saver/flex price difference
 

I am a gold member, and can just achieve that status each year by buying economy flex tickets. In the past I was willing to pay 30-40% more for the flex ticket to get my gold status. Now though looking at the HK - Glasgow fare at Xmas, the saver fare is HK$7773 and the flex fare is HK$13023
(Its $1000 if I needed to change date on the saver, so it still provides flexibility). Are Emirates doing this on all routes? Increasing flex fares to the point where they are nearly double the cost of saver fares is going to lose Emirates a lot of their frequent flyers .
Emirates will be losing me as a customer in the future with this price disparity, as without status lounge access at Dubai I would choose other airlines.

Typically, it has been around $300 for BOM-JFK return.

Wow .... that really is quite some 'disparity' and I'm not the least surprised that you would be looking at other carriers.

To be honest, even with the lower price difference of 30-40%, I'm not sure I could see myself shelling out on the flex fare PURELY for the benefit of lounge access as you have been doing until now. And even if you found yourself having to pay $1000 for a date change on a saver, it's surely more than compensated for by the far lower initial ticket cost vs flex.

But maybe I'm missing something here ......?

It seems to be the way it's going. I'm finding when I do my searches that Saver fares are fewer and far between compared to even a year ago. The wise heads on the forum suggest Saver fares might become available closer to proposed departure time and advise playing a waiting game until they (might) become available. It also seems that the disparity between Saver and Flex prices varies considerably (with route and probably time of year and demand for tickets etc).

If lounge access is all you are after...the price difference you mentioned on the ticket is more than the annual membership fee for Priority Pass (+- $100 to $300 or so last I checked) or the annual fee for most decent credit cards with lounge access benefits...

Lounge access is nice, but I don't think it is worth paying 40% extra on a ticket a couple of times a year (if thats all you want and the bonus miles etc. aren't taken into account).

OP is complaining about the discrepancy between Saver and Flex fares and wishing for more availability of the former I think. You get lounge access on a J Saver which I presume they want but not pay the premium for lower charges for changing the dates/cancelling etc.:)

But with all respect to the OP, he chooses to buy Y fares (as per his post) and so his lounge access has hitherto been down to his Gold status rather than through ticket/class, regardless of whether flex/saver etc. And so he is now - understandably - questioning the financial viability of continuing to maintain Gold.

Silver gets you lounge access in Dubai so if that's the key factor just aim for Silver instead.

You don't have much other choice if flying to Glasgow without having a long leg and a short one. Two mid length flights as with EK is my preferred option, so until EY or QR fly to Scotland we have to make the most of it.

If HKG-GLA is HK$7000 (Hong Kong dollars) in J then I don't think he would be complaining :)

Yes, I realised later I didn't notice he was talking economy. I didn't realise a dollar could be worth so little and maybe they should call it HK yen. :D

Or the HK Zimbabwe $ :D ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7509715.stm )

I have an original 100 Trillion Zimbabwe Dollars banknote from that time. Yes, trillion, I kid you not :D

Only thing devaluing faster these days are Skywards Miles!