVA Air. You can also only book Star Alliance World Travel Award Tickets by calling one of EVA Air’s local reservation offices. Here are the main rules to be aware of when booking one of these awards:

• Maximum of 10 flight sectors
• Maximum of seven stopovers
• The itinerary must be in one direction (east to west or west to east) and cross both the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.
• The itinerary must start and end at the same place.
• Backtracking is allowed but only within the same category area (categories include U.S., Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania).
• The period of around-the-world travel must be longer than 10 days.
• You can’t depart from the same city more than once.
• Only one departure and one arrival of international flights are allowed for one country.

Now that you understand the rules for booking a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket, here’s an example of an itinerary that would qualify for this award:

• New York City (JFK) to Tokyo (TYO) on ANA
• Tokyo (TYO) to Taipei (TPE) on EVA Air
• Taipei (TPE) to Bangkok (BKK) on Thai Airways
• Bangkok (BKK) to Istanbul (IST) on Turkish Airlines
• Istanbul (IST) to Johannesburg (JNB) on Ethiopia Airlines
• Johannesburg (JNB) to Frankfurt (FRA) on Lufthansa
• Frankfurt (FRA) to New York City (JFK) on Swiss International Air Lines

As you can see, you can get a ton of value out of your EVA miles by booking a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket, especially when you book as many segments and stopovers as you’re allowed. However, it may also be worth it to book a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket even if you’re only booking a shorter itinerary of just three or four flights. It’s always a good idea to compare the cost of booking a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket against the cost of booking each leg of the trip individually.

Fly from the U.S. to Europe on Turkish Airlines in Business Class for 130,000 Miles Round-Trip

One other solid way to get good value out of your EVA miles is to redeem them for premium-cabin awards between the U.S. and Europe on Star Alliance partner Turkish Airlines. In Business Class, round-trip flights between the U.S. and Europe cost 130,000 miles (and one-way flights cost 65,000 miles), which could be a great deal depending on the cash price of the flight.

For instance, you could book a Turkish Airlines-operated flight between Istanbul (IST) and New York City (JFK) for 130,000 miles.

If you were to book this same flight with cash through the Turkish Airlines website, it would cost you about 94,205 Turkish lira (which is equivalent to about $3,330 at the current conversion rate).

That means that this redemption would yield a value of about 2.5 cents per mile, which is pretty solid.

Turkish Airlines also operates other routes between the U.S. and Europe. You can view the entire Turkish Airlines route network on their website here.

Fly Domestic Within the U.S. in United Polaris Business Class for 58,000 Miles Round-Trip

For U.S.-based travelers, a more practical redemption might be to use EVA miles to book a domestic flight within the U.S. in United Airlines Polaris Business Class. For instance, you could book a round-trip flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and New York City (LGA) in United Airlines Polaris Business Class for 58,000 miles.

If you were to book this same flight with cash through the United Airlines website, it would cost you about $2,957.

That means that this redemption would give you a value of about 5 cents per mile, which is outstanding. It’s often difficult to find value quite that high on United Polaris Business Class flights through EVA Air Infinity MileageLands. However, these award flights do consistently offer good value.

Flying with Non-Star Alliance Airline Partners

It’s also possible to redeem EVA miles for award flights with EVA Air’s non-Star Alliance partners. However, you can’t do so online. Instead, you’ll have to call one of EVA Air’s local reservation offices to find out the redemption rates and make a booking. There are no award charts for these non-Star Alliance partners on EVA Air’s website, so it’s hard to know how much value these redemptions offer.

Most of EVA Air’s non-Star Alliance partners are small Chinese or Thai airlines. So, for most U.S.-based travelers, it’s not very important to understand how to book award flights with these partners.

Miles & Cash

EVA Air gives you the option to use miles to reduce the cash price of a ticket using the Miles & Cash feature. It’s worth noting, though, that there is a minimum number of miles that you’re required to have in your account in order to use the Miles & Cash feature. If you don’t have the minimum required number of miles, this option won’t appear for you at checkout.

Even if you do have the necessary number of miles to use this feature, it’s usually better not to. EVA miles are only worth about 0.6 cents apiece when redeemed this way. And, as you’ve seen in the previous section, you can get far more value than that by redeeming your miles in other ways.

Booking Hotel Stays

In addition to earning miles for booking hotels through EVA Mileage Hotels, you can also redeem EVA miles to cover the cost of hotel stays through EVA Mileage Hotels. However, doing so typically provides very poor value per mile.

For example, you could book a night at the Rembrandt Hotel & Suites (SHA Plus+) in Bangkok, Thailand for 1,572 miles and $60 in cash.

If you were to book the same stay at the same hotel entirely with cash, it would cost you $76.

In this case, you’d get about 1 cent per mile for this redemption (($76 cash rate – $60 redemption fees) / 1,572 miles = 1 cent/mile), which isn’t terrible. However, as we’ve already demonstrated, you can get far more than 1 cent per mile in value by redeeming for award flights.

In addition to redeeming miles for hotel stays through EVA Mileage Hotels, you can also redeem your miles for “Hotel Vouchers” which are good for one night’s accommodation at an Evergreen Laurel Hotel. Hotels available for this deal are located in Tainan, Taichung, Bangkok, Paris, Penang, Shanghai and more.

Unfortunately, redeeming your EVA miles for Hotel Vouchers also provides fairly poor value per mile. For instance, 40,000 miles will get you a voucher that’s good for one night at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel Paris.

If you were to book this same hotel stay with cash, it would cost you 170 euros (which is equal to about $180 at the current conversion rate).

That means that this redemption would give you a value of less than 0.5 cent per mile, which is very poor. So, if you’re going to redeem your miles for hotel stays, you’re better off doing so through the EVA Mileage Hotels portal rather than redeeming for Hotel Vouchers. However, if you want to get the most value possible out of your EVA miles, you should forgo redeeming for hotel stays altogether and redeem for award flights instead.

Purchase Merchandise with EVA Sky Shop

You can redeem your EVA miles for merchandise through EVA Sky Shop, EVA Air’s in-flight catalog. So, if you plan on flying with EVA Air in the future, then you have the option of using your miles to buy merchandise.

Alternatively, you can pre-order merchandise from the EVA Sky Shop website and receive your merchandise on your upcoming EVA Air flight. You have to have already booked a flight with EVA Air to pre-order merchandise from the EVA Sky Shop website.

You must have a minimum of 1,000 EVA miles in your account in order to purchase merchandise from the EVA Sky Shop with miles.

In general, redeeming miles this way provides low value per point. So, you’re still better off redeeming your miles for award flights rather than merchandise through the EVA Sky Shop.

Subscription to Forbes Asia

While you can earn EVA miles by signing up for a subscription to Forbes Asia and paying for it in cash, you can also redeem EVA miles to cover the entire cost of a Forbes Asia subscription. There are three available subscription packages:

• Three issues (physical)—6,000 miles
• Six issues (physical)—11,00 miles
• 12 issues (physical and digital)—20,000 miles

Redeeming your miles this way provides pretty poor value per mile. If you paid for a 12-issue (physical and digital) subscription to Forbes Asia with cash, it would cost you $165.

Since this same package costs 20,000 EVA miles, this redemption would give you a value of about 0.8 cents per mile, which is pretty bad. You’re better off purchasing your Forbes Asia subscription with cash and saving your EVA miles for a different redemption.

EVA Air Flight Simulator Experience Award

If you live in Taiwan, one of the most interesting ways to redeem your EVA miles is for the EVA Air Flight Simulator Experience. In order to qualify for this redemption, you must be an Infinity MileageLands Gold or Diamond elite member and be at least 15 years old.

The EVA Air Flight Simulator Experience costs 100,000 miles. If you decide to redeem your miles this way, you must make your own way to the EVA Air Training Center in Taoyuan,Taiwan. Once you’re there, you’ll be paired with a real flight instructor and get to spend 90 minutes in a real flight simulator.

It’s hard to say what the value of this redemption is. But it’s definitely a cool and unique way to spend your EVA miles.

The Bottom Line

While EVA Air Infinity MileageLands isn’t a frequent flyer program that’s familiar to most U.S.-based travelers, it’s worth paying attention to because of its partnerships with Capital One Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards, its position as a member of Star Alliance and its generous rules on stopovers and open-jaws for round-trip Star Alliance award flights.

When booking Star Alliance partner award flights, members are allowed to add up to two stopovers and one open-jaw to any round-trip itinerary for no additional cost. That means that your itinerary could include up to five different cities for the same cost as a normal two-city round-trip itinerary. This is a fantastic way to maximize the value of EVA miles for travelers who have a lot of time and flexibility with their travel plans.

Another good way to maximize the value of your EVA miles is to book a Star Alliance World Travel Award Ticket (EVA Air’s version of a round-the-world award) that starts at 180,000 miles in Economy Class and can include up to 10 segments. You can also find solid value on redemptions for United premium-cabin award flights within the U.S. and Turkish Airlines-operated award flights between the U.S. and Europe.

So, while most U.S.-based travelers will only use the EVA Air Infinity MileageLands program when they make a transfer from Citi or Capital One, it’s still worthy of note as it may be the best frequent flyer program for booking certain award itineraries.