Family Program
Feb 12, 2018 | 3:24 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: MM, EK, HH, etc.
Posts: 388
Family Program
Just got an email from EK stating that the family program will be revamped in May. Anyone know the main changes? To date the program was useless, given the absurd conversion factor of 20% (so I never used it), so hopefully they will join the likes of EY offering a 100% conversion factor (though knowing EK I doubt it). Thanks.
Feb 12, 2018 | 3:54 am
#2
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 7,791
Just got an email from EK stating that the family program will be revamped in May. Anyone know the main changes? To date the program was useless, given the absurd conversion factor of 20% (so I never used it), so hopefully they will join the likes of EY offering a 100% conversion factor (though knowing EK I doubt it). Thanks.
Feb 12, 2018 | 5:13 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Cape Town
Programs: BA Exec Gold , Qatar Priviledge Club Plat
Posts: 1,581
Wish they introduced a policy of free miles transfer to members with the same residential address as you. Obviously with a capping. If they do what BA has in regards to a household account, I will be one happy man.
Feb 12, 2018 | 6:51 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 10,043
It was me that mentioned it a few days ago. All I know is
which has been added to the top of the sign up/Ts & Cs page.
Exciting changes are on their way in May, making it easier to earn more Miles as a family. More details coming soon.
Feb 12, 2018 | 1:49 pm
#5
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Wellington, NZ
Programs: NZ Koru Plat *G; QF Plat OWE; Hertz PC; EVT Stays Plat; ALL Accor Silver
Posts: 57
NEW FAMILY PROGRAMME Share Miles. Share rewards
I just received an email from Skywards about some 'exciting changes to our Family Bonus programme' apparently coming in May. I'm guessing that I might finally be able to pool miles much more efficiently (and cost effectively) in the same way as ShairPoints with Air NZ. Anyone got more information about what's potentially in the pipeline?
May 22, 2018 | 1:04 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: MM, EK, HH, etc.
Posts: 388
Anyone hear further on this? Maybe they need to revisit (probably not „game-changing“ enough) their proposed changes in the face of LH‘s recent mileage pooling introduction 
Having said that, knowing EK not expecting much anyway 
Having said that, knowing EK not expecting much anyway
May 23, 2018 | 12:34 am
#9
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: CPT SA
Programs: EK Plat
Posts: 196
is this what they refer to as My Family? Just had a quick look and it seems it only applies going forward so any miles already accrued cannot be put in the Family account.
May 25, 2018 | 2:22 pm
#10
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2016
Programs: MM, EK, HH, etc.
Posts: 388
Even LH allows that under their new mileage pooling...
May 26, 2018 | 1:44 am
#12
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: DXB
Programs: EK, CX, AA, DL, UA, MAR, HGP, Amex
Posts: 1,211
So the program appears to be up and running in a "soft launch" mode with no official announcement.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
May 26, 2018 | 6:25 am
#13
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: In transit
Programs: AF/KL BA GF EK EY LH QR
Posts: 588
So the program appears to be up and running in a "soft launch" mode with no official announcement.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
Shame one can't move existing miles!
May 31, 2018 | 3:00 am
#14
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: CPT
Programs: BA BD SA
Posts: 4,467
May 31, 2018 | 5:07 am
#15
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Economy, mostly :(
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 7,791