Emirates Airlines Skywards - Skwards-related to do list for remaining 2009

Hello,

While as of today, we do not have the new reward chart for awards in 2010, it does seem that there are a few tasks that are strongly recommended to do in 2009 versus 2010 based on the upcoming changes.

Buying tickets:

1) Any fare that is a discount fare (which is defined as having some sort of limited sales period and not based specifically on booking class although I feel that is only because booking classes are so hard to see on EK's site).

2) Any travel where the sum of separate segments is more than the direct distance to/from your actual destination OR where any of these regions (not yet defined) might be negative to miles accrued based on actual distance of the segments.

3) Mileage bonus for booking online (although that technically runs in its current state to 3/31/2010)

4) Any reservations that will not be e-ticket and require paper ticket for some reason

Redeeming for awards:

1) Any upgrade award on any non-full fare for your purchased class (although Skywards may have already eliminated almost any availability for tickets booked this year so that they can charge more next year).

2) Any awards that you can entirely book online and get 10% off (next year, only 5% off)

3) Any awards that currently allow more than 1 stopover or have lower or no change fees for dates or other events

4) Any partner awards that will go up next year (we don't have the chart yet)

Things to hold off and do next year:

-Any non-restrictions fare booking for Business or First class
-Any upgrades booking on non-restrictions fare tickets purchased

I will be happy to update this post as more verifiable information or other specific examples are shared by the community or via EK communication.

Thanks,
Rasheed

Thanks for the post. Helps me understand the changes, which appear to be pretty confusing.

Hi Rasheed,


You said "1) Any upgrade award on any non-full fare for your purchased class (although Skywards may have already eliminated almost any availability for tickets booked this year so that they can charge more next year)."

Do you mean to say that the actual miles to get an award would also increase next year?

Hi Rasheed,


You said "1) Any upgrade award on any non-full fare for your purchased class (although Skywards may have already eliminated almost any availability for tickets booked this year so that they can charge more next year)."

Do you mean to say that the actual miles to get an award would also increase next year?

For any discount fares for UPGRADE awards, yes. This is based on the following statement from Skywards...

Upgrade Rewards will be linked to fare type.

So, for any discount fares, definitely expect upgrades to cost more. They won't cost less, and if they stay the same for your particular fare next year -- it means you really had a non-discount fare in EK's eyes (which you might not know until it is too late).

If you want to infer for full travel awards, not just upgrades; I do not know until Skywards posts the new reward charts.

Rasheed