Status Survey
 

Be interested to see how many members we have on the forum or indeed, the wider population who have either made status with EK or will make status during 2011. Or those who will not retain (for whatever reason)

Not sure whether you are looking for new status members or rewtentions. I retained my Gold in January 2011 through to August 2012 if that counts.

I wont be making Gold ever again with the the Rules of Emirates, Will be lucky to make silver next year, Thats why i have booked with Eithad. Had a call from Qatar on Thursday on Status Match and waiting for a Reply.
Will have24,000 miles for this year.

New members. Or renewals. Doesn't matter

Will make Gold because of the freak CMB - MLE fare but I honestly don't know how much I'll actually fly with EK after that. Might keep flying while I'm Gold and get status matched and switch the year after if flex/ saver go the way they are. Also, travel patterns will change this year, so don't know how much EK flying I'll be doing.

Been Silver for a few years all except a few months last year. My membership year runs June to June so I've already made it this year until June 2012 and have enough bookings already to make June 2012 - June 2013.

Would definitely have been Gold next year if it hadn't been for the Saver/Flex changes and still might with a bit creative thinking.

I have been gold for the last three years but probably will not make it again for next year - mainly due to the flex/saver issue.:mad: My main reason for sticking with EK is the fact that I can fly from LGW instead of having to trek to LHR.

I first hit Gold in Oct 2010, re-qualified by Mar 2011.

Isn't there a flaw in this since everyone does not have the same renewal date?

e.g. my renewal date is 1 June. I have renewed Gold for year about to start and will have approximately 30k Tier Points by the 6th June

Dave

I renewed my Gold for the period May 2011 - Apr 2012 last October.

I've already hit Silver in my current qualifying period (27 days so far), so I'm pretty confident that I'll retain Gold in the remaining 338 days. :)

Even with savers, it's not that hard to make Gold. I should keep the status for the foreseeable future. (The UAE e-card is a strong incentive, as I am in Dubai a lot for business, leisure, or transit.)

Gold until 10/2011, but decided not to fly on EK anymore, so will not even reach Silver this year. :)

First hit Gold in September 2010 and re-qualified by March 2011 so good till September 2012.

Flex/Saver shenanigans have left me looking elsewhere for direct flights, rather than routing through DBX.

Since April 11, EK are already down @ GBP1500 on my spend, due to me using alternatives,

Maybe a drop in the ocean as far as EK are concerned, but the changes have focussed my (financial) attention elsewhere, and while the savvy travellers may only be a small percentage of the total, I'm all for spreading the word about my dissatisfaction.

Agree. for my Australia trip I have booked SQ instead of EK, since they were more than 30% cheaper, and I don't get the lousy EK saver miles!

Gold until Feb 2012. Already (almost twice over) re-qualified for year after so will be Gold until Feb 2013. Because of pricing I have already shifted as much spend as possible hence Gold on Etihad and have even recently tried BA for the first time in Long Haul for may years.

Currently Silver, will achieved Gold on 27 June after a complex itinerary in J. Doing a lot of flying over the next year, so I should renew Gold in 2012.

I am curious if anyone has ever done an EK mileage run to keep status since the change with the Saver/ Flex fares.

I am surprised that the e-card is a strong incentive. You do know that anyone eligible can get one for a small fee - don't you?

:confused:

Surely that depends on your travel profile?

My wife and I are midway through year two of Gold Status. We are just normal travelling people, as in not for business purposes, therefore we are the ones that pay full price for all our tickets.

We have been loyal to EK, always paying more for the tickets than other Airlines. We now see what the loyalty has rewarded us with. Among other issues,the Flex/Saver issue is just to much. Planning a DXB-YYZ trip, it would have put us in year three. To late, go to book, and with the price to the Dirham, they now went from Flex to Saver.

Sorry for the long story, but we will now attempt to book with price ,and sked, in mind. Therefore, probably no more Gold. As was already commented, this is but a "drop in the ocean" but I am seeing and hearing this from more and more people all the time. You cannot keep kicking us and not think we will walk to the next counter.

This is my first post after 24 months of reading daily. It is great to read so many well informed comments and observations.

redacted redacted

Don't you get a soft landing to Silver this year?

Agree 100%

I'm EK Gold til Nov 12, but frankly I probably won't make any further bookings with them. Double cost to achieve Gold in the future, no spouse entry to lounges, poor award availability, squashy Y class cabins, etc, etc.

I'm also (lifetime) Gold with Star Alliance and One World, so why would I waste any further money with EK. I have no need to ever go to Dubai, and I don't even like the place.

As I'm spending my own money on my tix, I'll be directing it towards airlines that don't treat their Golds as brainless morons.

Let's hope that EK can fill all their new A380's with gullible travellers, because they will need to.

:td:And who is paying for the ticket - you or business/work?!

I disagree. I think that Emirates's 1st class suite product is right at the top of the quality of airlines so given the quality and that their schedule works nicely, I would have no reason to change.

I did a flight on the 380 on sunday in business class and thought that that was a really good business class

I think that quality and schedule trumps miles and there is nothing brainless about choosing them.

Dave

You must have posted this at least a dozen times...

Have you made your feelings known to Emirates? If enough people complain, then maybe things will change.

Constantly complaining on a website won't really change anything.

Many people (myself included) think Emirates hard and soft product is great (except may be A330/A340). They are miles ahead of the likes of BA/QF and all the US airlines.

Cheers,
Rick

sadly, this is probably the last time i'll have status with emirates since with the new fares to get a decent amount of miles i have to pay considerably more. however, i'll still be flying them as my options to london gatwick are limited :(

because of where i live heathrow is just too much hassle

Hi Rick,

Nice to hear from you.

Yes, I guess I have complained here rather a lot, but that's just an indication of my frustration with EK. Point taken and I'll try and curb it. As for complaining to EK generally, clearly it won't have any effect other than getting me a black mark on their computer system, So why bother?

As for hard/soft products, as I mainly live in Australia (I'm a dual UK/Aus citizen) I can avail myself of a range of better airlines such as SQ, TG, QF, CX, etc, etc, so I don't need EK at all, particularly as I have absolutely no need or desire to go to DXB. I agree with your comments re BA and the US airlines (I am a UA 2 million miler, so I do have a little experience).

When I reached EK Gold last year, almost by accident, I had a closer look at them and thought they could become one of my preferred carriers. Since then, there have been so many negative changes, they are now off my Christmas card list.

Sorry to have bothered you; have a nice day and goodbye.

But just before I go, Rick, I reckon I've worked out who you are. A travel agent (you appear to have no status of note anywhere). Let me know if I'm wrong.

:)

This is interesting. The poll has been running for 4-days - with 46 people voting.

• 60% of respondents said that they would retain or reach Gold
• 20% of respondents said that they would retain or reach Silver
• 20% of respondents said that they would not retain status at all.

Because I am not a mathematician or statistics guru, or versed in the Gallop Poll methodology, does our small statistical sample indicate that we could assume that the "elite" numbers over the next 12+ months will gradually reduce by an overall 20%?

Obviously it depends on one's travel profile. I am based in the Gulf with a fair amount of business and personal travel. But, compared with other airlines, the top tier takes relatively fewer miles.

And the rolling calendar makes it easier to manage when one is trying to achieve status on multiple carriers simultaneously. (At least, it made it easier for me to initially qualify for Gold, although it's probably more of a disadvantage in subsequent years.)

No, I did not know that. I looked into it (briefly) and didn't see a way that non-UAE residents could obtain it. Thanks for the information.

Edited to add: Brussels traveller, are you sure about that? According to the Dubai government web page, only UAE residents are normally allowed to receive it. A thread elsewhere on the Emirates Forum suggests also that they discontinued issuing e-gates to non-residents.

i would thing the number would be higher than 20% as this is not a representative sample, seeing that we're all enthusiasts here

99% of Emirates customers will never even reach status, so discussion of retaining Gold is rather irrelevant to them! :)

I'm not sure how you reached that conclusion. There's plenty of Silvers and Blues on here. We'd need a separate poll in the form of (1) go one tier up next year (2) go one tier down next year (3) maintain the same tier next year

I did clearly state that I wasn't a mathematician. All I did was total the Golds and Silvers who said they were going to qualify or re-qualify. I dont regard Blue as "elites" within Skywards.

And I'm sure we can't even extrapolate a logical estimate, given that we have so few respondents and that we represent engaged members, so to speak.

Oh right - you have access to who voted on the poll and what their vote was. We could always hack into ek.com and make everyone who is booking a ticket answer a poll :o

How to participate in polls? - Won't make it
 

Can't figure out, how to cast a vote... Anyways, won't make it to renew silver due to flex/saver issue.

Rare I look in here now but I can speak for 4 adults (2 gold, 2 silver) and 1 baby who fly another airline now so we wont have any status this year.

Hitting Gold in a month or so :D
I will most likely hit Gold again next year even though I might be changing ships to Etihad.

Most times, when polls are set, there is a time-frame allocated for the poll to run. We normally allow 14-days. In your case, the reason you couldn't vote was because the poll had "closed".

Apologies...and welcome to FT.

I had been EK Gold for nearly 10 years straight. The crazy premium fares have put EK out of reach. We now fly LX, KQ and SA. I am now a lowly EK Silver:D

This thread and poll generated more interest than I thought, so I have re-opened the voting...