Today i have lost my Gold status with EK and would like to thank them for putting up with all my Nagging about Archiving Gold status last year when i was 5000 Miles short of keeping gold and also for allowing me to book my Next free flight and Loaning me 2000 Miles until i traveled the following month and gaining miles.
thank you for all the free up-grades Over the years, yes i enjoyed the luxury.

I cannot fault Emirates as a product and yes, customer services can be a bit of a nightmare, but i have always got what i wanted by not giving up!!!

at the moment i have only 1 more return flight with Emirates which is a free flight just to use my miles up and no plans to Use Emirates in the future

what i am so sorry about and why i have decided to change to Etihads who have given me 2 years gold status is due to the way they brought in all the changes with flex and saver, cutting down the Miles by 50% if you book a saver and also its so hard to find flights and up-grades using miles.
2 years ago while silver , i felt bad about leaving a friend who had to wait for me while i went into the silver lounge, now they do the same with Gold, So your not really gaining to much for flying with Emirates.


I Have Yet to Fly with Etihads, So the jury is still out, But they seem to have the pricing for the airfares about right and you can find the Odd bargain too which i managed to snap up a flight from Heathrow to Bangkok for �480 return.

I am still waiting to hear about the New changes from Emirates regarding the skywards program, so i wait and see.

Maybe Emirates will be pleased to see the back of me ;-)

Malc

Sorry to see you leave, hopefully you will join the pity party next year. That being said, EK has more connection options than EY. And DXB is hands down a better airport in the region than most, even if we discount the lounges. Airline pricing strategies are a strange animal, run by the revenue management department, �480 is a great deal and more may come.


[...]Maybe Emirates will be pleased to see the back of me ;-)[...]
Not really they dont give a toss like most businesses, but am confident that they will miss your revenue eventually. Go with what suits you, and come back soon. Have a safe trip

Thank you spinrite for your reply
I will still be lurking around the forum.

I was reading Eightbacks comments on Emirates reading the threads on The forum, Maybe they might listen a little more when people starts to Fly with other airlines.

Malc

nice read mister! ^
hit back with your observations on the "other" carrier

Fly safe! Lets us know how you get on with Etty..

Hi Malc,

I am nearly in the same position as yourself, I will probably lose my gold status with Emirates at the end of this calendar year.

I had the same idea move lock stock and barrel over to Etihad, reaching gold within the first year with them due to their FF program. After one return trip in Y to Asia with them I am back to the drawing board, I was not impressed at all, I found the legroom a lot more restictive than Emirates. No matter whether I had that bloody footrest either up or down I found it resting against my shins or getting in the way of stretching my legs out.

Also, Emirates are now constantly �100 + more to my destinations over some other carriers. Think I might give Qatar a try, I think their 777's only have nine across in Y.

Didn't realise there was other changes to Skywards in the pipeline.

Regards

Do you know/ have experience of the process of getting an emex seat with EY? They have some great sale fares (currently half of what EK wants for J to Europe) not to mention the miles are actually worth something.