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My experience and Questions on obtaining a F reward

My experience and Questions on obtaining a F reward

Old Jul 9, 2017, 3:37 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2017
Posts: 13
My experience and Questions on obtaining a F reward

Hi everyone,

I am a first time poster after doing a little research over the last couple of days. This forum is a great wealth of knowledge. I love the Emirates A380 business class product and have in the last few years flown a few times with them by choice. I am a platinum member and have never used my points till now. The dream is First with my partner (who has never been in first class) on a holiday.

About 2 months ago I started enquiring about 2 x F seats from MUC to BNE on an A380, but there was no availability for my chosen dates. I started to throw any date at them from August to December 2017 to try and get a feeling on availability and after quite a while found that there was no availability at all. I was at the time surprised but it seems after reading this forum that my experience is pretty normal and maybe even accepted as part of the frequent flyer game/challenge.

Initially I was told there are no waiting lists but then suddenly (I think as a result of an email I sent) a waitlisted booking appeared. On my next phone call to them they said this had been done by headquarters. Then on my next phone call to them the lady suggested that seats are available from MUC to DXB and that she can confirm these. This left my booking half confirmed (DXB to BNE still waitlisted), but then I was told that the booking would expire in 7 days. So for the last 3 weeks I have called to ask for a special request to extend the confirmed seats in order to stop the whole booking being removed.

My first choice would be MUC to BNE in early December returning mid Jan 2018 (with the DXB to BNE being EK434/EK435), which I accept is a busy time of year.

So my first question, is my experience similar to other peoples here?

I have just found out about ExpertFlyer. Is their Reward/Upgrade availability reliable? For example I searched for a F reward from MUC to BNE for the next few weeks with EK434 being the flight from DXB to BNE and got nothing. For most EK434 flights there are still 4 or more seats still available in F according to its seating information. In December F is empty or has 2 seats blocked but I realize this is a long way off yet.

Can anyone offer any hints or tips? My current plan is to simply call once a week and check if there is anything free and/or get my current confirmed seats extended for another 7 days. Or is this a waste of time because IF Emirates decides to release a F seat they will probably do it only 20 to 30 days before the flight.

Are there any websites that show seating historically? I am interested to know what F looked like on EK434 in December last year or the year before?

Thanks heaps for any and all comments, tips, hints or advice.
MUCDavid is offline  
Old Jul 12, 2017, 10:39 pm
  #2  
Moderator, Emirates
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Where My Heart Is
Programs: BAEC Silver, FB Platinum, KQ Asante Gold, Shebamiles Blue, Emirates Blue
Posts: 3,380
Hi MUCDavid

I know I'm a couple of days late but please allow me to welcome you to the EK forum. As you have seen, there is a wealth of knowledge and information on the forum with similar threads to this if you do a thread search. Unfortunately EK seem to operate a bit hit and miss with award availability but others have far more experience than me so I will leave it to them to hopefully advise better.

Once again, welcome on board and hopefully you'll share your EK experiences and help others out.

Safe & Happy Travels

S
Saltire74 is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 12:52 am
  #3  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: KYE
Posts: 4,156
Begin checking from the middle of the current month for redemption availability for 6 weeks after. Your best bet would be in the last week of say July for early September.

You'll also need to be extra flexible, does it have to be MUC? why not FRA, HAM, DUS, GVA or ZRH? Look for seats into SYD/MEL/ADL/AKL too.

Lastly, F fares out of Italy aren't that steep so might worth looking at those.
edy4eva is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 1:45 am
  #4  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
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If you really need to go to BNE then it may be better to book a J Flex ticket and use miles to upgrade. Of course upgrade availability is the same as award availability, but at least you have a confirmed flight to begin with.
skywardhunter is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 4:53 am
  #5  
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Join Date: Jul 2017
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Thumbs up

Originally Posted by Saltire74
I know I'm a couple of days late but please allow me to welcome you to the EK forum.
Thank you Saltire74 and thanks for replying. I have read quite a few threads now and am learning alot.

Originally Posted by edy4eva
You'll also need to be extra flexible, does it have to be MUC?
Kinda yes. But I am actually confirmed with a F seat on MUC-DXB already so this is not the problem. It is DXB-BNE where Emirates seems to rarely (possibly never) give awards in first on a 388.

I have tried to stay a night or 2 in DXB but that does not help. The only thing I could do which I am not so excited about is travel on a 777 via SNG ( I think).


Originally Posted by skywardhunter
If you really need to go to BNE then it may be better to book a J Flex ticket and use miles to upgrade. Of course upgrade availability is the same as award availability, but at least you have a confirmed flight to begin with.
Good idea. I will keep that in mind, but the dream is F as I know very well what business is like ^.

Guys and girls there are 2 questions I still have,

Is the expertflyer information correct for availability and rewards?

Is there any historical information on availability and/or rewards?
MUCDavid is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 5:00 am
  #6  
 
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
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Originally Posted by MUCDavid
Is the expertflyer information correct for availability and rewards?
It varies over time, the latest I heard that for EK it is, yes. If EK changes which fare buckets awards come from then it might be inaccurate until EF fixes it again. Set an alert on EF.

If you buy a J return you can select auto-upgrade also on EK MMB. It's a relatively new feature and we don't have many reports yet on the success of people using it.

Originally Posted by MUCDavid
Is there any historical information on availability and/or rewards?
Not that I am aware, it changes on a daily basis what is and isn't available.
skywardhunter is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 6:50 am
  #7  
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Thank you for the quick reply. I will keep the thread updated with my progress so everyone can read.
MUCDavid is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 7:02 am
  #8  
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Originally Posted by MUCDavid
Thank you Saltire74 and thanks for replying. I have read quite a few threads now and am learning alot.



Kinda yes. But I am actually confirmed with a F seat on MUC-DXB already so this is not the problem. It is DXB-BNE where Emirates seems to rarely (possibly never) give awards in first on a 388.

I have tried to stay a night or 2 in DXB but that does not help. The only thing I could do which I am not so excited about is travel on a 777 via SNG ( I think).




Good idea. I will keep that in mind, but the dream is F as I know very well what business is like ^.

Guys and girls there are 2 questions I still have,

Is the expertflyer information correct for availability and rewards?

Is there any historical information on availability and/or rewards?
You can try to start collecting historical data yourself with ExpertFlyer. I did this some time ago. Set up alarms for F award availability on the fight you want to investigate. You are allowed 30 alarms in EF, so set them up for the next 30 days and as time goes on and 'old' alarms expire you can set new ones.
Set up a spreadsheet to show when a certain award became available.
You should get an idea, but it's not foolproof. As a result of my investigation I was relatively certain that space would open up for my fight about 4 days in advance, but it did not materialise.....
thijsseh is offline  
Old Jul 13, 2017, 6:49 pm
  #9  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: KYE
Posts: 4,156
Originally Posted by thijsseh
You can try to start collecting historical data yourself with ExpertFlyer. I did this some time ago. Set up alarms for F award availability on the fight you want to investigate. You are allowed 30 alarms in EF, so set them up for the next 30 days and as time goes on and 'old' alarms expire you can set new ones.
Set up a spreadsheet to show when a certain award became available.
You should get an idea, but it's not foolproof. As a result of my investigation I was relatively certain that space would open up for my fight about 4 days in advance, but it did not materialise.....
Unless EF checks at regular intervals, e.g. once a minute, it's hardly a reliable method for data collection.
edy4eva is offline  

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