Hello Folks,

A basic query and am sure its discussed in some thread somewhere ( only that I am unable to find the same )..

Take the below scenario..

DEL - DXB return the miles earned in Y are 2200 miles for Flex..
DXB - VIE return the miles earned in Y are 6000 miles for Flex..

DEL - VIE return the miles earned in Y are 7500 miles for Flex

Any idea why is this the case ? Is it just to ensure ppl lose out more or ?

You're paying less for your ticket than someone who is buying those tickets separately, so you get less miles. Makes very good sense to me.

It was changed at the beginning of last year in the Skywards downgrade, prior to that you would have received the sum of the two individual sectors.

If you have travelled 8,200 miles on EK metal you should get those miles, not 7,500.

It may make good business sense but does not make for customer satisfaction.

Hmmm.. to me it makes very good sense if I am EK, but not as a customer..

I am aware that many folks lost out when the zoning system came in.. the miles flown system is something pretty standard in the industry but anyway EK decided to be different..

I did not know this.. Absolutely not industry practice.. I was suerprised, booking LH to see how many miles more I was getting (even allowing for the fact that thier bonus for flying Business is 100 per cent) compared to EK

It makes great sense if I am a customer based in DXB. Why should I pay double for my ticket and receive the same number of miles as people buying el cheapo fares ex- anywhere else and clogging up the lounges? One ought to have some advantages even while one is otherwise being skinned alive by the airline.

But customers in DXB are only a small percent of the total pax or revenue. Surely it makes more sense to keep the majority happy.

+1 ..It would be interesting to see the % of transit pax which fill up EK flights, but I guess it will be anything from 75-80% ( if not more) ..

EK pricing ex dxb fares as expensive compared to xxx-dxb-xxx is something it has decided to do based on evaluation of competition etc etc.. Its a pricing decision it is taking BUT this cannot be linked to the miles earned.
Miles are earned in 99% of the airlines by miles flown based on fare classes and the sum of two sectors is usually not lower than the break up of the two (unless fixed miles are used for some regions, like within EU or domestic EU).
The percieved advantage is very small ( say 10% of the miles) and I don"t believe that pax think of that as an advantage and neither did EK ..

So if I was doing this and wanted to give DXB based customers and edge, I'd just give them a 10% tier miles bonus.

EK has chosen to do this the other way round. Of course, it is frustrating because they reduced earnings for everything except intra Gulf flights (DXB - JFK is 6000 miles when it's actually 6800 flown miles) and often it is inconsistent (DXB - SIN is 7000 miles and 32,500 for flex upgrade while SIN - MEL is 7500 miles and 30,000 for flex upgrade).

So yea I don't know on what basis they decided on the numbers (well they've tried to ensure you just miss qualifying for a tier), and while they may have been trying to simplify things with the whole zone system they have only complicated it more.

Having said that, airlines like QR, BA do award zone based tier points and maybe EK wanted to do the same thing without complicating it with tier points and miles. I really don't know.

The way prices are ex-DXB (try to make a 'booking' out of Dubai on the website) it's a lot higher than ex-Anywhere else.

I don't know how much % of passengers on EK planes are UAE citizens/residents, but except in the summer or winter (expat population visiting home) it would surely be less than 50%.

Idk if its nice to overcharge the 'home customers' - but there are MANY airlines which fly into DXB anyways. It might even be to encourage other airlines to fly into Dubai's airport and compete. Keep in mind that EK is government-owned, DXB Airport is government-owned, and Dubai is also government-'owned'.

I know that EK is not public, but if I was a shareholder I wouldn't complain - their revenue model definitely works for them.

+1 to this..
I don't know Skywards as much as many of u, but seeing your example for DXB - SIN and DXB - MEL is shocking considering DXB - MEL distance and flying time is about 80% more than SIN

It's rare that I am able to ever find an error in Ung1's comments - but I did want to clarify one thing from the above example

DXB-SIN-DXB is 7,000 miles ROUND TRIP (not one-way). And yes, EK is being a bit cheeky as the actual flight distance is 3633 miles one-way.

SIN-MEL-SIN is 7500 miles ROUND TRIP (or 3744 miles one-way) - so they are being quite fair here.

The logical explanation re why it takes more miles to upgrade the SIN-DXB sector over the SIN-MEL sector is probably all down to premium load traffic and seat availability.

The 3 flights per day between SIN-DXB are already at capacity, whereas the one daily SIN-MEL is always relatively light in J. That's just my personal opinion.

Not quite right. See above comment. And then below...

1. DXB-SIN one-way earns you 3500 tier miles (Flex fare).
2. DXB-MEL one-way earns you 6500 tier miles (Flex fare)

Without getting technical, EK don't seem consistent with their calculations. Its obviously not based on nautical mile calculations - and if it was distance based, then DXB-MEL (direct) works out at 7233 miles.

Beats me which chart or calculator they use...

I think it's just the Zone system that makes it confusing and even unfair. Two cities in the same zone can be 1,000 miles apart (a guess but probably not far away) but earn the same miles to travel to/from DXB. This benefits the one closest to DXB as they are getting more bang for their bucks but the traveller from further away is losing out.

In my case, I fly ex GLA which is the furthest away from DXB in the Europe West Zone but someone flying from FRA gets the same miles while flying a much shorter distance.

exactly and thats why most airlines usually use the miles flown concept..


My apologies.. I read SIN - MEL as DXB - MEL..

+1 .. beats most of us I guess