Thanks for the responses. Looking at the reviews some of those have lengthy delays.

Rankorabu, I know I'm going to have to pay around $450 for 15000 points (@0.03c per mile I believe). The purpose of using the points was to pay as little as possible to DXB, as my final destination is KHI. Again DXB-KHI is with EK Skyward points. Trying to keep this whole fare for less than $900 compared to $1350-1800 all the way to KHI.

When you say 17000 miles (points) does this mean I can earn those as Aeroplan points?