Practical benefits of EK Silver
 

Just got my EK Silver membership status. From what I can tell, these are the practical benefits of EK Silver:

1. Priority boarding;

2. EK lounge access in DXB.

Are there other benefits? Needless to say, I'm delighted!

Yep, that's pretty much it really, as far as the travel 'experience' is concerned.

You will also earn Skywards miles at a higher rate. And I think there's a slightly enhanced baggage allowance (assuming you want/need to lug extra stuff around with you ....!)

Given his easy it is to reach Silver, I don't think it's realistic or viable for EK to provide too much over & above this.

Get yourself up to Gold for something (a little) more worthwhile ;)

- Higher priority in case of op-up requirements
- 12kg additional baggage allowance
- You can now upgrade on board on a space available basis (actually more useful than it sounds!)
- Priority check-in desks; useful at some stations definitely

You might be raising expectations there et, re the op-up priority. Higher than Blue, sure ; but you have to hope against hope there aren't too many Plats & Golds of course .......(inc. all those QF friends of ours !)

Thanks for this. It's very unlikely that I'll get to Gold with EK. I simply don't spend enough with them!

However, the priority check-in desks will definitely be a good thing at LHR T3. Baggage-wise I never get anywhere near to the Economy/Blue limits anyway but it's useful to know if I want to bring back some heavy shopping from DXB.

Depends on the OPs travel patterns - BKK the other day had lots of Silvers and even non-status pax getting op-ups, J-F and Y-J!

Were you one thus favoured?

Indeed - had a pretty "lucky" trip, op-up on 2/4 sectors.

That said, it is one of the perks of the EK pricing structure: I bought my ticket 2 days before departure and ended up buying a Y class (as in, the fare was Y fare basis) ticket, which to me screams 99% op-up chance :) - they don't seem to close off the very cheapest buckets close to departure and force last minute bookings into Flex Plus, for instance.

Turns out I was the only Platinum on my ex-BKK flight, and they op-upped some Blues.

As a destination, Thailand has so many positives - not least its overwhelmingly charming people. But sadly I fear that traffic out of BKK may well be rather heavier than inbound in the short term.....:(

Sorry to sound dumb, but what's an op-up? I've heard it mentioned many times on FT. Does it mean operational upgrade? Does it cost money?

Next year I want to do a multi-city trip on EK in J: LHR-DXB-BKK-LHR (one week in DXB, one week in LHR).

I looked at this earlier this year and the cost was cheaper than a BA LHR-DXB-LHR trip in J.

Yes, an op-up is an operational upgrade. They are complimentary and essentially is just a seat change. It just so happens that your new seat is in a better cabin class. Of course, you may also be downgraded, but on EK that only happens in extraordinary circumstances - they prefer to deny boarding, and it's not extremely, extremely unlikely it is going to happen if you hold EK status.

LHR-BKK is an extremely competitive route, with all sorts of carriers serving it. Hence the reason where fares there on all classes are very good. LHR-DXB though: either on BA or EK you will be paying a premium for the O&D nature of your itinerary.

Been a Silver for just over a year now (although briefly dropped down to blue before a recent flight pushed me back up), all on the back of Y travel.

- Lounge access in DXB has been very welcome, although the back-and-forth to the A lounge if not arriving or departing from A, a little less so. But I now think that I have the timing down to a science. The Moet is always nice, but one of the benefits that I've felt more has been being relaxed about eating the on-board food in Y, and instead sleeping through it if inbound to DXB, knowing that there is a decent spread at the lounge. And no more having to march up and down the concourse to find a recliner at peak periods!

- The J check-in desks indeed useful to skip the regular Y line, and seems like the agents are much friendlier and chattier - maybe because most in that line are for J?

- Increased baggage allowance has been helpful in helping family cart possessions across continents, and being able to throw caution to the wind in knowing that going over the regular Y allowance of 30kgs is nothing to worry about.

- Don't forget the tags :) (That is, until you're seated in Y next to a Gold/Plat when the purser comes down to do the greeting...:p)

And in the mysterious op-up process, how much attributable to being a silver is uncertain and of course far from a sure thing on a fully booked flight...but 3 of 15 segments have gone from Y to J. All on 777s, never on an A380.

Have qualified for a second year, but after the changes to the fare structures and mileage earnings earlier this year, not clear if I'll retain it on the basis of the same travel pattern!

Nicely-constructed post sant2585, giving a good summary & insight to any readers not familiar with the world of EK :)

I'm hoping to fly more with EK than I do with BA at the moment so I'm planning some flights over the next 12 months - all subject to funds of course.

I was more than happy with simply flying with EK as a Blue tier member and in Economy. I really do find EK a very special airline on the LHR-DXB route.

In that case there is one more tangible benefit to Silver: your Silver card also acts as a UAE e-Gate card for faster immigration on both departure and arrival at DXB (or actually at AUH). It can be activated for free at the DNRD office at Arrivals at T3.

You may also be registered for smart gate, but you'll find that the e-gate is even quicker, especially for departing DXB.

I know it's all relative, but given the changes earlier this year, I wouldn't say it was "easy" to reach Silver for most people.

We're different here on FT.

It's easy just expensive - I did a return this year that got me 28k tier miles.

Agree, it's expensive. DXB is just a holiday destination for me so I manage to do 2-3 trips a year.

Any tips on getting lots of tier miles for lowest cost? I've never really looked into getting a decent status on EK.

Here's a data point, I flew on an Economy Flex ticket LHR-DXB-LHR a few weeks ago on EK.

I've just checked my account and I only got 2,100 tier points each way (4,200 in total). My ticket cost nearly 700GBP. So, it would take many 700GBP flights just to retain Silver.

EK's mileage changes have pretty much aligned the tier levels with corresponding dollar amounts of revenue - so really it's going to be a question of time in the air and cash. In terms of "convenience", you're looking at a long-haul F trip to say, NZ for best value.

Yes or if you want silver you can get f to Asia for a little over £3k sometimes

rumbataz : some useful comments & thoughts there from others (and yes, I take your point ft101) but you might also want to ask yourself whether acquiring status really is more 'important' to you than where you travel, and how much you spend on tickets and ancillary costs. By which I mean ..... there's a danger of tailoring travel plans & budgets based on tiers & miles etc - rather than just following your instincts and normal travel/spending patterns.

If the status comes in the natural course of events, then obviously that's great. But travelling purely to get it is another thing entirely - albeit a very popular pastime, understandably, here on FT ........;)

Plus, worth remembering that acquiring status is one thing ; maintaining it can be costly.

I've added a Jordan flight to get plat. Won't be aiming to retain next year way too much flying this year.

Oh sure, m3red, your Jordan mileage run (if that's indeed what it is) sounds fine to me, and is the sort of thing I would quite likely do myself in similar circumstances (ie if already handily based DXB etc).

The wider point I was making earlier is that it might be counter-productive for someone to take a single 'blow-the-budget' flight, say to Asia in F as you suggested, just to get themselves to Silver when in truth they might be happier spending that same cash on several holiday trips to Dubai in Y. And of course I think you would agree that there is little merit in pushing the boat out 'purely' to get status IF then you can't actually make use of it in the subsequent year !

But I don't mean to make any presumptions about rumbataz's budget, or anyone else's. In the end it all comes down to personal priorities, as ever.

It's a mileage run for me and the wife - gets us both plat plus we get a 2 night break at the Dead Sea.

She now wants to come back early to go to Ellie Golding - so swapping suites for the a330 - first world problems!

If your main travel pattern is going to be just LHR-DXB, then the cheapest saver fare can be around 400 to 500 GBP, and this is almost 200 GBP less than a flex Y ticket.

Just do a math on your own, and see whether the extra 12 kilos and the lounge access/priority check-in is really needed every time you travel.

Travelling Y and maintaining silver on this route could be very challenging..!

That's pretty much what I meant.

The PER mistake fare would have been nice if it had come good. I think it was over 22,500 in J for the round trip.

Did that not get honoured?

Ba honoured their one albeit that it was direct on ba.com

I think re Perth with EK, all we have seen so far are reports of cancelled tickets, but that's not to say that they were ALL cancelled.

As for BA ....which one are you referring to ...? I snapped up (purely on impulse !) a J class return to NYC for a little less than the normal cost of a Y seat. Waited before booking hotels + positioning flights etc, but eventually received email confirmation from BA that they would allow all travel as ticketed.

No, the first world problem is deciding who to give your Gold nomination cards to ;)

The recent ex Viking one!

Yep, Viking .... that's the one.

I believe OSL is in the middle of building a brand new lounge large enough to accommodate all the status-conscious FT members transiting for their connections.....:D

I need one.

My Gold is gone (again) and even though I've got enough booked to get it back, these next few months is worrying. ;)

Are there any Silver benefits if you fly business? I only ever fly long haul with work and I'm very lucky to be able to fly business for flights over 3 hours. As I fly business I already get a large baggage allowance and priority check in. I should make silver after my next flight so any real benefit from this?

You will get bonus Skywards miles (25% extra AFAIK) on every flight (assuming you are allowed to keep them for personal use ....?)

Also on-board upgrades.

True, I forgot that.

As in the opportunity to buy on-board upgrades using miles ....just for sake of clarity ....;)

Forgive my ignorance, but is it only the lounge in A that can be used for a Y traveller holding a Silver card?

Suppose I am a bit of a cheat in that I requested a status match to my BA Silver and was granted. The only benefit so far was the extra luggage allowance which did come in handy for my outward flight. Going to call to see how much to upgrade my return flights.

Safe & Happy Travels

S

Only J (Business) lounges in Concourse A and C while the J lounge in Concourse B is being renovated. Always a pain for me when I was Silver flying in Y on flights always departing from B, but I also have a Priority Pass so the Marhaba lounge in B was a lot more convenient.

I am going to lose my gold status in a few months as I havent been flying much on EK . Should hopefully get a soft landing to Silver in the next few months .

What happens to platinums. Do they get a soft landing to Gold after a year and then down to silver the next year?
I have a fairly large number of flights later on the year and early next year ( just after I lose gold). I might hit platinum in 4-5 months but wouldn't be travelling much on EK for the next year.