milehighmike

Hi Folks,

This is my first ever post on flyer talk but I've been lurking here on off for the past couple of years. I'm a UK based Skywards silver member along with BA bronze and also an AA member with miles in all three programs.

Over the last 3 years I've amassed enough flights to earn Gold status but I haven't flown with EK in almost 2 years, in fact my last flight was a rather expensive detour into BKK, on the way to HKG just so I could fly EK first class and earn the requisite points to make Gold, only to then not fly with Emirates during the entire period that I was a gold member!

I have around 62000 skywards miles, half of which will be expiring in the autumn and my silver status is up for review by the end of next month by which time I should be demoted down to blue due to my inactivity.

I am planning on going to the far east at some point over the next couple of months either by myself or with another family member, looking at possibly going to South Korea, definitely China. I was contemplating using the miles to upgrade one segment but then I figure it's best to consult the wisdom of the flyer talk crowd in case anyone knows of any better use. I'm specifically trying to find the best bang for your buck with these pesky miles that will become useless after the summer.

FYI, I have priority pass and enough Amex and SPG points to triple my skywards total, along with SPG Platinum status.

Thanks in advance.
Mike

skywardhunter

Welcome to Flyertalk and the EK forum!

Using your miles to upgrade is indeed the best use of the miles, this generally provides the best value in terms of $/mile if compared to the cash upgrade, due to the high carrier-imposed surcharges and taxes if you want to book an outright award. However be aware that EK doesn't always have upgrade availability, so check in advance or be willing to book now and gamble on availability opening up later. You can still upgrade at check-in if there are seats, regardless of upgrade availability, however if you won't be Silver anymore you won't be able to upgrade on-board.

Note that you can use expiring miles for redemptions/upgrades after the expiry date, but if you then cancel that redemption/upgrade you forfeit the miles.

ElJudioErrante

FWIW 62,000 Skywards miles will buy you (with change) 2 x ow J cl award seats on EK BKK/HKG or vv, taxes are low on this.Also you can use the skywards miles to redeem flights Inc intra Asia ones of course on a few carriers inc KE. Look at the partner carriers of skywards,plenty of scope there.If you do transit DXB then any remaining miles you can spend in Dubai duty free.

scotclif

You can redeem from 7500 on Easyjet, head out of snowy UK to somewhere not too far that is a bit warmer.

milehighmike

Hey folks, thanks for the advice and much appreciated. I didn't know that you could use miles for flights after expiration, nor did I know that silver can upgrade on board.

Skywardhunter, could you please clarify how you can still upgrade at check-in if seats are available, even if there's no upgrade availability? I thought the latter would be dependent on the former.

My plan was to book 2 economy tickets outbound to HKG, use my soon to expire silver status to get into the lounge to make economy more bearable, then after the miles from these flights post into our accounts, pool the miles together along with additional miles from Marriott and SPG hotel stays to fund 2 upgrades from either flex or flex plus Y to J on the inbound. I have more than enough miles in my AMEX or SPG accounts to cover the difference but I don't wan't to use them when I know I'll be receiving more skyward miles which could end up orphaned after this big clear out.

However, my plan has hit a snag when talking to the EK call centre after realising this all hinges on availability. The DXB-EU leg is very low on availability on the only date that would be upgradeable for both sectors from HKG all the way to EU. To upgrade both sectors works out cheaper then upgrading each one individually. Annoyingly the Outbound has no availability so I can't even rinse those miles out straightaway.

The EK call centre rep did confirm that you can cancel an upgrade and receive a full refund of the miles, so I could just upgrade the few remaining DXB-EU seats and if every skywards miles posts in time and HKG-DXB upgrade is still available, then cancel the final sector and upgrade the whole inbound. BUT, then I'm at the mercy of the auto upgrade/waitlist whereby someone else snags my previously held seats upon cancelation.

What would be the most prudent way of not ending up with egg on my face and more skyward miles that will expire soon?

TL;DR - I'm going to HKG, economy outbound, wan't to maximise miles earned from outbound flights and partner hotel stays to fund inbound upgrade but availability is low on final sector back to EU so risk losing out if wait too long.

I could choose another EX-eu destination that's less busier I suppose.

skywardhunter

Ok lot's of questions to answer

- At check-in EK allow you to upgrade into any available seat in the higher cabin, this is their strategy to maximize revenue, since they're unlikely to sell it at such short notice, i.e. you don't need the upgrade fare bucket to be available
>> Anyone can upgrade at check-in, not just Silver and above, but as Silver you can upgrade onboard as well
- You can use miles for flights after their expiration - but if you cancel and the miles would've now expired they won't be returned to you
- Amex and SPG transfers take a day or two, upgrade at check-in is risky as it depends on the J cabin not being full
- When upgrading at check-in or onboard you won't get the "discount" for the combined upgrade
- If you want to do a combined upgrade but only one leg is currently available take it. When the 2nd leg becomes available call EK and explain what you want to do and they will process it and take just the lower differential in miles - not sure how they process it in the backend and how this affects expired miles if they have by then expired, if that will be the case check with the EK agent on the phone
- to clarify, you only get lounge access in DXB as Silver

BadoRas

The misuse of apostrophes is appalling in these posts. Sorry, it's my personal bugbear. We all have them. Attack me if you wish.

Lot's = lots. Plurals never ever use apostrophes
Wan't (??) = want

BadoRas

Certainly attack me for going off-topic

milehighmike

hahaha!!! Normally I'd blame this on autocorrect but oddly enough it didn't even come up as a spelling error! I think I must be getting even more lazy with my spelling the more I use touch devices.

Explorer789

Not familiar with skywards, but is there not an option to buy some miles? Pretty much every other airline program counts purchasing miles as activity, which extends the expiration.

milehighmike

Anyway, back on topic. Following the sound advice on here and researching a bit, using skywards miles to redeem on Korean isn't cost effective compared to using Avios for CX HKG to Seoul and having flown EK F return from BKK to HKG, I feel it's kind of a waste of miles for such a short flight. So upgrading EK Y to J ultra long haul is really the best use I have for them. I have 2 windows to travel over the next 30 days so my options are;

Option 1-

Fly ex-CDG this month when I am still silver so can access the lounge with the caveat that my blue companion must pay to access. Silver also means I earn SPG points for flying EK and also there may be a remote chance we could get an op-up. Anyone care to weigh in on the likelihood of this? Inbound tickets are flex Y but there is limited upgrade on DXB-CDG and only on an exact date so either lock in those seats for now and then phone and cancel to then upgrade the whole inbound or just upgrade the whole flight from HKG using existing miles and points from the beginning.

Option 2 -

Fly next month ex-BHX where prices are about the same as CDG next week but don't have the additional cost of positioning flights to Paris or 1 night hotel. Also get the benefit of chauffeur drive back home from BHX. However, no silver, no lounge outbound, no extra miles. Also, upgrade with miles will be dependent on availability which I haven't checked yet. I have priority pass so is there an alternative to EK J lounge.

I guess this comes down to whether it's worth flying as a silver compared to a blue with less hassle. Penny for your thoughts?

ElJudioErrante

There's a daily flight MLA/LCA,very cheap to fly using skywards miles in Y or J and normally very low load factor.You can fly low cost from UK/mainland Europe to from MLA LCA.

Another way to use skywards points is spend them in Dubai duty free in DXB/DWC.The tobacco on departure/in transit is much lower than on arrival.

skywardhunter

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Skywards expiration cannot be extended, regardless of activity. One can buy miles.