Emirates Skywards a total scam!
 

I have to come to the conclusion that the Skywards program of Emirates is a scam! It's just bad, horrible, unbelievable! I undersatnd that some of you have different opinions and might have been lucky in the past with rewards but this is how it went for me:

Over the past 4 f***** weeks I tried to book a flight with my reward miles as they are (in part) expiring at the end of the month. Considering they NEVER answer emails you send them and RARELY give replies to requests you send through the online form I of course had to call. 14 Euro cents a minute plus cellphone fees. I wasted roughly 50 Euros on calls only! And for what?! Nothing! I had them check ALL fllights from Japan to anywhere with ALL partner airlines plus Emirtates and ALL dates from today until the end of March next year (8 month!!!!) and there apparently isn't a single bloody flight available. According to their site I should be able to fly to destinations such as Hawai, Singapore, Shanghai or whatever but in reality there is absolutely NOTHING I can do with the miles! To top it all, when I called the call-centre for the fifht or sixth time the guy I talked to (who was surprisingly friendly for once. usually they are rude as hell. Some even hung up on me cause they found my routes too difficult!!!!)- anyhow- the guy I talked to literarily told me that there ARE NO flightawards on partner airlines! He said they have one or two seats a month on these, basically on a last minute basis. ...?!?!!! Furthermore he told me that from Southern germany, which is the area I live in, it's pretty much the same thing with Emirates flights, especially Frankfurt. Next thing he told me was to exchange my skywards miles for gift vouchers. Thats like spending 5000 miles (which is a flight to Africa from Germany in Eco) on a voucher worth roughly 10 Euros in a bookstore in Dubai (not even in the airport!).

This is so sad, so annoying. Makes me so angry. I will definitely not ever again travel with Emirates. neither would I recommend it to anyone else.

Here we go again...

To the OP, there are probably a few people on the EK forum who can help you more than you realise.

Coming in here for the first time and venting your spleen might make you feel good, but it won't endear you to rest of the EK community. At least not me anyway.

Why don't you be specific? Where are you based? What status are you? What Skywards centre did you call? How many miles are you trying to redeem?

You can't blame EK for your choice to call them via your mobile. Have you not heard of Skype.

And while everyone is entitled to their opinion, your's is clearly skewed by one incident that has left a bad taste in your mouth.

EK is one of my primary airlines. I'll continue to fly them because they suit me and I have no trouble redeeming the types of awards I need.

Maybe you need to have a lie down or a stiff drink...

If it is indeed true that there is absolutely no reward inventory for next 8 months ex-Japan, then OP is right calling Skywards a scam.

I have (almost) similar sentiments "now" towards Skywards.. well, not to the level of OP where he calls it a scam..

Look at this thread in CO forum.

I am not a fan of Skywards. I can never use the miles in F unless on the flex awards. but I would also assume that the OP can use his on a flex award as well

to the OP get over it nothings going to change
you also need to give more info when complaining around here as DYKWIA said its all old news

how many pts are we talking here 20k ? 30?
I currently have 200k I cant use until i can do more flts to get more miles to use on specific flights.

Hi
I have in the last 3 years redeemed over 1.5 million miles with EK but never on partner airlines. I tried redeeming with korean Air this year through skywards but there was nothing available.
I must say that skywards sucks from this year but in the previous years they have been great. I fly mostly F and sometimes J with ek and earn over 250k in tier miles every year and use my miles mainly for vacations but never encountered any problems in redemption bookings, this year i have hardly found any saver awards mainly flex although the flights where i have redeemed with flex miles were 50% full in business but still they charge flex miles and that i think is a scam, also been gold for the longest time but never received even 1 freebie from J to F not that it matters to me though but would most definately like to see the Platinum tier because i think EK has way too many golds. I will still continue to fly emirates because they have one of the most extensive networks and some pretty decent service. Just my 2 bits.
Cheers

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES!:p

I will still continue to fly emirates because they have one of the most extensive networks and some pretty decent service.

Don't forget Skywards has JAL, KAL, UAL, CAL as partners too. Can't imagine every one is them is not available to any destination for several months.

How was that possible, he only has 1 post!

Can we coin a new phrase "One Post Wonders". OPW's for short.

Cheers,
Rick

Apologies to gametitans - sorry, I thought that was the original OP! In my defence, I have just had laser eye surgery so I am a bit blurred!

Indeed, OPW!

The OPW is incorrect. Although it may not be his preferred destination there is availability from NRT to DXB on EK metal in Feb/Mar next year - checked on-line in the last few minutes.

I sympathize with the OP, I have always wondered why someone outside of DXB would join EK, there are much better programs out there. You can continue to fly EK but accrue on other carriers. Its good you joined EK rather than QR though.

thanks but NRT is useless as I am in Kyoto. So the Shinkansen to Tokyo plus getting to the airport and all that backwards again seriously costs almost as much as a saver flight to Europe..... And additionally Dubai is totally useless to me.

Well I wasn't looking for sympathie here. I just wanted to keep people form waisting their time and money on collecting Emirates miles....

I am based in Southern Germany now, in Kyoto from September . I am a silver member and have roughly 90 000 miles to waste. Which centre did I call? Ehm, just in case you didn't realize but pretty much all of the numbers in Europe get redirected to Manchaster so it doesn't actually matter which one you call. I of course called the one I was supposed to call - Germany.

I can't blame EK for having to call them?!! They didn't answer a SINGLE ONE of my emails and only ONE of the roughly 20 requests I sent through their online form (negative reply of course). And you say I cannot blame them for having to call?!?! I think I totally can!! What else am I supposed to do but call?! Skype isn't exactly a cheap otion either and I am, apparently in contrast to you quite busy most of the time so I cannot spend hours in front of a computer but have to call in between appointments in my car or whatever. And btw staralliance has the decency to take in your request and call you back once they found an option. Which they usually do if you have felxible dates and routes!


I had them check for United, Continental and Korean as well. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
Destinations i checked were Australia, Hawaii, Fiji and pretty much everything in Asia (China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, Taiwan,..) oh, and Russia. And my dates have been super flexible. It could have really been any day in Feb and March to any destination with a stay in between one week and 6 weeks....... and all other dates around like this year after Oct or after March 2011 it was still quite flexible but with shorter stays.
I don't htink you can call all this which has taken up 3 weeks now ONE incident. I called x times and it sucked everytime. And all the unanswered emails must count for one 'incident' each as well.

so I think I have all the right in the world to call skywards a scam if they cannot come up with a single flight within that time span.

I don't know where you are flying from. I guess if it's poorer countries and shorter flights where they can't sell tickets for much anyways (like India and Bangladesh) miles are worth something. Otherwise they are not.

Oh and thanks for the advice with the drinks. Thank god I am not living in Dubai otherwise that wouldn't even be an option!

Welcome to FlyerTalk gagalichen and I would include the Emirates forum, however, it looks like you intend on joining another FF program.

+1

^ +1

gagalichen have you tried looking for award travel on other code-share airlines and then booking through EK?

Thanks, i am already a member of LH FF and will probably stick to it in the future as i actually get something for the money (even though I admittedly have to pay more in the beginning).



Award travel on code share flights? What world are you living in ??? That's their favorite excuse for NOT having any flights as rewards CANNOT be booked on code-shares!!!!!!!!!! As least not from the ones flying out of japan apparently.... It must be either EK or a flight by a partner airline and ONLY that partner airline. Which basically kills everything going East from Japan.
So, yes, I have tried that .