ung1

We're all familiar with the whole airline loyalty thing. You fly one airline a lot (well a little lot in my case) and get the extra baggage and the lounge access in the airport that's a zoo, and use the different check in queue than everyone else.

But what everyone really wants at the end of the day is one thing. A free upgrade. At least us die hard fans. We don't care about whY redemptions. Biggest waste of miles if you ask me. Anyway.

So you know, you build up the miles balance hoping one day you'll get an upgrade. But the airline gets rid of all the bonus miles earnings (which means you need to fly 10 round trips to get that upgrade), and increases their fares (so no more flying for no reason at all). And you never get that free upgrade. All quite sad really.

But then one discovers various 'deals'. And after seeing some of these, I'm really thinking there's no point bothering with my pathetic Silver status this year. The novelty has worn off after a few years. Skywards hasn't really enhanced the program in any significant way.

And then you find out about things like US Airways Dividend miles. So they have this offer till the end of the month where you get double the miles you purchase. That means it's cheaper to redeem miles for a Y ticket than to buy it. But no one is going to do that. An F redemption is about 20% the cost of an F ticket. You know, I'm thinking SIN-BKK (SQ F) BKK-ZRH (TG) ZRH-DXB(LX). If they'll let me do that. Which they probably won't. And in the middle, there's always a BKK-HKF (EK F) that one can do. Only 2500 tier miles. Who cares. There's Dom and there's those showers I still haven't tried. Only about USD 800 too. And then there's BMI miles that are similar. And you know, while you're in Europe, there's ATH to anywhere for EUR 1500 in F.

And I've got access to all these miles that aren't mine and I shouldn't use. Oh and Etihad has a 25% off all redemptions and upgrades promotion. Status is useless, really. Now if only I had an excuse to fly (and I daresay the money to squander).

LovetoTravel83

Actually I think Status is a plus, After achieving Silver, I had an Op-Up for me and my wife but on a very short flight, not a BIG plus since I actually never thought of an upgrade, If I keep my expectations always low then I think I'm on the plus side.

Lounges well, I think it's only when your gold is an advantage to go in any Emirates lounge worldwide.

In DXB I could get in any of the Marhaba lounge.

I think if you would continue and forgot about the op-up's, you would get one along the way.

Really dissapointed that you never had one since you know alot of the program more than lots of ppl around here.

afhstingray

i think the last sentence in your post summed it up pretty well. if you dont fly much, dont expect to have enough miles to upgrade often?

im assuming ur most frequent route is SIN-DXB, as been reported here many times the premium loads are pretty high all the time, so chances of an op-up are minimal. i do sin-man/lgw a lot more and i've never been upgraded either....

after reading the thread about EK increasing their prices i checked the prices against several other airlines. qatar was a little cheaper but their frequencies are not as good, thai was a bit cheaper as well but again, frequencies not as good so ridiculous transit time and in past experience the flights are always delayed quite a bit and they dont even have a personal TV let alone AVOD in economy and unless you buy the expensive tickets you dont even get any miles...

its hard to complain really if EK is still pretty much the best bang for your buck...

personally what i save my miles for is not upgrades, its to get redemption tickets in J so i can use it for holidays with my girlfriend

LovetoTravel83

It's not a main point that you have to fly more often to upgrade, I transfer points from my Starwood account all the time to BA and EK and I upgrade lots of my longhaul flights.

In regards to your last sentence, I think that you save more when paying for a Y ticket and upgrading to J, always better than a redemption ticket for J class.

afhstingray

its quite worth it if you redeem on UA or JAL, and its less hassle than emirates too since the award flights seem to be available well in advance of the travel dates unlike EK