Emirates Skywards

[brucek]

At Moderator NM’s suggestion I’m starting a thread for discussion about Emirates Skywards FF program. The previous thread was closed sometime ago due to apparent confusion about its function as an AFF on-line community thread, and the authentic Emirates Skywards official company site (search engines listed the thread high on search results making the thread appear as though it was an Emirates owned www site).

We flew Emirates (EK) in November 2009 for the first time and were impressed. The decision was prompted by its A$399 MEL-SIN-MEL flights! The service was very good, on-line booking and check-in excellent, and its www site amazing offering a wide range of menu options that can be selected at time of booking. With over 600 in-flight entertainment channels to choose from plus cameras in the nose of the aircraft allowing forward and vertical down vision providing PAX with a pilots view.

I’ve been investigating its Skywards FF program and it seems very good, especially when coupled with a Citibank Emirates Platinum MasterCard where one earns 1.5 points/$ spent, and you need less points to travel the same distance when compared to some other programs. e.g. Skywards: 45000pts MEL-SIN-MEL. Qantas: 60000pts MEL-SIN-MEL.

The only down sides I’ve identified thus far are:

• Points expire after three years (on the members birthday), and
• Points cannot be transferred from one member to another.

The Skywards-Citibank Emirates Platinum MasterCard combo appears to be an excellent duo.

Like all FF programs, there are plusses and minuses. Flying patterns and destinations, credit card spending, etc, all affect ones decision as to which program to belong to. However I’m interested in what you have to say about this topic. I’ve kicked this thread off, and there will be others in our community that will be interested in your views, both good and bad. I look forward to your postings.

Cheers

Bruce :idea:

 

[dajop]

Bruce, good initiative.

I too have taken advantage of EK's special fares ($400SGD return SIN-MEL-SIN) on several occassions this years and have started accruing Skywards miles.

Anecdotally, Skywards members (particularly those with some status, but even without) are more successful in getting operational upgrades than non-Skywards members.

One thing to be wary of the program changes for that will be implemented on 1 Jan More info can be found at Skywards - Micro site - Introduction. Probably the most significant change is earning at 50% on "saver" fares (ie those with eligibility restrictions - such as 60+ fares - or with a limited sales period - ie purchase before 15 Dec). So the $400 fares will next year only earn 50% miles - but that's still reasonably generous if they continue to be that cheap! Also moving to zone based earning (so someone travelling MEL-SIN will earn same as BNE-SIN or SYD-BKK, even though there are some small discrepancies in miles).

Nevertheless, I think it is a reasonable program, particularly for those using Emirates to travel to Europe (or even Asia) on a regular basis.

 

[brucek]

Tnx Dajop, I'm glad to hear from you and also that you feel this is a good idea.

I note with interest that you live in SIN. We are relatively regular visitors to your country, having extended family there. I've been visiting since 1975 for business and pleasure and have seen the country/city landsacape change enormously.

I'm aware of most of what you have noted, but like you consider the changes to be OK and not out of order. If one uses credit card points to redeem flights then the rule changes, as I undestand them, aren't an issue. I've been a FF player for a longtime and understand and appreciate the way the game has to be played to make the most of it. I feel that airlines and partners that try and play arround with the rules to the dissadvantage of members are ultimatley 'shoot themselves in the foot'.

We've been happy with the QFF program and their partners, and it took some sole searching and fact finding for us to decide to becone EKFF members. The advantage of QFF for us is that we have our credit cards (plural), Avis Preferred, and hotel memberships coupled to our QFF memberships. To rejig this was not a knee jerk decission as it takes time, effort, and there is a loyality factor given that QF is Australia's national carrier. I can only hope that someone from EK reads this and appreciates the sentiment behind same.

I'm keen to see who else responds and what they have to say.

Ciao and Merry Christmas.

 

[mumof2sydney]

Hi - as an emirates gold skywards - can advise that service is always fabulous. Only problem is that from sydney can only fly akl, CHC or BKK for redemptions on short haul flights...all these points and cant use them!

 

[malmacdowall]

Thanks BruceK for starting this thread as I believe many people use EK and will be considering or have Skywards membership.

I have been a skywards member for 3 years and am a silver member. I have found the EK product excellent (Mainly flights to Europe via Dubai). The best experience with them was 2 years ago, just after becoming Silver skywards status. After takeoff, whilst seated in Economy, a hostess came up and offered a glass of champagne and wanted to personally welcome me on board and thank me for choosing skywards and emirates..... It made a great impression.

- A few times I have had enough points to upgrade one or two legs of my flights (Generally between Dubai and Paris). Best bet when doing this is to call the skywards line in Melbourne before booking a flight and checking if there are upgrade seats available. Then jump online, book the flight and call the contact center back... (But as a regular flyer, you probably know this already.)

As I am a virgin member also, my recent flights were booked through the emirates site (Not Skywards) and I added my Velocity number. So rather than skywards points, I received velocity points for myself and my wife. We could then use them for a greater variety of awards and transfer them between ourselves. I found this helpful as we don't tend to accumulate enough skywards miles to take long awards flights (Except NZ at 5 am in the morning)

Thanks again for the thread. It will be interesting to hear everyones thoughts.

 

[brucek]

Tnx for the last two postings guys.

The only stumbling block I've come accross thus far is EKs policy of not issuing Skywards membership cards immediatly. It's a hasle and sloppyhaving to carry arround a piece of paper with ones temporary card printed on same!

I plan to couple my membership with a Citibank Emirates Platinum credit card. This was one can accumulate points quite quickly.

I hope others catch onto this thread so we can all benefit from our collective knowledge.

 

[MAX_1]

I travel to Greece once a year and from Brisbane, Emirates has a great service.
The Emirates lounge in Brisbane is state of art , great food and drinks. the Dubai lounge is very busy but probably the best range of food I have seen.
Service - is exceptional.
I too have applied for 2 Citi Emirates Cards ( hopefully Mrs Max doesn't go beserk on hers ) to replace my 2 CBA cards.

 

[Dave Noble]

I recently return to using EK after a break and now have them well ahead in preference to QF and OW for trips to Europe. Their 1st class is so much better than QF ( even down to having showers on the A380 ) and the business is better than QF business. Also, unlike QF, they run their IFE from before take off to landing

As far as mileage earning/redemption goes they are far better than QF

Taking a recent trip LGW-DXB-SIN-BNE-AKL-SYD-DXB-SYD booked online

1st class earned 3 miles per mile flown and business at 2 per mile with economy at 1.2 per mile flown ( ignoring any status bonuses ). Total 24315

In 1st, earning was 72945. If I had been in J or Y it would have been 48630 or 29178

Starting as a base member, would be silver for last 2 sectors so have a bonus of 2722 for total of 75667 in F

if had been doing J , then would be silver for last sector so would earn 852 bonus for 49482 . In Y would be 700 miles short of Silver status

If an equivalent journey was done on QF , earnings are 50% bonus for F and 25% for J so would earn approx 36473 in F and 30394 in J and 24315 in Y

In F would earn Silver status after sector 3 and gold for last 2 sectors so a 2769 bonus
In J would earn Silver status for last 3 sectors and earn gold at end of trip for a bonus of 3056

total earnings being 39242, 33449 , 24315

comparison earnings then are

75667 vs 39242
49482 vs 33449
29178 vs 24315

Looking at redemptions for Europe to Australia

Qantas would charge 96K for a OW upgrade from economy to business or 60k for business to 1st plus would be a gamble. Award costs are 128k, 256k and 384k in Y,J,F respectively

Emirates would charge 62,500 for a OW upgrade ( which would be confirmed subject to I or Z availability ) and charge 95k, 190k, 285k for an award in Y,J,F respectively

Looking at earn to burn of both

On QF
In 1st would earn 39242 points which is 40.8% of an upgrade Y-J and 65% of a J-F award
In business would earn 33449 which is 38.4% of upgrade y_J and 55.7% of a J-F award
in Economy would earn 24315 which is 25.3% of upgrade Y-J and 40.5% of a J-F upgrade

In 1st would be 30.6% of a Y award
In J would be 26.1% of a Y award
In Y would be 19% of a Y award

On Emirates the percentages are

75667 in F is enough to upgrade from Y-J or J-F and 21% of way to next
49482 in J is 77.6% of requirement for upgrade
29178 in Y is 40.5 % of requirement for upgrade

In F will be 79.6 of a Y award
In J will be 52% of a Y award
in Y would be 30.7% of Y award

Travelling on Ek I get both better hard product, better service, better food and better award redemptions and to cap it off they fly to Gatwick and no need to go to Heathrow PLUS provide a car service to and from the airport at all the points on the itinerary

On the lounge front, EK generally has imo better lounges than QF. I prefer EK's F lounge in DXB over QFs F lounge in Sydney and EKs lounges outside of DXB better than QFs lounges outside of Sydney/Melbourne. EK's First/business annexe to the terminal at DXB is really cool; porter to carry luggage from the chauffeur drive drop off; annexe has security and passport control and then a lift straight up to the lounges

Dave

 

[aaronjamesmoore]

G'day,

I'm new here and this is my first post (in fact I'm still trying to find a section on 'how to choose a frequent flyer program' if anyone can direct me there).

I'm about to take a trip from Sydney to Sao Paulo and have found two options and comparing Emirates FF against Qantas FF in the process as I choose which program I want to start into.

1. Flying return on Qantas SYD-LAX and then AA LAX-JFK-GRU

2. Flying return on Emirates SYD-DXB-GRU

From my figuring thus far is...

Option 1 on Qantas will give me:
14980 miles and 90 status points for my QFF with Qantas (flying O class)
8740 miles and 80 status points for my QFF with AA (flying M and N class so its only getting me 50 percent of the miles and status points) [I'm working for a charity so I've gotta basically take the cheapest flights even if the class doesn't score me good miles]
TOTAL: 23720 miles and 170 status points for my QFF account (actual miles travelled 32190)
Qantas silver status is 350 points so I won't even be half way there at the end of the trip.

Option 2 on Emirates will give me:
30134 miles to an Emirates FF account (who I haven't joined yet)
Silver status is 25000 miles so I'll qualify after the trip even though I travelled less miles than option 1.

Conclusion
Even if I was able to get a class on AA that gave me full points I'd still only end up with 210 status points, well below the 350 needed to hit silver with Qantas.

I'm considering joining Emirates FF to get silver status at the end of this trip (even though it feels a little crazy going the long way around the world to get from Sydney to Sao Paulo).

However, I'm not sure I'll be using Emirates much in the future so maybe its not worth it. I'm struggling to come to terms with the fact that I'm really just going to be taking the cheapest flight on any airline on offer when I need to go so I'm more tempted to try and stick with One World and Star Alliance as my two choices of flying because they have lots of partners from whom I can credit points into my Thai or Qantas FF.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

 

[MAX_1]

G'day,

I'm new here and this is my first post

However, I'm not sure I'll be using Emirates much in the future so maybe its not worth it. I'm struggling to come to terms with the fact that I'm really just going to be taking the cheapest flight on any airline on offer when I need to go so I'm more tempted to try and stick with One World and Star Alliance as my two choices of flying because they have lots of partners from whom I can credit points into my Thai or Qantas FF.

Any thoughts?

Cheers!

Welcome to the forum.

I think your last comments say it all.
I fly to Greece once a year and the best way for Mrs max and I is Emirates.
I have just appplied for 2 Citi Emirates Cards ( one for each of us ) and will direct $100,000 spend on each one ( CBA Plat Cards loss ) which will yield 150,000 Emirates Miles for each of us. Enough to get us there once a year probably in Business Class.
The rest of my flying is with Qantas, so my other cards all opt to Qantas.

Maybe you can work out a run with the help of other posters on this forum to get the extra needed to get to Silver.

 

[Dave Noble]

I would take the Emirates option; the distance via DXB is pretty similar to that via LAX and not only is EK better than QF imo ( and far better than AA ) , but you do not have the hassles of travel through the US ( such as having to collect bags, do immigration, drop bags off again ) and it can be done with 1 connection rather than 2

On top of that you will earn more FF miles with EK and attain silver status ; Ek is also a useful airline for trans tasman and travel to BKK and SIN from Australia . 25,000 EK points is enough for a 1 way upgrade from economy to business from Australia to Asia ( c.f. 40,000 for the equivalent on Qantas )


Dave

 

[Flying Fox]

I have been reading with interest.

Has anyone claimed a free flight (F, J & Y) or an upgrade with EK? Is it difficult to do?

Basically, what I'm wondering is, do EK release a lot or a good number of redemption seats?

Otherwise having lots of points & status and no where to use them makes everything a bit of a waste of time.

 

[Dave Noble]

I have been reading with interest.

Has anyone claimed a free flight (F, J & Y) or an upgrade with EK? Is it difficult to do?

Basically, what I'm wondering is, do EK release a lot or a good number of redemption seats?

Otherwise having lots of points & status and no where to use them makes everything a bit of a waste of time.

I have wanted to use points for upgrades on 5 flights recently. All 5 managed to be upgraded. 4 of them were confirmed at the time of booking the tickets, the last one , Z class ( 1st upgrade ) only became available on day of departure and was processed at the lounge. If had wanted to upgrade to business class rather than 1st , I class would have been confirmable on all sectors, so ime , using points is quite easy. As a neat benefit if get gold status, can even redeem points once onboard to upgrade if there are available seats


I have found upgrading on EK better than the QF lottery

Dave

 

[Flying Fox]

Thanks for sharing. Helps put everything into perspective.

 

[Dalescott]

Like most people that have written about this, I use EK for OS flights and QF for Australia. I have had a couple of bad flights with EK, but because I fly to Scotland (Glasgow or Newcastle), it is the Quickest. Skyward as a program is OK, I don't fly for the points, I fly to get there. The points are an added extra, but I do use them. As to the Citibank Emirates card I have now applied for one for myself and one for the wife. They will add to the points, and every point helps.

 

[dajop]

Just a question for the EK silvers - is it worth it?

I am now 2,500 miles short of silver, which I may not get with any planned travel before my year ticks over in June (although there is always the chance of unplanned travel).

Given pricing ex-SIN, I will undoubtedly have more travel back to MEL in the next 12 months on EK, and even half tempted by special fares to UK at the moment for an extended long weekend (well I am owed 2 public holidays at the moment) , and if silver before then would get lounge access at DXB

So the question is to do a status run or not? I could get 3400 tier miles with a weekend trip to CMB (about $380AUD), and do some sight seeing whilst there. Or is it not worth it?

 

[browski]

I use EK frequently. In fact just flew CCU-DXB-LOS on EK last week.

From Melbourne, EK now service Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and AKL. (and of course BKK and HKG via SYD)
That is impressive coverage for a non-aussie carrier.

I've been pumping my points into the Velocity program, but am also at the stage where I think I need to reverse this - and pump DJ flights into Skywards.
As a frequent OS traveller, especially to middle east, India and Africa you need to run with 2 programs. Surprisingly for an aussie resident, OW is still a distant third, behind Skywards and *A when trying to service this region (IMO).

 

[dajop]

I From Melbourne, EK now service Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and AKL. (and of course BKK and HKG via SYD)
That is impressive coverage for a non-aussie carrier.

I thought about that too. QF only serve 5 international destinations out of MEL non-stop (SIN, AKL, WLG, LAX, HKG), couple that with some nicely targetted sponsorships (such as the Melbourne Cup and Collingwood) EK is probably doing OK in getting some MEL loyalty.

 

[mumof2sydney]

Agree very much that more useful if in MEL - wish out of SYD there were more options.
In response to silver status - you get lounge access (one person) and more baggage allowance. The lounge in Dubai (main one terminal one) is the busiest, noisiest lounge almost anywhere..it is often very difficult even to find a seat. And the showers are not fabulous - nowhere to hang anything and poor water flow etc.(i speak for the girls room - cant comment on the boys one!)..that said, there is an abundance of food and alcohol 24 hrs s day. If you manage to land at a quiet time the service isnt too bad either- drinks brought to you etc...so is it worth it...? As gold i wouldnt go out of my way to get there, just a perk if you do...

 

[auriga]

From Melbourne, EK now service Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and AKL. (and of course BKK and HKG via SYD)
.

No HKG, I think.

Edit- just realised you can fly BKK to HKG on EK ...