Worthwhile phoning around as it appears occasionally some call centers can do things that others say it is impossible to do.

The other thing to bear in mind is that the last two years Emirates has had a special promotion of double tire miles in specified months, last year it was October and in 2004 it was November.

Watch out for this as it is only announced a few weeks before and you have to register for it, but it would be highly unlikely to be December.

Silver is well worth it, I know having just been bumped back to blue

BB