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.

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.