China Airlines has a niche loyalty program that offers some unique redemption opportunities for Business Class upgrades to/from Taiwan. Searching for premium awards is like Mission Impossible these days. Sometimes, the only way to complete the mission is to get creative when you can’t find availabilities. For China Airlines, here’s the workaround in how to upgrade extra passengers without a high mileage balance.
Award Transfer “Activation” Application
This process almost feels purposefully convoluted, but hang with me… it’s worth the pain. For passengers that want the ability to transfer their miles directly online, you have to fill in this paper form and submit it to China Airlines.
This application form alone deters people from taking advantage of this mileage transfer perk. The good news is that you only have to do this application once.
Select Upgrade
After it’s “activated”, you can now freely transfer your miles to upgrade your nominee passengers. For example, let’s say yours truly Chloe did a Premium Eco cash booking and wants to join mommy and daddy in Business Class.
- Select “Ticket Class” indicating the type of fare you booked. Example: Standard (A)
- Select the award segment you want to upgrade. Example: LAX-TPE
Confirm Mileage for Nominee
Before transfer, it will populate the amount of miles needed to upgrade that segment. Using the example above, you’ll only need 35,000 miles to upgrade LAX-TPE on a premium eco standard “A” fare.
Enjoy your fancy flight
Overall, China Airlines Award Transfer is an uncommon but useful technique in upgrading other passengers to its airline’s Business Class. Though the initial setup is a pain in the a$$, it can be worth the trouble since group bookings to premium cabins are definitely harder to come by today. It’s a niche opportunity to fly fancy to the beautiful island of Taiwan.
Chai Bear World 