cowboyguy

Ideally I'd like to fly business class but if I'm not getting a good deal then I wanted to see what my next best options are.

So looks like there's no saver award seat available so it will take me 225,000 miles to fly in business. I have about 170k MR points available. The economy costs $1650 by cash.

1) Should I buy economy for one way and business for the other. Would cost about 150k points?

2) Should I buy economy award ticket both ways?

3) Should I buy economy cash both ways?

4) Any other options?

Xlr

That is peak season, so don't expect much in the way of good deals.

Award vs cash depends generally on what else you'd use the points for (eg. redemptions on VX/AS/B6, or later redemptions on Emirates during low months like March or October before the miles expire).

As far as others options go - you can try booking a flight to somewhere else (Sri Lanka, Oman, India), but have Dubai trip as a 'stopover'. For example, for Colombo in Sri Lanka, paying economy in cash both ways: http://imgur.com/5gQ9qm0 - of course, it depends on how much of a cost you assign to spending an extra day traveling! Use the advanced search / multiple destinations option on the EK website to find similar itineraries.

Some background on why this works:
EK can charge a premium for LAX-DXB since they are a nonstop option
For LAX-DXB-CMB, EK is a one-stop option, so they can't charge as much of a premium.

ft101

It's been reported recently that this technique may no longer be as cost effective as before due to the stopover being charged for. Too many people using it perhaps.

Xlr

It certainly depends on your exact dates. I had no idea what OP's dates were so I just put in the first week of December, and it's cheaper than just LAX-DXB.

ft101

Yes, it may have been the looooong stopovers in DXB that were being clamped down on.