American Express Membership Rewards - 2 for 1 for Emirates first class, any luck?

I am very close to upgrading to AMEX plat, but I was curious about using 2 for 1 on emirates for F class seats.

Anyone have luck with this? What fare class needs to be available?

Specifically, I am looking for IAH-DXB-MAA in January with flexible dates.
Thanks,
NDTraveler

international airline program is full fare only

The good news for you is that Emirates participates for both F and J seats and it seems to cover their entire route network (Accra, Amman, Amsterdam, Athens, Auckland, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Bangkok, Bangledesh, Beirut, Brisbane, Cairo, Casablanca, China, Christchurch, Damascus, Dar Es Salaam, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Egypt, Entebbe, France, Frankfurt, Germany, Ghana, Glasgow, Greece, Hamburg, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, India, India, Indonesia, Iran, Istanbul, Italy, Jakarta, Japan, Jeddah, Johannesburg, Jordan, Kenya, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Lagos, Larnaca, Lebanon, Libya, London, Malaysia, Maldives, Male, Malta, Manchester, United Kingdom, Manila, Mauritius, Melbourne, Australia, Milan, Morocco, Mumbai, Munich, Nairobi, Netherlands, New Delhi, Nice, Nigeria, Oman, Osaka, Pakistan, Paris, Perth, Philippines, Port Louis, Qatar, Riyadh, Rome, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Shanghai, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Sydney, Syria, Tanzania, Tehran, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vienna, Yemen).

You'll basically pay full fare for one seat and taxes/booking fees for the second. The fare is ~$16K++ according to KVS. The J fare is $11573++.

Interestingly, it doesn't look like EK has anything other than full fare published, so this may be a decent use of the program, assuming you're willing to pay the $16K++ for the two seats.

According to the master thread I found (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=739396&highlight=class+booking+iap) (searching for booking class IAP) here are the details:


Emirates Airlines
Booking Class: A – First Class inventory C – Business Class inventory
Y – Not allowed beyond hub for single-class cabin.
Fare Basis: JOW, JRT, FOW, FRT
Gateways: New York (JFK) Houston (IAH) effective 12/3/07
Maximum Transfers: Two (2) transits (one in each direction) with 4 coupons maximum
Journey Types: One way, open jaw, circle trip or round trip

Thanks for the replies.
I guess I should have mentioned that I am very familiar with the program and know that is only for full fares.

I also found using expertflyer that the full fares is about 16K. For 2 first class tickets at 8K a piece, it is a hell of a deal.

My question is has anyone been able to redeem it? Does AMEX make it available on all flights that have the corresponding fare buckets? Or is it limited?

Thanks,
NDtraveler

I've never had a problem booking it on Lufthansa DTW-FRA on the few occasions I needed to do last minute travel. Usually I can get better fare classes and the program isn't worth it. That said, even one use covers the annual fee.

I think the OP wants to verify that the First Class Suites can be booked.

My experience with the IAP is that if the fare bucket is available AMEX can book it. I booked a couple of CX F tickets FRA-HKG-FRA and saved a couple of thousand $$$.

Looking in ExpertFlyer, something odd is going on with the Emirates inventory IAH-DXB: Starting around March 31, the full-fare inventory bucket switches from F to P. And, on many days in April, it shows P9, but the aircraft with the first suites has only 8 of them.

Most dates seem to show A0 for the EK flight, which would mean you cannot book the IAP tickets. I do see A inventory on July 2 (A2 from Sabre), so if you wanted to call and see if it was actually bookable, that would be a date to try. I also noted the P9 on Apollo but only P7 from Sabre (using KVS). I guess Sabre is better for EK :confused:

In ExpertFlyer, I see quite a few dates with non-zero A, including a few in April with A7.

Rumor has it that EK will be adding a second daily IAH-DXB frequency by the end of the year.