Agreed 100% - I had started a whole thread on this earlier at:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...d-j-class.html

Also agree about the captive DXB traffic who end up with EK by default/convenience.

But as EK expands to North America (and a lot of this traffic is through traffic to South Asia), the competition really heats up and the FFP needs to do more to attract high-revenue PAX on a consistent basis.

If EK had a 1K equivalent with SWU's and provided J class + 1K access to the FCL (and better award/upgrade inventory for the top tier), then I'd pretty much do all my US - India travels in EK (~4-5 RT/year in paid C/J) and just keep 1P on United for my domestic travels in the US. EK is a much better product than LH - but the lack of alliances really hurts them wrt my business.

Currently, I do 2 RT on EK J (~60K tier miles) and 3 RT on LH (using SWU's to fly F and access the FCL) and all my other travel (domestic, Europe, etc.) is on *A, which lets me keep SEN, 1K, and EK Gold. But if EK were to have a really good top tier (they could make it like PPS with either a revenue cut off or require 100K tier miles in paid C/F), then they'd get at least 2-3 extra paid J RT's from me each year!

OTOH, this may mean doling out extra free benefits to the many DXB residents who meet this criterion right now any way...they probably way outnumber those like me and hence the lack of a higher tier!!

Thanks for helping me work out the answer to my own question