Not to worry - I doubt there is any danger of the benefits of IO affecting you personally.

Even if you somehow fulfil the spend criteria, it will only take 5 minutes of reviewing your FT posting history for Mr Clark to make his decision under the second criteria.

If Mr. Clark is indeed reading this as we speak, then I would like for him to know that I'm switching over from Emirates Skywards to Qatar Airways Privilage club once my Silver tier expires. As a silver skywards member I strongly believe that I should be entitled to access all lounges in the EK network and not just the J lounge in Dubai, just as the silver tier with Qatar Airways and Oman Air (All 3 carriers belong to GCC, so the standards should be the same.)

Furthermore, why does EK have to make a stop in Australia for flights to Auckland? A stop in Australia will force me to go through the headaches of applying for a transit visa in Australia while a flight with OneWorld Alliance (CX, MH, etc.) would ensure me a smooth transit journey to Auckland (without the need of a transit visa.)

Oh and finally, as an I/O member (assuming I got it) I do expect to give the airline the DYKWIA treatment because for the amount of money I'm spending with such airline or service, my tolerance for mistakes will be slim to none (why else am I spending that amount of cash in a particular service?) After my experience with the RC and The Peninsula in HK, I'm not convinced in staying in over-priced 5* hotels any more, as I'm not getting what I'm paying for ($500 USD for a night? Really guys? My experience with The Kowloon Hotel perfectly suited my purpose ^^)

Because about 75% of the passengers get off the plane in Australia. This probably figures more in EK's planning than your headaches.

Listen up Sir Tim.

And let that be a warning to you.

Better give QR some advance warning so they can start the direct AKL service just for you. Stupid old EK, why didn't they think of that?

I think eK better issue a profits warning

Don't you love it when someone misses the point of your post entirely, but nevertheless managed to prove your point to the T anyway?

Again, you make a thread all about you...

QR Silver is OneWorld Ruby, so that's not going to get you lounge access in most places. Even at Doha you don't get access to the QR lounge - just the generic business lounge.

Good look with Oman Air getting you to Auckland.

If not FT, I wouldn't knew about this IO category in the first place . Good or bad ? Well...

And few say that they expect more from IO experience . I do not know what else can make a difference which EK is doing already.

Question to OP, do the IO get any privileges during transit ? Like if your inbound flight is scheduled to arrive less than 60 minutes to the departure of your next flight. In my experience, they start the paper work before you land ( for J & F pax ), and will put you in the next flight considering that your checked-in baggage wont make in time. It happened twice to me when travelling in J.

IO's are exempted from this ? Doing so, it can end up delaying the next flight..

In the Ausbt article about EK's catering, it is mentioned a special dish is prepared for an iO member according to his/her preferences ("lamb biryani without onions and fat")

From the 320 actual IO members around 100 are related to the Royal Families of the UAE . So maybe this was done for one of them.
I don't think this regulary done !

IO's are treated just fine & I have yet to hear a fellow IO complain about not being treated well. Ask almost any crew member & they will tell you IO's are the easiest to please (much easier then a silver on an upgrade). I amazes me how, especially on an airline like EK where stay FF program is not nearly as important as they are on big legacy carriers how people at the lowest levels (silver) can really think they should have lounge access at out stations. These lounges are not designed for it. Can you imagine stations like BKK or JFK if they allowed silvers??? The whole point is the lounges should be quiet and comfortable. Fighting over where to sit takes that all away. EK also offers much more (food, drink and comfort wise in their lounges then many if not most competitors. Should they take this away from J & F paying pass�ngers gets to fit in more silvers? I think not. EK has more full fare premium passengers them most competitors and there is a reason for this. The last 2 non EK flights I took WERE on LH & UA. on LH in F although they walked me o the front of boarding line, I still had to walk thru a zoo of so called status passengers. As far as UA, that was a joke. As a full fare passengers I was in line behind over 30 people for pre boarding. IO makes sure I board when I want, I don't wait for my luggage and it's one of the few airlines that really treat me based on what I spend, not how many miles I fly which is how it should be in this day of cheap fares and ridiculous mileage runs.

If your interested in FF programs and being treated like a VIP for being a silver or gold, fly someone else. EK knows where their revenue comes from and it's not from status passengers as opposed to many other airlines where status is the bread and butter.

Depending on station, they will do this for any IO (within reason). All it takes is a call & they will follow up with catering. Stations like LHR, JFK, SYD & DXB take special orders for IO's all the time. I've done it for my GF a few times. As long as it's not something ridiculous they do try to accommodate. In fact, out of LHR at least they will even do special kosher meals. Sounds kinda funny on a Gulf carrier until you see how popular EEK has become w religious Jews in the diamond trade. And EK welcomes them w open arms. In fact I was shocked to learn that if traveling between TLV & DXB, the old rule of 2 SEPERATE tickets (TLV-AMM) & (AMM-DXB) is no longer necessary. You can now buy one tkt, TLV-AMM-DXB is easy t buy, very much allowed & luggage can be checked thru

Gold requires 12 Y savers from LHR-HKG at roughly �500 each. so �6,000 spend per year.

One ticket in J costs �2,000.

Who gives more to EK?

In terms of pure profit? Gotta be the J ticket - the margin on Y savers is, if it isn't negative, around the 0-2% range giving annual cash flow through from the 12 Y savers of around 60 GBP.

A J saver for the same price has double digit margins, so, conservatively let's say around 10%, so, 200 GBP.

I do of course see your underlying point Someone buying a 1.3k Flex Plus Y fare for the route is giving EK something like 700GBP pure profit, so is arguably a better customer than the J saver ticket buyer - as you have to account for cash costs of things like chauffeur drive, lounge use, additional baggage allowance, onboard amenities, as well as the amortisation of things such as the seat and other J class capital expenditure.

EK try and reflect this in the FFP with the different earning rates for different classes of travel and fare bases.