Originally Posted by
Worcester Woman
My husband and I and our 2 children (14 and 11) are all silver skywards / sky surfers.
On a recent trip without the kids my husband and I used most of our miles and do not have sufficient for any upgrades. However the children have around 40k miles each.
After Emirates bumped us last week from our checked in, boarding passes printed, seats in row 8, to back in row 31, I asked for an upgrade of 2 seats from economy to business. I was told that the children cannot upgrade without us sitting with them, and as we didn't have enough miles (and no chance of a comp upgrade) they couldn't move them either.
So it seems to me that the children's miles are effectively useless - unless we pay for our business fares and then upgrade the children from economy, then they cannot use them for anything.
It is maddening that Emirates are happy to charge us full fare for 12 year olds, are happy for them to be in paid business seats (which is the reason they have so many miles) - but then tell us children can't fly business class without their parents if you try to upgrade them. It's not as if they are small children - they don't even get child fares!
So what do we do with the skysurfer miles?
I'm not sure I quite understand the scenario above but as far as I understand, if you have "control" of your kids accounts (ie you are the nominated administrator), you can use their miles to upgrade yours or your husbands itinerary. They don't need to be travelling with you.
This however, has to be processed via a Skywards centre. They fax you a form, you complete the upgrade request, nominate your kids Skysurfers account (ie where the miles are being debited from) and send it back. Has to be done 6 hours prior to departure.
Obviously, its dependent on space available in the class you want.
I have 2 kids and this is how I manage their accounts.
With regards to your issue above, are you saying that you were downgraded from J to Y in the above instance?