Hello.

I would like some advice from the EK experts here.

I do about 6 trips a year from the US (mainly SFO) to CCU in India in Business Class. I am with LH right now, but I am tired of their screw ups in FRA, resulting in misconnects about 25-33% of the time.

I am naturally looking at EK now. They have about 10-12 flights a week to CCU, as compared to 3/week with LH.

I have traveled on EK before, and I know the service etc is pretty good, certainly better than LH I think.

I would like to know how the mileage program works, and how easy it is to get award tickets for my family (wife and 2 kids). Right now, I can get everyone in business on LH with my M&M miles and Partner Plus Benefit points.

So, my questions are:

1. How many miles will I get per round trip in Business, from SFO-CCU-SFO ?
2. How many Business Rewards points will I get ?
3. How many Skywards miles does it take to redeem a business class tkt SFO-CCU-SFO ?
4. Do I have to pay award taxes/fee like LH ?
5. Is it relatively easy to get 3 award tickets on EK on a single flight in Business, if booked a few months in advance ?
6. How many Business Reward points does it take to upgrate SFO-CCU-SFO ?

I tried to get info on the EK website, but it just kept putting me back to the SKywards login page.

Thank you for your advice.

1. How many miles will I get per round trip in Business, from SFO-CCU-SFO ?

Code:

SAVER FARE  		 		FLEX FARE

BLUE

23750 	Skywards Miles  	33250 Skywards Miles
23750 	Tier miles 		33250 Tier miles

SILVER

28500 	Skywards Miles   	38000 Skywards Miles
23750 	Tier miles 		33250 Tier miles 

GOLD

33250 	Skywards Miles   	42750 Skywards Miles
23750 	Tier miles 		33250 Tier miles

2. How many Business Rewards points will I get ?

3. How many Skywards miles does it take to redeem a business class tkt SFO-CCU-SFO ?

Code:

Flight Reward (Return Flight)
Skywards Saver Reward  	 	Skywards Flex Reward
190000 Skywards Miles 		262500 Skywards Miles

4. Do I have to pay award taxes/fee like LH ?
Yes
5. Is it relatively easy to get 3 award tickets on EK on a single flight in Business, if booked a few months in advance ?
Yes, just tried SFO-CCU 3pax departing Feb1, returning 7

6. How many Business Reward points does it take to upgrate SFO-CCU-SFO ?

Code:

Y->C

Upgrade Reward (Return Flight)
From Skywards Saver fare to Business  	From Skywards Flex fare to Business
170000 Skywards Miles 			135000 Skywards Miles 

C->F

Upgrade Reward (Return Flight)
From Skywards Saver fare to First  	From Skywards Flex fare to First
170000 Skywards Miles 			135000 Skywards Miles

4. Yes, but no fuel surcharges.

roadrunner - you have way too much time but I sympathize with you!

Thank you all for your replies, especially roadrunner21.

Don't forget the mileage accelerator bonuses which could add up to a lot. A random search gave about 15000 bonus miles flying J.

If you decide to take the upgrade route, then your family would earn 19000 miles each on a flex fare, and mileage accelerator miles in addition. At 105000 for a SFO-DXB, 45000 for a DXB-CCU and 135000 for a SFO-CCU upgrade, these could potentially be used to upgrade a DXB-CCU sector every time they fly if you're short of miles to upgrade all the sectors.

How do you get those ?

I have similar travel patterns and use both LH and EK as per convenience.

With 6 round trips on SFO - FRA - CCU in paid C, you could get to both United 1K and SEN easily. These really build up on each other, because you can use the 6 SWU's from 1K status to upgrade C to F on LH and use the FCL in FRA, which is great. When traveling within the US, 1K gets you (mostly) free domestic upgrades and SEN gets you free RCC access.

I still try to make 1K, SEN and EK Gold each year. This is easy in my SEN off year (only need to qualify every 2 years), but in my SEN on year, EK may fall to silver, and EK status is the third priority among the 3 above. EK has a better soft product and I do like it a lot, but EK status does not help at all in my considerable US domestic travel.

Also from US West Coast to India, I usually prefer two flights of roughly equal length rather than one super long one and one short one, so LH beats EK there.

LH also arrives and leaves into India (MAA/HYD/BLR are my routes - don't know about CCU) at better times than EK. You get in to India around midnight and can get to sleep by 2am and start the day at 9 or 10am. With EK - you get in at 3am, reach hotel at 4:30am and it's quite a disaster for the next working day. LH also leaves India around 1:45am and so you leave hotel at 11pm after work/dinner and sleep on the plane as soon as you get in. EK leaves around 4am, and the flight to DXB is too short. So you can't sleep properly either before or on the flight.

I have found LH I class award tickets to be easier to get than EK saver J class tickets (though LH taxes/surcharges are high). Finally, being part of *A and earning double miles for paid C in ANY *A carrier is another big plus for LH. And if I am flying Y on most *A, I can get full miles by crediting to United (CO joining means Latin America is also much better covered and with full 100% bonus RDM).

I am also not a fan of the way Skywards changes have been made this year.

Overall, I think EK is a better soft product and I still fly it once/twice a year in J to keep silver/gold, but the bulk of my business has moved to LH and *A more broadly (SQ/TG for SE Asia).

So, I would be inclined to stay with LH if I were you and experiment with 1-2 EK flights a year after status/miles targets are reached on LH/UA. I use my EK miles to upgrade from J to F and treat myself with the suites

Hope this helps!

Once you sign up for a Skywards account, go to Mileage Accelerator under earn and spend, and opt in for the current month's offers. I'm not entirely sure if this is required if the tickets are purchased online, but do it to be on the safe side anyway.

Hi.

I used to be a UA 1k and GS for a few years. The problems are:

A. No mileage bonus for LH code shares to/from India.
B. Availability on the code share is not as good as LH's own availability.
C. UA's Starnet Blocking. By far, the biggest deal breaker for me. I want to get 2-3 award tickets in C each year on a single flight, and UA can hardly get me even one, and that even with months' of planning and repeated phone calls to their reservation agents.

I have faced several problems with LH at FRA. The problem with flights to CCU is that they get in a about 1 1/2 hours later into FRA (and also depart earlier) than flights to DEL/BOM. So, the connection [to SFO] is only 1:15. I have missed it 3 times in 3 years.

I just missed it last week, on Jan 17th, because of a 1:15 delay at security at the A gates in FRA. In fact, about 100 people from India missed their flights to SFO/LAX that day. LH made no attempt to get us through security any quicker. It was pure chaos with no apology or assistance from LH. I was made to take an LH flight to DEN, and then a connection to SFO on UA in economy, even though I was traveling in paid Business. The agent said it was not her fault. I got into SFO about 7 hours late. Not a nice way to travel.

I am frankly sick of LH and the way they treat me. They are resembling the US carriers more and more everyday. M&M and PPB benefits are very, very important to me, but not at this cost.

This is why I am looking at EK now. I am not demanding, but I just want what is advertised, and I want to travel stress free - most of the time.

I agree FRA is a complete circus and the SEN lounges are too crowded since the RCC shut down.

Also, if you want multiple rewards tickets on one airline, then it does make sense to consolidate who you credit to.

EK is not a bad option at all and will do the job. Connections in DXB tend to be tight, but they often hold onward flights for a bit if necessary.

Things I don't like about EK:

1) The arrival/departure times into India

2) Limited extra baggage allowance for C or EK Gold to the US (LH gives you a 3rd piece)

3) No tier above gold (disincentive to consolidate travel - hence my spreading to 3 different programs)

4) No alliance benefits and no benefits on domestic US travel (has become a bigger deal for me as within US travel has increased)

Things I like about EK:

1) Superb soft product, best IFE by FAR...the 16 hours from LAX/SFO to DXB just melt away

2) Better in Y than any other option (in case you need to use Y). EK Y IFE is way way better than LH F!!

3) High chances of op-ups if Gold (less from J to F; lots from Y to J)

4) Chauffer drive

5) The suites in F are probably the best product in the air - period. I had an op up once and used miles another time...and it's miles ahead of LH F in the air (though LH FCL is quite nice)

So, if you are unhappy with LH, go ahead and give EK a try. I have shifted away from EK to LH for the reasons above, but I like EK enough to do 2 RT's a year and keep Gold. If I didn't care about domestic US travel benefits, I'd probably just fly EK every time to India from the US .

Try it next time and report back!