Originally Posted by
UrbaneGent
Imagine spending a little over $1 million in business, hitting that coveted "Million Mile Flyer" and slowly going towards "2 Million Mile Flyer" when EK decides to take all your LIFETIME benefits away and downgrading the lifetime status you were promised. Now when you fly, you're just another number, even flying their premium cabins. This is exactly what happened at United two years ago.
Well there always winners and losers. As a 2 MM with UA, Continental (AKA United) were very good to me (and my wife), making us "lifetime" plats. Glad my determination to get to 2MM paid off (now sitting at 2.5MM).
As for EK, their FF program actually stinks to high heaven. Not sure why I'm still a Gold. Benefits are lousy and upgrades hard to get on the routes I fly (eg SIN-DXB). Used to be OK when you could upgrade in advance on any fare. Now only Flex which is twice the price of Saver. Also, EK miles are only useful for upgrades, as their redemption rates plus "FEES" are quite horrendous.
I have a bit of a dilemma coming up. I have a paid Saver ticket SIN-FCO-SIN on EK which I was thinking of upgrading with miles. However this may not be possible due to the nature of SIN-DXB-SIN (many rich people). I also have award UAL bookings in business class SIN-LHR-SIN. Not sure which to go with or cancel at this stage. Being a UAL PLAT with close to 1M miles in the bank, booking and cancelling tix is not a problem.