Redemption Details - EK and Partners.
The fastest way to determine redemption levels on EK is by logging into your
Skywards account.
If you don't have a Skywards account and want to see what redemption levels look like, follow this link
Skywards Redemption Levels
Simply enter the origination and destination cities and see how many miles you will need for either an award flight (shows both Flex and Saver) and/or how many miles you will need for an upgrade (shows both upgrading a Saver Fare and a Flex Fare)
For example, lets say I want to see how many miles it will take to either redeem an award flight from MEL-SIN or how many miles it will take to upgrade an existing MEL-SIN ticket.
Go to Skywards.com, click on Earn and Spend -> Miles Calculator, then you will see the following:
You will then be presented with the following table.
You will see that the table shows you the miles required for a round trip award flight or round trip upgrade. Remember, you can only do one-way upgrades and award travel on Flex fares (see below)
This example shows the miles required for an ECONOMY round-trip flight reward. To see how many miles are required for Business or First, simply input the class of travel when you make the initial query.
If you're on a FLEX fare and want to know how many miles you will need to upgrade from Y-J between MEL-SIN, then you simply halve the indicated amount shown (ie the one-way upgrade is 30,000 miles)
If you apply for the upgrade prior to departure and the upgrade is processed successfully online, then you are entitled to Chauffeur Drive. To confirm this, it makes sense to call your local EK ticket office if you have one, or call the EK reservations number nearest you.
You can alter the flight search details at anytime by clicking on "recalculate" at the top of the page.
Saver and Flex Flight Awards
Skywards Saver Rewards offers you value when travelling in lower demand periods or when you are willing to choose alternate flights to reach your destination. They are offered on a return basis only, in all classes of travel. Skywards Saver Rewards allow a maximum stay of 3 months and permit you one stopover on your journey.
Skywards Flex Rewards offers you more reward seats during high demand periods and on high demand flights. They are offered on a return and one-way* basis, in all classes of travel. Skywards Flex Rewards also provide you full flexibility when making your travel plans. They allow you to stay up to one year, permit up to two stopovers and you can change your travel dates at any time without charge.
Saver and Flex Upgrades
There's differing opinion on the EK forum about the relative "value" of Saver and Flex upgrade awards. For example, if I wanted to do an upgrade award between MEL-SIN, one-way, it would cost 30,000 miles.
If however, I wanted to do a MEL-DXB, then the total upgrade would only cost 45,000 miles (ie only 15,000 more and it's essentially the same flight distance). As far as I'm concerned, that's much better value.
If you're not sure, just ask one of our resident experts.
Partner Redemption Details.
The following airlines are EK partners, in terms of mileage redemption.
- Japan Airlines - 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
- Jet Airways - 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
- Kingfisher Airlines - 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
- Korean Air - 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
- South African Airways - 1 Skywards Mile per mile flown
It's important to note that when you travel on EK airline partners, your Skywards account is only credited with RDM's (and not tier miles). RDM's = Redeemable Miles.
This is one of the main differences between EK/Skywards and Oneworld (OW) or Star Alliance (*A)