YOWgary

Emirates have been pretty consistent about not wanting their F cabin to be overrun by a bunch of churners paying bargain-basement rates, and by the time they signed the deal with Aeroplan, Emirates had just finished a long campaign of reducing or eliminating partner-program access to F altogether.

...so it really shouldn't be any kind of surprising that while Emirates are willing to let Aeroplan customers book F with points, they're going to be expecting rather a *lot* of points to do so.

expert7700

Just a datapoint on two Aeroplan EK J redemptions flown:


SEA-DXB-HAN no paid upgrade to F from SEA or DXB (partner booking, call your airline even if day of IROPS and you miss a flight)

LAX-DXB-KUL first segment quoted $3100usd in EK LAX lounge. second segment we were told impossible due to Aeroplan ticket at DXB checkin, DXB ticket counter, and DXB lounge. Onboard 7 of 8 F suites were empty, and onboard upgrade price quoted as $2200USD.

//if they had only quoted the same equivalent in Thai Bat, I would have just paid and done the conversion later (as one does)
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YYZ1313

I get that but at 300-500k for a flight, I'm not sure the amount of Aeroplan customers who are able and willing to book EK F is enough to justify whatever AC is paying EK for this availability.

YOWgary

I wouldn't be shocked to learn that both EK and AC consider the F cabin as incidental, and neither will be particularly bothered if it turns out long-term that there are only a few dozen AP redemptions a year for EK F.

Aerplan get to say they made it available when other programs couldn't / wouldn't, and Emirates only have to provide those seats when they're getting well-compensated. The same applies, to a lesser extent, to Emirates J, which I'm sure is the whole point of the dynamic-pricing model.

Given that EK have chosen to enter the agreement, but set its prices higher and under a separate model from EY/GF/WY, the most basic conclusion is that they wanted that revenue, but didn't see sufficient value under the fixed-price model.

ywgckp

They are crazy expensive - but with a SE priority reward it's a bit more manageable, especially for such a unique experience. I'm planning on making use of it. But it'd be interesting to know how often they will sell them at this price. Your theory that it's a marketing concept that provides a bit of glamour to Aeroplan is probably pretty accurate.

vancouver25k

PRs only go up to J, no? Are there any that let you book F?

ywgckp

Oops, you are absolutely right. My mistake.

zrh2yvr

Just started looking at EK F today as I want to burn my last PR as outbound J (50%) and return F. Pricing DXB-Europe seems to be pretty much distance based. It's not a great price but I am probably going to do it. ~150k one-way - new 777 suites. The J-Class using 50% is only 27k one way so basically I am burning 125K to get upgraded from J-F - including a day in the lounge in DXB.

ACYYZ/SD

Will take the plunge just to say I did it. Do not recall.. is there an arrivals lounge @ DXB? Guessing that Chauffeur Drive is not applicable to reward tickets.

rankourabu

No to both.

They will send a personal escort on arrival/connection to meet your flight in DXB to get you out of immigration faster or take you to the lounge.
If you are on the A380, you will deboard and reboard directly from the massive A lounge.
A lounge is much better better than B lounge for First.

If anyone is tempted to book out of YYZ, note there is zero ground service for F at YYZ.

The A380 first class experience is simply mindblowing every time.

I haven't flown EK J in 10 years so can't comment.

YOWgary

…aside from the Signature Suite, which is definitely available for paid Emirates F and flex-F awards. I haven’t seen details on whether Emirates F booked as a First Lowest award will also qualify.

rankourabu

Last time I flew out of YYZ in late 2021, the only thing F got was Plaza Premium, so this is quite the improvement.

bcnfish

Wait, Signature Suite isn't only available when flying AC metal?

YOWgary

Emirates F is the sole exception.

YYCCL3

An interesting but not unexpected data point when attempting to change an Aeroplan redemption booking that contains EK segments in both directions of a round trip (EU-DXB-EU). I wanted to change the round trip to a one way and was quoted a return of 6500 points instead of the 45000 each direction originally cost under the fixed partner chart. Dynamic pricing totally in play here, and I note that the part of the itinerary I wanted to retain is not currently visible as an award redemption whatsoever through Aeroplan.