agree with n8-the-gr8 . The Emirates partnership is quite weak. It had a lot of potential. But in the end, all United got was the EWR-DXB route on UA metal, and in return gave Emirates some marginal benefits.

My home airport is SFO. GS since 2016. Earlier this year (May 2023) I needed to book a J flight from SFO-DXB. The UA-Emirates partnership had just been announced. I asked if flying Emirates SFO-DXB would get me all the GS benefits. The answer was NO. Indeed, the miles would be partner miles, without the GS multiplier on PQP. So effectively the difference was earning 12,000 MP miles by flying EY on SFO-DXB or 70000+ MP miles by flying UA metal on SFO-EWR-DXB. And also obviously losing accrual on LT flown UA miles.

And to make matters worse, the ground staff on DXB (presumably from EY) seemed clueless about UA status. When I reached the boarding gate and inquired about when they would board GS, they told me it would be "after Polaris and Group 1"