I lost out a decent amount, even though I made it to Gold for the first time this year.

Most of my travel is ex-US travel to DXB. US-DXB routes have seen the biggest devaluation. I previously earned over 8100 miles for IAH-DXB, and now I earn 7000. Not to mention that I earn only 8000 miles when doing my once-every-two-years trip to BOM from IAH. That would previously earn me 8100+1100 miles.

Upgrade redemption to the US, even on Flex fares, is now a total ripoff. It would be easier to swallow the increase in mileage needed for upgrades if the inventory was still C, or even I, but now with the switch to D, upgrade availability has all but disappeared on the TATL routes. Not to mention that D inventory used to be a lot better only a year ago.

Finally, ex-IAH Flex fares have been difficult to come by lately. It took about 30 minutes on the phone with an agent once to force a flex fare, and even then that fare was $500 higher than the saver. Not worth it.

Skywards, and some of the related changes at EK (particularly upgrade inventory changes) have pretty much driven me away. Making Gold this year was a total fluke and I have no intention of even trying to requalify next year. I'll be flying EK only when I have no other choice.