This has taken ridiculous to a totally new level. :mad:

Logic and customer service are totally absent when it comes to Skywards. Since the massive devaluation I stopped flying EK all together. Being based at SFO where you can never get an award ticket at a reasonable level of miles ever...Skywards is useless. I used to go out of my way to be loyal to EK...even flying from California thru DXB to Europe...but those days are over. They made a once very sound frequent flyer program confusing for their own employees and I for one was sick of trying to get through all of the red tape to try to get a simple task done.

For years, Skywards agents have been completely disempowered-even in the face of overcoming a very stupid rule. There are only a few people in Dubai that can ever do anything and that only happened once for me-when service to LA first started and daily service was reduced, they managed to get me a seat on my preferred day with miles.

No big surprise that they still haven't figured out the difference between flex and saver. Don't think that will change until they overhaul Skywards again.

I notified them when I first saw the problem, wondering if their engine was giving out wrong data. I notified them what EK told me about it all coming out of Z now.

It's nice to see them quick on the ball with updates.

I was told by an EK employee that the change was effective from Jan 1, so FT noticed fairly quickly...

Nice of them to give some warning. :rolleyes:

I was booking my flights during the end if year and didn't finalize until the 1st, when all first class inventory magically disappeared. Had EK been courteous enough to give their customers some warning I could have made sure to book prior to the 1st. :mad:

If ExpertFlyer shows "Z" availability can I book a saver award for First Class?

Or has that changed starting January 1st.

Yes, you can, on a round-trip. On a one-way it will be FLEX only.

EK Saver Award inventory - BKK - HKG April / May/ June
 

Hi Folks,

Can someone look in EF / other award availability tools & help me find Saver seats in Y for 2 adults between Bkk - Hkg anytime in April / May / June.. Trip duration between 6-8 days depending on award availability ?

I tried doing it online by giving various dates, but could not find many combinations now..

P.S -- while an ideal would be Saver both legs, even 1 leg Saver would be good as i have enough miles only for 1 leg Flex..

Appreciate any guidance ..

3rd to 10th April. Flex out, Saver return.

I've never tried it, but I've heard if you call Skywards with requirements like these, they'll do the searching for you.

Thank you whimike for clarifying how to redeem Emirates saver awards.

So... 1 week from departure, JFK-DXB, EK202. Over half the F cabin is empty and there are still no F seats available for redemption or upgrade.

In fact, there are some pretty odd things on this flight. EF is showing:

P4 A3 J4 C4 I4 O0 Y1 E1 R1 W1 M0 B0 U0 K0 H0 Q0 L0 T0 V0 X0

Yet, the seat map in Y shows 160 seats as not occupied. I do realize that some people don't select/reserve seats, but 160 open seats with only 1 seat as being shown via EF as available? Seems odd.

In contrast, the morning flight on the same day shows this:

P4 A4 J5 C5 I5 O5 Y9 E9 R9 W9 M9 B9 U9 K9 H9 Q9 L9 T9 V9 X9

And the Y seat map has 129 seats as not occupied.

:confused:

EK202 is overbooked in Y and J. I have seen similar behaviour numerous times on EK flights ex-SYD/MEL.

Sounds like it would make sense for them to open up upgrade space to F using miles, no?

Not sure what logic they're using to manage yields. I would assume in this case they're hedging on last minute purchased tickets in F/J rather than worrying about the upgrades (though this would make a perfect opportunity for frequent flyers to burn some miles).

I still can't get over the fact how they limited F flex reward to Z and they left J as is. Not that I want to give them new ideas but I think it's very unfair. It's not like they're protecting their First class in any way.

Exactly my feelings. As a Skywards Gold with lots of miles I have no advantage over partner airline members in competing for F award inventory, which is crazy. Most other FFP offer better availability, and often times F is ONLY available, to their own FFP members. EK used to be this way with the F Flex being from "A" bucket. Not any more...