Emirates is of course known for its excellent passenger experience, including a great first class and business class product. Understandably, many people are interested in upgrading their Emirates flights to a premium cabin, so on this post, I’d like to talk a bit about how that works.
Continue reading: How To Upgrade Emirates Flights With Miles, And How Much It’ll Cost You
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
If only a segment of the itinerary has the First cabin (eg. YUL-DXB-HKG), it is possible to ask for an upgrade for the DXB-HKG segment when checking in at YUL? Are cash upgrades also available (as unfortunately Skywards is not an Amex partner in Canada)
From experience, it can be as low as 35-70K short-vs-long haul per person per segment. When it works out, it's one of the best feelings in frequent flyer existence.
It seems that Emirates points are expensive as the cost of points for a ticket require many. Further many people highly value the airline but my experience was not as good as people claim. The configuration and overall experience did not merit the price.
Upgrades is the only redemption option of any value with Skywards. First thing, you used a bad example of upgrading DXB-BKK. EK offers very attractive upgrade rates on connecting itineraries and not on direct flights from DXB. You can upgrade CPT-DXB-CDG Y-J for 40,000-50,000 and CPT-DXB-DPS Y-J for 57,500. Compare that to DXB-BKK or DXB-EUR direct flights. Second, the value really depends on the market where your ticket originates from. On some markets Flex Plus is more than reasonable premium to Flex (fares from ZA for instance) while from other markets it's disproportionally expensive.
Also, from personal experience, if you pick long connection in Dubai (which I always do as I prefer to sleep in a proper bed) and upgrade this ticket - Emirates still provides complimentary hotel (usually JW Marquis) and transfers (E class / 5 series). It doesn't need to be that shortest possible connection is long, you can voluntarily pick long overnight connection and still get the hotel and transfers.
Informative very. Service of emirates airline is the BEST.
Hopefully, can try my upgrading this May from Philippines to JFK.
CHEERS
ROLLY