Emirates seems to be trying to make its first class product less accessible using miles. Emirates is in the process of eliminating first class awards for most partner frequent flyer programs, and now Emirates is eliminating the best deal for redeeming miles for first class directly through the Skywards program.
Continue reading: Devaluation: Emirates Ends Flex First Class Awards
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Not surprised since Etihad F is gone. Less competition to ME means higher prices.
This sucks. The only redeeming aspect with Emirates is that the are a transfer partner with all the major players and one can purchase miles.
Trying to find out the exact same thing! And what routes the new business class on the 777-300s are on!
I was anticipating such a coup by Emirates especially since they did a massive sale (50% discount..?) of their air-miles recently - just too good to be true. Bait and screw your customers.
For whatever they were pricing their F seats even before 'devaluation' I always thought they were exhorbitant when you include the fee components into the ticket.
I've done their F some years ago, only because I had some mileage to burn, but never impressed compared to SQ or CX. Never trusted any of the mid-east carriers all along - pure rip-off merchants.
Personally, I'm pleased that awards and upgrades are becoming harder to get.
I pay for all my F bookings, and increasingly (pre-COVID) I was not able to choose the seat I wanted on the flight I wanted. I'm sure this was due to people trying to get into F using miles instead of cash. It became quite annoying.
So with all the award aficionados and people who are given a J ticket by their employer and upgrade to F feeling the pain of exclusion and increased miles, it might be easier for me to assist Emirates with their cash flow.
And I suspect this is exactly why Emirates have made these changes.
Very interesting.
Thanks for the info.
Seems like they’ve done lots of tweaks to Skywards in the last few years and most are not good ..
Shed any light on whether First Class Saver fare still exist ??
Cheers
D