Emirates is very protective of its First Class award space. So protective, in fact, that as of yesterday it’s blocking Blue members of its own Skywards loyalty program from accessing the seats.
To book a First Class reward with Skywards miles, you now have to have Emirates Skywards status.
There are only so many First Class reward seats available to go around. So, it’s understandable that the airline wants to keep as many as possible available for its most loyal frequent flyers.
“This change has been implemented to provide our premium and loyal members with more rewards, exclusive benefits, and greater access to Emirates’ renowned First Class travel experience,” an Emirates Skywards spokesperson told us.
Yet, Qantas Frequent Flyer and Air Canada Aeroplan members can continue to access Classic Reward seats in Emirates First Class – even without status.
Don’t get me wrong: If this situation lasts (and that’s a big “if”), it’s actually great news for Qantas Frequent Flyer members! Not only do Qantas flyers still get access to Emirates’ highly sought-after First Class seats, but they even now have less competition from Emirates’ own Skywards members.
But if we just take a step back for a moment… isn’t this all a bit absurd? Why would Emirates make access to First Classic Reward seats a Skywards tier benefit, but still make the seats available for members of two partner airlines to book?
The statement that Emirates provided to us after implementing this change gives a few hints…
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Is Emirates concerned about people transferring points into Skywards and booking all the First awards?
One possible explanation for this program change is that too many “points whales” with no particular loyalty to Emirates are transferring points into Skywards, then immediately redeeming them for First Class reward seats. (A “points whale” is someone with millions of points, usually due to running lots of business expenses through their credit cards.)
Many of those people are in the USA, a huge market where it’s particularly easy to earn a lot of points through credit cards.
Recent changes in the US credit card market indicate that Emirates has a close eye on it. Emirates recently announced that it will soon suspend the ability for members of several major US credit card reward programs to transfer their points into Skywards. In July, the conversion rate from the US Citi ThankYou rewards program into Skywards will also reduce from 1:1 to 5:4.
Similar things already happened in Australia in 2023, when several bank programs stopped offering point transfers to Skywards and Amex Membership Rewards devalued Skywards transfers from a 2:1 to a 3:1 conversion rate.
When these kinds of things happen, it’s often because the airline program is demanding more money for each point or mile issued.
But it’s not as though Emirates isn’t already being compensated quite a bit when people acquire Skywards miles and redeem them for reward seats. Emirates’ carrier charges (which are dressed up as taxes but really go straight to the airline) are among the highest of any airline in the world.
Americans can still transfer points to Qantas or Aeroplan
Emirates First Class is a sought-after redemption. Since these seats are still bookable through Qantas Frequent Flyer and Air Canada Aeroplan, I do wonder if these programs will soon see an increase in US-based members transferring in their credit card points.
Unlike in Australia, Qantas Frequent Flyer still allows members of many US credit card programs to manually transfer points into the program. In fact, right now, Qantas Frequent Flyer is even offering a 20% bonus on transfers from Capital One Rewards.
Does Emirates want more people to get its co-branded credit cards?
Another key hint as to Emirates’ motivation comes from this part of the airline’s statement about the changes made yesterday:
Emirates Skywards Blue Tier members can still redeem Miles for upgrades prior to flight departure (from Business Class to First Class) and use Cash+Miles to save on First Class tickets. Members based in the UAE, KSA, India and US can also sign up and enjoy immediate Silver Tier membership status with the loyalty programme’s cobranded credit cards including Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, SAB, ICICI Bank, Barclays, and HSBC.
The Emirates Skywards spokesperson added that the program remains “committed to providing our 35 million members worldwide with more opportunities to fast-track Tier status, world-class privileges, and the best loyalty experiences in the air and on-ground”.
So, Emirates is continuing to make First Class rewards available to Skywards members with Silver status. And it just so happens that residents in four of Emirates’ most important markets – United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, India and the USA – can get instant Silver status by applying for one of Emirates’ co-brand credit cards.
Perhaps Emirates has calculated that this change will incentivise more people to take out its credit cards. Not only are these generally very profitable for airlines, but they also make cardholders’ loyalty to the airline a bit more “sticky”.
On a much smaller scale, Velocity Frequent Flyer recently made a similar change. It reduced the Velocity Points earn rate for Virgin Australia flights, but exempted flyers with an eligible Velocity co-brand credit card from the change.
The Qantas-Emirates alliance
Qantas and Emirates are now into the 13th year of their comprehensive alliance. While some of the initial shine has worn off, and some are now questioning whether the alliance is still in the public interest, the two airlines no doubt have contractual agreements to each other.
I have no inside knowledge on these terms. But I do wonder if Emirates might have a contractual agreement with Qantas not to block Qantas Frequent Flyer members from accessing Emirates’ reward seats.
Qatar Airways, one of Emirates’ biggest rivals, has already been limiting the access Qantas flyers get to its reward seats for years.
Even if there’s no contractual obligation on Emirates’ part, removing Qantas flyers’ access to Emirates reward seats would certainly annoy a lot of people with Qantas Points. And it could come back to bite if public opinion turns against the partnership before Qantas and Emirates seek ACCC approval to continue their alliance beyond March 2028 (assuming the two airlines wish to do so).
This isn’t unprecedented, but it’s unusual
It’s not entirely unprecedented that you would be able to book a reward flight through a partner airline program, but not through the operating airline’s own loyalty program.
For example, I’ve seen rare cases in the past where international Qantas Business Class reward seats were available to book a few days before departure with American Airlines AAdvantage miles, but not with Qantas Points.
That said, this is rare and usually works in reverse. It’s much more common that an airline would make seats available to its own loyalty program members, but not through partner airlines. Indeed, Qantas and Emirates themselves do this all the time.
