Emirates major devaluation
 

I fly Emirates UK to Far East approx 11 times per year and I pay for this travel myself. I have been loyal to EK for the past 5 years partly because they give me gold status and the perks that go with it and partly due to their good service.

I managed to accumulate 142,000 tiers miles last year and am deemed a high value customer by EK, whatever that means.

I have just booked the first flight of 2010 and when I checked the new booking agent for milage I was majorly disappointed. Here is a brief summary of the miles I will earn.

MILES
16400 Skywards Miles | 6000 Tier Miles View Miles breakdown
Hide Miles breakdown

Skywards Miles Tier Miles

Europe (West) (GLA) -Far East (BKK) Saver 3000 3000
Emirates.com Bonus - Economy Class 1200
Miles Accelerator Bonus 14-JAN-10 GLADXB EK0028 ECONOMY 1000
Gold Tier Bonus 3000
Far East (BKK) -Europe (West) (GLA) Saver 3000 3000
Emirates.com Bonus - Economy Class 1200
Miles Accelerator Bonus 01-FEB-10 DXBGLA EK0027 ECONOMY 1000
Gold Tier Bonus 3000
Total Miles for Mr. Blacknight 16400 6000

The above flight is classed under the new saver catagory even although the terms of the tickets allow changes and stopovers. The price of this SAVER ticket was £659.

So my last trip in December earned me approx 13200 tiers miles and a total of nearly 23000 miles for the one return journey. This flight cost me £640.

The SAVER catagory to me simply means that EK are saving a vast fortune by having devalued their FF program and I am some 7000 tier miles and 6000 miles down on exactly the same flights and timing as before but also £30 more expensive than my already inflated December ticket.

If you then remove the 2000 miles bonus accelerator from the 16400 total miles it makes the reading even more bleak.

On average I pay about £520 - £560 per return ticket throughout the year so no only does it seem that the SAVER catagory is going to be more expensive by my miles earned are being devalued by approx 1/3.

I have followed other complaint threads with interest thinkg this wouldn't affect me too much but how wrong I was.

Maybe I am just unfortunate with my choice of flights and schedules but I really cannot see how EK are not going to loose a great deal of loyal custom as the true cost of devaluation unfolds to others.

Personally this now makes EK far less attractive to me and thus I will now conscider using alternative carriers where I wouldn't have before.

My moan is over feel free to comment.:td:

I think theres currently a software glitch that is causing all fares to be shown as Saver fares. (See thread about Updated booking engine on EK website). Hopefully this will be fixed soon.

I entirely agree with you. Even though I don't spend as much as you do I feel that the new changes are worse than I expected. Even if I fly on flex fares I still lose out about 3000 tier miles on a return ticket from bhx to dac. I just wish they polled customers before making the changes or just revert back to the old system.

The issue with the miles and Flex vs Saver being shown is being discussed in another thread- so check your eticket to seee if it is a saver or flex- as the one showing seems wrong more time than not.

What are your other options? BA - you will get 25% of miles in discounted Economy and few tier points - QR - discounted economy is 50% of miles also. TG also doesnt (AFAIK) Who is going to give you full miles?

There are many threads that are coming up on how everyone will leave EK -- and go where? EK is one of the last ones to reduce the number of miles for dscounted tickets. EK is in business to make money- lets get over the issue of them killing their business by this- Lets reduce the number of Golds and look forward to being REWARDED in 2011 with improved benefits for the fewer golds that will be around.

I think with the miles accelerator and a few good loop holes I have found on a couple routes I actually will get more miles - and a probably more tier miles due to the increase in bonus for J and F.

Etihad still gives full miles, even for deeply discounted tickets. And in my opinion their benefits are also a lot better, and it is also easier to attain status. The only problem is frequencies and routes, and on some of those routes, their pricing.

i just priced out a RT from dxb to icn on ek.com (economy) and while the fare came out to 6045AED, which is exactly the same as it was in 2009, the fares are showing as Saver and thus the tier miles are listed at 1750 each way.

so let me get this straight... i'm paying the same fare as before but i will now accumulate 3500 tier miles COMPARED TO 8394 tier miles for this RT. 58.3% devaluation.

the Flex fare would have earned me 7000 tier miles for the RT which is only 16.6% devaluation...something i could live with. so where is the option for a Flex fare? is it even available? is EK trying to introduce a whopping jump in fare for this mystery Flex fare?

this is MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR BS.

We have all acknowledged that there is a GLITCH!! and all routes are showing SAVER even if it s flex---

I checked on ITA and the 6045AED fare DXB-ICN-DXB IS a FLEX fare!--

Agree fully! Biggest issue is the routes for me.

In addition to what has been said already this is definately Emirates way of reducing the numbers within it's FF program.

I firmly believe that this is EK's way of not bringing in a platinum tier. With the changes they have made the numbers of gold & silver members will drastically reduce and like already said maybe enhance the gold experience.

For me this is essentially the same as BA & KLM / France have done to their programs already. The only difference with EK is they still offer a premium product where as the others product has also deteriated.

It would help retain customers if they knew what these 'enhanced benefits' would be, instead of first devaluing the whole program and then trying to make amends after a lot of customers have left.

All of the below Y tickets show up as FLEX, just went through the whole list line by line and its all FLEX.


[KVS Availability Tool 5.1.7/Platinum - Galileo: Fares/PSH/RU]

The Highlighed one is the fare base that worked out to 6045AED on ITA and presume same as ek.com

As a regular flier LON - PER in Y/J I used to get 9,000 ish tier miles one way, 18,000 tier miles return for Y. On a saver ticket now return ticket only earns 7500 - this is less then 50% of old skywards program.

Have just booked a ticket through TA ( was booked for me by a relative) and although being more expensive then Ek - ticket was £841 (Ek website shows £839) it appears this fare is a Saver.

Can anyone please check for me if flying LGW-PER (Ek10- Ek 424 5th Feb 2010) and then (Ek425- Ek009 19th Feb 2010) if booked directly through EK is SAVER or FLEX?

I am considering cancelling and rebooking through EK to earn double the tier miles (15,000) and another 7500 miles, for a cheaper ticket if its FLEX, and assuming the cancellation costs aren't extortinate.

Cheers for any help,
Blueapple_Star

I am keeping my fingers crossed for a return to the personalised service which actually makes me feel like it means something to be "high value".

I dont know if anyone else takes notice during boarding, but over the last few months, the amount of people with Gold Skywards tags on their hand baggage has been enormous.
On one LHR flight I did a couple of months ago I counted 38 different GOLD tags, presumably there are many people who do not have these tags on their hand baggage but who still have Gold status.
Its little wonder that pursers coming to say hello and checking on me during the flight has been inconsistent of late (to say the least). If there are so many Gold & Silver passengers on board, its probably not physically possible for all of us to be greeted personally.
As far as I am concerned, EK only had 2 real options. Either introduce a Platinum tier, or reduce the number of "high value" passengers. They have obviously opted for the second option.
Only time will tell what the actual pros and cons are for individuals, but if the service given to me goes back to being personal and I disembark feeling special, then I am happy.

I think there's another alternative in this scenario, which is to put more resources into caring for these high value customers/ frequent flyers. Were this the case that the passenger base of the airline had remained the same, but the number of elites had increased drastically, I would agree with the options you've given. But if this growth in frequent flyers has been brought about due to increased capacity, resulting in increased revenue, as has happened in the case of Emirates, then more needs to be done to take care of these people. I suppose as a percentage of all flyers, the number of elites has not increased significantly.

I can provide one side effect of this change: I won't start collecting miles on Emirates. Being based out of CDG, I will need to go to Dubai on a semi regular basis. However, I calculated that it will take me NINE roundtrips between Paris and Dubai in Saver fare in order to qualify for the basic SILVER status, and 17 to qualify for Gold.

The system is fine if you are based in Dubai and so use Emirates to fly to most locations, but if you are not based in Dubai, and since Emirates is not part of an alliance, it make no sense for me to put my miles there. I'll take them on United and forgo the useless tier miles.

Another devaluation?
 

Most of us flying the last couple of years have got used to the online booking bonus. Now that it is April 1, it looks like this promotion isn't being extended. That's just a whole new level of devaluation now.

I can't see the end of a promotion reasonably being classed as a devaluation; the promo gave extra on top of the expected amount for a while and now is back to normal

But when a promotion has been running for 6 years straight, it is felt like a devaluation.

I'm not convinced the program has been devalued, based on my last 12-months travel with EK, but I only have 1-year as a data point.

Ok, so I've not earned the online bonuses for 5+ years like some others, but after a quick check of travel since Apr 09, I earned 33,000 miles via the online bonus offer.

Hardly anything worth jumping up and down about if you ask me.

I received 25,000 miles for a end of year offer and I personally think that the Miles Accelerator Bonus miles are far more valuable.

95% of my travel is in Y and I will fly/earn 200K tier miles in this 12-month period (Apr 09-Apr-10). I'd like to be able to buy more than 25,000 miles in a year (US carriers allow up to 60,000), would like a far more generous lounge access policy (ie more than 1-guest) and there is absolutely no incentive for me to keep flying EK after I pass the 50K tier mile threshold.

However, in terms of op-ups, I couldnt be happier and EK have by far been the most generous carrier that I have ever flown. I am lucky though that I am based in SIN and I fly routes which have been experiencing high-loads. I am convinced though its all to do with load and Gold status in general, rather than any sort of personal notation in EK's CRM system or equivalent.

There's also probably not as many Golds based out of SIN as there are obviously based out of DXB or LHR.

I often peek at the lounge list when I visit the MEL lounge and there are often no more than 3 Gold's on it.

The sooner they bring out a 4th tier with the appropriate benefits, the happier I will be...

This time last year, there was the online booking bonus, as well as the double/ triple miles offer. In terms of value for miles, it looks like its definitely going to be lower over the next 12 months.

Mileage accelerator in my experience so far, has been quite disappointing. At least on the routes I've been flying, there have been little or no bonuses. It doesn't matter how many miles this actually is - it is at least a 20% devaluation. And 33,000 miles is a fair amount I think.

I agree with ung1 on the mileage accelerator. Barely any extra on the SIN routes. Another thing I am quite p1ssed about is that there seem to be no upgrades available on my usual route (LON-DXB-SIN) over the next six months. I tried to upgrade three bookings (for the next 4 months) however no upgrade available for any single one of them. I keep asking them when the upgrades will be released and nobody at Skywards seems to know. They could give me a billion miles for my birthday, if I can not use them due to non-availability of upgrades they are worthless! (J and F still wide open for my dates without upgrades by the way).

If you had a billion miles, why on earth would you waste them on upgrades? You would use them for peak/ flex First class rewards. Those, surely, are available in abundance.

I was trying to make a point regarding lack of upgrades...

I agree that this is a major devaluation. Emirates needs to realize that its brand name has taken a REAL beating with inconsistent service and cramped NARROW economy seating. Skywards was a great way for us to fly business relatively easy as compare to other airlines, and this fact I really liked about Emirates. But making it harder through this new program to accumulate miles, this will only force flyers like myself, who will now have to fly economy more often in order to get the miles, to look seriously at other airlines. SORRY Emirates, but you are NO longer the only game in town as you were 5-10 years ago. There is Qatar Airways with the same entertainment system, 5 star rated BETTER seating in Economy, and Eithad Airlines. I really hope that Emirates changes, or else its loyal passengers are going to be EX-EMIRATES passengers and start to fly Qatar Airways or Eithad!