If EK does not have free upgrade anymore...
 

are you gonna be loyal anymore?

I have not had an op-up for about 2 1/2 years - ever since I wrote to Sir Maurice (Mr. Flanagan at that time) with my suggestions on how to improve the Skywards program for ultra frequent flyers like myself and at the same time I questioned why there were no First Class reward tickets from DXB to AKL and back for the whole of the forthcoming year. I guess that got me blacklisted because prior to the letter I was op-upped at least 50% of the time I was flying in J rather than F. Anyway I voted with my feet and since then I travel where possible on alternates from DXB and Abu Dhabi but I keep my eye on Emirates on the occasional times I travel with them (still plenty enough to qualify for Gold) and through this board to see if they change their business model from one of appealing to new and infrequent flyers and paying lip service to frequent flyers to one of really courting the frequent flyers to try to get them to remain loyal - in my view this will not even be considered until Emirates stops expanding.

Try EK's biggest competitors: BA, CX, QF, SQ, and ask if they provide complimentary upgrades. I think not.