catchgops

Can I use my Skywards points to upgrade someone else's travel? (note: they are my immediate family and I am not traveling with them)

ft101

Yes, no problem.

Access the booking through "Manage a Booking" using the PNR and passenger surname.

Select "Upgrade with Miles" and enter your account number and password.

catchgops

Thank you!

m3red

My wife and I get opped up together now and again (both gold).

Anyone had any luck getting waitlisted for d class recently?

I'm going to cpt as well later this year but think I'm going to buy f, it's a long flight.

tomanova

I may be traveling from IAH to UAE 6-8 times a year for the next 2-3 years. My destination would be AUH but I'm curious about EK non-stop to DXB.

I'm Global Services on UA (invitation only above 1K) and am pretty flexible on routing and connections - I have extremely low expectations after flying UA for the past 12 years!

Most flights will be personal (not business expense) in Y. Award travel would be US to Africa, South Asia, ME.

Questions:

Pros and Cons of EY vs. EK? Ground transportation from DXB to AUH? Mileage earning / redemption better with either program?

Would either program status-match or challenge-match my UA level?

Do I just stay top status on UA and connect in FRA or IST? How are non-EK / non-EY arrivals and departures?

Any other tips or recommendations?

Thanks,
Tom

eternaltransit

DXB and AUH are relatively close to each other, but both EY and EK have complimentary chauffeur drive within the UAE for J and F class passengers (to and from the airport). It is also relatively straightforward to take a taxi as well - around 70 USD or so.

The EK program is honestly incredibly bad for earn and burn, with quite extortionate surcharges - the best use of mileage earning is for upgrading Y-J or J-F. It's relatively easier to get status with EY, as they award by mileage flown and have easier renewal requirements.

I can't speak for EY but EK is currently running some quite aggressive status-matching (unpublished) for US based top-tier fliers: you may have luck contacting the local US based sales offices - there is in fact one in Houston, so you could even pop in there.

I prefer DXB as an airport to AUH - but if your final destination is in AUH, I think it comes down to whether you want to spend an additional hour in the car from DXB to AUH. Also on whether you prefer non-stop service or having a connection to an EY gateway, or via Europe. The A380 in Y is not a bad product - I think it's definitely superior to UA, but as a GS I presume you enjoy quite a good upgrade rate: that won't happen (very often) on EK.

subject2load

I would endorse eternaltransit's comments re Emirates Skywards, in that you must work very hard to earn miles, only to then have them swallowed up at a pretty hefty rate - always assuming you can actually find award availability in advance on the flights/dates you want ..... (Good luck with that !)

That said, I do like them as a carrier for their onboard service & overall standards. But, few marks from me for their FFP.

No first-hand experience of EY.

neilsinc

I have just booked flights with Emirates to Australia, and on booking I noticed that they haven't credited my miles for my last trip in December-January 2013/14.

Is there any way or anyone I could contact to get these credited? Emirates themselves have said it is not possible even though I entered my Skywards number and have all the details of the flights

eternaltransit

Unfortunately the limit for retroactive claims is 6 months - anything over this and it would be a goodwill gesture on Skywards' part.

http://www.emirates.com/english/skyw...mme-rules.aspx

If you have a good case then they may look on it favourably, but if you have already tried that and they have denied your claim, then it seems you are out of luck in this case, I'm sorry to say.

neilsinc

Yeah, I know it was 6 months, but it is quite annoying given the member number was there and they didn't add the miles. It was added to the booking, so this is an error on Emirates part. It can't always be up to the customer to check that they are doing their job properly surely?

eternaltransit

Sorry for the late reply, completely missed this!

Yes, if it's on the booking and appears on your boarding pass, it should credit and in the vast majority of cases, it does. I only have anecdotal evidence of course, but out of my last 100 sectors on EK, none of them failed to credit within a day of completing the outbound and inbound. The working assumption is that it's quite reliable and that if anything slips through the cracks, the customer will flag it up with a missing miles request. 6 months I think is a reasonable amount of time for the window for claims to be made, especially as Skywards sends emails every month with the balance. A bit like lost and found - at what point do you stop keeping things and give them away to charity/destroy them? What is a reasonable amount of time?

I'd chalk this one up to experience - I bet you won't forget to chase up miles again though!

RichL

I require 125 miles by February 28th 2015 to achieve gold, including future bookings.

Any chances that they will give me the 125 miles needed or will I be stuck at silver for another year?

Thanks.

eternaltransit

Do you have any flights booked after February 28th? You may be given a goodwill promotion to gold if it's only 125 miles, but don't rely on it. However do remember that not all of your tier miles "expire" at once on the date of the end of your silver status - it will go back to checking the previous 13 months on a rolling monthly basis, so if you have 0 miles earnt in Feb 2014 and a flight booked in March 2015 you'll make gold.

RichL

Yeah I've got one in March however I thought where it says includes future bookings it had counted that one in too?

eternaltransit

It shouldn't count those flights that occur after your cut off date for the next evaluation period (which is the date of the end of your silver membership year) - however you might wish to check your statement to see exactly how many miles you have earned this year and base it on that instead!