Big Devaluation for Qantas Rewards on Emirates First Class from February 18.

[aaa99]

Just saw this on my monthly Qantas email newsletter.

1. First rewards only bookable with Qantas points if all passengers > 9 years
2. First rewards can only booked if you have silver status or above (I guess this matches what Emirates Skywards has in place for Skyward members)
3. Another points devaluation for Emirates Classic Rewards

 

[Doctore1003]

This new points pricing combined with the huge fees/charges makes EK rewards pretty poor value.

 

[elanshin]

I guess that will put most of the scraping sites out of being able to find EK awards

 

[RealtimeY]

Comparing the new EK rewards table against the Partner reward table:

Y costs 8% less
PE costs 15% more
J is the same as Partner
F costs 15% more

 

[MELso]

New award table. (The time EK spent as at the same rate as QF awards has been vanishingly small.)

The big plus of restricting F to PS and above is less competition for awards, meaning they'll be there if I want them. But now it's going to cost even more points in F, and there's still no guarantee QFF will get access to the same awards as Skywards.

I price QFF points at a notional 1cpp. When combined with taxes and charges in the $2k-$2.5k ballpark, this means a return trip to Europe in EK F will cost somewhere in the ballpark of $11k. This is objectively speaking a lot of money to spend on airfares when decent J options start around $6k.

I'm guessing Y, PE and J value will continue to be ruined by the taxes and EK charges

 

[fletty]

I wondered when the <9yo restriction would flow on to bookings via QF (I assumed it had when they announced it originally).

We had booked to fly QF F BNE>SYD>LHR then on to ARN with BA. There tyuy rewards last minute for EK F BNE>DXB>ARN which would've been ideal - but didn't want to leave it to chance we'd be denied the seat with flettyJnr...

Myself and MrsF have done EK F before so no loss anyway.

 

[Ktan89]

They've marked this now

 

[dsotm]

Just saw a report that the number of Qantas points required for First Class awards on Emirates will jump by 20% for silver or higher members on February 18. Business class is also affected. And if you’re bronze you’re out of luck on being able to book any F award seats..

 

[fletty]

If you try and select a flight with an infant then it prevents you from proceeding.