<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by thesilb:
Good question. I think I've got this right.
For travel on Emirates, you need to fall within the "normal" Continental "series" rewards (i.e., this is not a partner airline like Qantas, for which special mileage levels are published for that airline itself, and as to which you need to book through the partner desk).
There is no series published for travel between Africa and Asia. You can travel by combining two rewards.
In this case, you would need to combine a series 10 (Africa to Europe / Middle East) with a series 9 reward (Europe / Middle East to Asia). This allows you to properly connect through the Middle East on Emirates.
Travel in coach is 50,000 + 60,000 or 110,000 round trip. Travel in "business class" is 80,000 + 100,000 or 180,000 round trip. These are standard levels, and may be doubled if easy pass availability is possible, which I am not sure if it is or is not when traveling on Emirates.
When I say "business class", there is a bit of an ambiguity (Emirates is three class, right?). I'm not clear on whether the highest you can go for award travel on Emirates is business class or first class. I'd be interested to know if you find out.
Jon, I think this is fairly accurate but let me know if I got anything wrong. Good luck!</font>
The main thing I'm really looking to do is S.Africa-Dubai in F or J if need be (the paid fare from DXB-BKK is pretty low in J)-- and what you're describing helps me figure it out-- I didn't see a separate chart like I expected, now, I -think- I understand a little better and for me, 100,000 or 110,000 or whatever would be a fine use of my CO miles. I'll report back if I have any success. Thanks!