Emirates Airlines Skywards - advice: 1600 more miles needed for gold with one trip left in 2009

Hi all

this might be one of the wierdest questions! Sorry!

I am currently skywards gold and find it invaluable as I fly economy when I travel for my employer. Its great to use the lounges, have priority baggage, and the odd operational upgrade too.

I have one trip left in 2009, BHX-DXB-HYD and back, and after this, I will still be 1600 miles short of retaining gold for next year.

What can I do to get the extra miles I need?

I thought of going out a day early, and from Dubai doing a quick return hop flight (which I will have to pay for myself obviously, my company won't pay for it) to somewhere like cairo or kuwait, returning directly I arrive there, to get the extra miles. Once back in dubai again, I'd then fly to Hyderabad where I will be working.

Are there any bargain fairs to such destinations? Someone mentioned the Arabian Airpass for instance. I can't easily work out what destinations are about 800 miles each way, to get me the miles I need without paying too much. I assume a shorter flight is cheaper? Or are there any DXB-???-DXB sectors that are cheap (maybe with low load factors?).

If I (paid the extra on top of the economy fare myself and) flew business class for one of my BHX/DXB sectors, does that give more tier miles? Or are they always at base rate no matter what class is flown?

Many thanks for your help on my stupid question!

Martin

Try using the mileage calculator on the Skywards website.

I have checked the closest destination which provides enough miles is Sanaa in Yemen which is 987 each way.

You get a tier mile bonus of 50% for Business Class and 100% for First Class.

Nooooooooooo, you could have paid for an upgrade DXB-HYD-DXB to J class, but would give you 1578 extra miles. My advice would be to call ticketing and see the cost of doing DXB-HYD in F (that way you get to use the F class lounge in DXB) and come back HYD-DXB in J.. That gives you 2367 miles extra