A couple of days ago, Emirates Skywards revealed that it’s adding major restrictions to its first class award tickets. With the policy now having been implemented, I want to take a look at how this works in practice, and discuss what the easiest workarounds are.
Emirates blocks first class awards for non-elite members
As of Monday, May 12, 2025, Emirates Skywards has implemented a new policy, limiting award tickets in first class to elite members. Specifically, this is now a tier benefit for Platinum, Gold, and Silver members. That’s a major policy shift, and there wasn’t a lot of advance notice.
If you now search for an Emirates first class award and don’t have elite status, you’ll see an error message during the booking process, about not being able to retrieve prices.
Emirates Skywards first class awards are generally quite expensive, requiring not just a lot of miles, but also the payment of significant carrier imposed surcharges.
Emirates has definitely been tightening up on first class awards over the years. For example, the airline has in recent years increasingly restricted first class awards to members of its Skywards program, restricting access to these seats through some partner programs. Up until now, Emirates has at least partnered with most major transferable points currencies, so the rewards have been easy to accrue, though at least with Citi ThankYou, the ratio is being devalued.
I guess there are two ways to look at this change:
- On the one hand, with fewer people competing for first class award seats, that leaves more seats for those who do have access to them
- On the other hand, I question if this is a smart strategy; Emirates has huge first class cabins that often aren’t full, and awards are so expensive (in cash and miles) that it’s not like seats are being “given away” when people redeem, but rather, I imagine Emirates makes money on redemptions
I guess from Emirates’ perspective, the airline wants travelers to jump through another hurdle in order to unlock these awards, and that hardly counters the industry trend, with airlines increasingly restricting premium awards. The miles & points world sure has changed a lot over the years.
What’s the best Emirates first class strategy going forward?
For those who value being able to fly Emirates first class using miles, what’s the best strategy going forward? This new restriction only applies if redeeming miles directly for first class, and there are no new restrictions on upgrading to first class.
As I’ve covered before, Emirates has a great upgrade program, whereby even business class awards can be upgraded to first class on the day of departure using miles, assuming there are open seats. So for some people, that could be the best strategy going forward, as that remains an option.
The other best play is to just earn Emirates Skywards elite status. Emirates has two co-branded Barclays credit cards in the United States:
- The most basic $99 annual fee card offers Silver status the first year, and Silver status in subsequent years if you spend at least $20,000
- The more premium $499 annual fee card offers Gold status the first year, and Gold status in subsequent years if you spend at least $40,000; if you don’t reach that spending requirement, you retain Silver status for as long as you have the card, with no spending requirement
So I guess the easiest workaround would be to earn elite status with one of those two cards. That’s obviously not ideal for most people, but at least it’s not impossible to earn Emirates status.
There’s also a third strategy. Interestingly Emirates is restricting first class awards to its non-elite Skywards members, but some partner programs continue to have access to first class awards. Specifically, Air Canada Aeroplan and Qantas Frequent Flyer continue to have access to some Emirates first class award space, though often at higher costs. There are no plans for that to change.
I’ve gotta say, I find the optics of that last point to be strange, as airlines increasingly restrict award space to members of their own program. In this case, the airline restricts awards for its own non-elite members, but not to non-elite members of partner programs.
Bottom line
Emirates Skywards has started limiting first class award tickets to elite members, with Platinum, Gold, or Silver status. This is a major policy change, since historically the airline has had no elite status requirements.
If you still value being able to fly Emirates first class without paying cash, the best workarounds are to upgrade a business class award to first class (either in advance or at the airport), to get Emirates Skywards elite status through a co-branded credit card, or to book through an eligible partner frequent flyer program.
I do love flying Emirates first class, so this is the push I needed to pick up the carrier’s co-branded credit card in the United States.
What do you make of Emirates’ new first class award restriction?
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