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Hi, I am based in Dubai and i am 60k miles away from Platinum. Also I have 210k skyward miles. What's the best way to crack platinum, invest as little as possible and have an awesome trip.

60k tier miles is not insignificant. How much time do you have?

I won't go into a discussion about whether going for Plat is a positive ROI (up to you to decide), but let's try this for fun.

Here's an option in one (kind of) big trip, which we can call "The global wine tasting extravaganza".

- buy a One Way Y flex ticket from DXB to South Africa (JNB/CPT). Go down there a drink some wine (if you're into that). Earn 2,450 tier miles (one way). Ticket about ~US$860. Upgrade to J if you'd like using your existing miles.

- buy a RT F ticket from South Africa to West Coast US (SFO/LAX/SEA/DFW/IAH) via DXB. Fly F, enjoy the EK wine selection, take a shower on the A380. Once there go Now go sample some California wines. Fly back in F to check whether the F wine selection compares, and then - just to be sure - have some more South African wine. Even better, do an open jaw and hit both JNB and CPT. Earn 52,500 tier miles (RT). Ticket as low as ~$5,030 (RT).

- Fly back to Dubai in paid J or upgrade to F using the skywards miles you just accumulated. Rest. Earn 6,125 tier miles (OW). About $2,020.

Total tier miles:
- 2,450 + 52,500 + 6,125 = 61,075 (Hooray!) :D

Total investment:
- Approx $860+$5020+$2,020= ~$7,900 for flights (minus your consumption in EK wine, if you're counting).

You could bring down your investment by about $1500 if you can earn 2,600 tier miles on another trip and not have to buy the OW J ticket and pay for Y instead (probably can easily do for less than $1,500), but wanted to show you one trip. ;)


Edit: You could even do it a little cheaper by going to New Zealand or Eastern Australia from South Africa instead... Different wine tour!

HAHAHA That'd be an awesome trip!

On the other side, I agree spending $7900 out of your own pocket just to get Plat is a questionable investment. Depends how much cash you have laying around, I guess.

Talking about wine trips... I tried pricing DXB-CPT-SYD-LAX-MXP-CDG // MAD-DXB but got a price error. Too bad.

CPT-SYD, LAX-MXP and MXP-CDG are your problems. No QF/EK services on those legs.

Why go to Paris? You can head to wine country direct from MXP on a separate ticket.

Fun-sounding trip there concocted by extramileage - although if I ever got to the point of considering a splurge of around $8K where the prime motive is to get a different colour Skywards card, I hope that somebody would wake me up first :D

Have always been of the view that tier levels are nice-to-haves when reached in the ordinary course of travel, but highly questionable if they have to be 'bought'. But then it's all down to personal perspective, priorities & bank balances I guess.

Are there actually any (useful) benefits of Platinum v Gold that would make doing such a mileage run a productive investment ......??

I am in for the trip :D

Depends on you but:
Guaranteed seat in J
Guaranteed reward booking
Gold nomination
FCL possible in Y/C

I'd consider it if I was say 15k shy

I'm going to hit circa 130k and its slightly annoying that you get lumped in with the golds some of who scrape 50k or even 49,500.

I did notice on my last boarding that it says Gold Pref though so maybe that counts for something with the upgrade gods.

CPT-SYD via DXB of course
LAX-MXP via JFK
MXP-CDG and CDG-MAD with own ticket
--> this way you get South African, Australian, American, Italian, French and Spanish wine tasting tour

Yes, some discussion/rumours have been going on here that EK makes a differentiation within the Gold group. So far the only benefit is OpUp priority. Question remains what's the cut-off mileage: 75k or 100k for gold+ or gold pref (or maybe there are 2 cut-offs... who knows)

"Cut off" is 90k tier miles. Upgrade should anyway going along with tier miles/status so no big difference imo.

Your routing would break MPM rules. Plus there's no EK service between LAX and JFK.

AMS-BKK R/T twice in F (60,000 tier for $8,000)

Fly Y DXB-SIN-DXB for 4900 tiers in Flex at $890. Then fly F SIN-AKL-SIN whilst in Singapore for 55000 tiers in Saver at $5900.

Then work out how to earn a further 100 tiers! EK may budge you up a gesture of goodwill.

59,900 tiers for $6790.

Looks like I'll maintain my Platinum level again this year, only need around another 12 tier miles before the end of Oct. This for me is a bittersweet scenario.

Sweet in fact I get to use the benefits of being a Plat (over Gold) - tangible being the first class lounge access at DXB (massage and decent food) and first class check in (shorter queues). Non tangible, exit row success and hopefully higher up list for Op Ups. Hit and miss benefits, 1st class baggage tags (more miss than hit, my bags never seem to be in the first wave of bags) and the speech onboard "if there's anything I can do blah blah blah" essentially an empty gesture, but twice over the past few years I have actually been made to feel 'special'.

Bitter, it means I'm doing far too much flying, wasted to much time sat in the most uncomfortable seats. It can't be good for my health, certainly messes with my sleep and bodily 'movements'.

Would I do a special flight to maintain Plat, yes, but that would mean money out of my pocket (rather than my company's), so I'd have to be around 10k and under short.

+1. I do this same trip yearly but starting in Cairo to lower the DXB-SIN J price and then do the SIN-BNE-AKL trip in J saver to lower the price. And then I obtain about 63k tier points. So roughly the same for 1300 USD cheaper, but of course J instead of F on the SIN-AKL leg. They leave the lounge open for you if you do it via BNE, if you do it via MEL, it's 25 hours layover (this will make sense when you see the connections timings). There are less wine tasting stops, but NZ wine is quite good, and its nice to do in northern summer as NZ is in winter. Plus I have extended family living in NZ.