donjo

Looking to find space for 2 in first from the US to DXB in June 2019. Best I have been able to find is round trip from IAD for 415k points, plus about $3500 taxes. I live in Austin but can reposition anywhere. Flexible on dates (anything after May 22nd). I am not familiar with Middle East reward bookings, and will be using AMEX points. Thanks in advance!

Mwenenzi

Looking to transfer Amex points to Skywards ffp?
Do you have a Skywards ff account now? Status/balance?
Are you sure the $3500 is real taxes or does that include carrier surcharges?

AUH-DXB is a short distance, so other airlines/ffps to the area are possible
Great Circle Mapper

Keyser.Soze

I've been trying to book a one way award LAX - DXB - MXP flight in 1st class in August 2019 for quite some time. However, every single date in August has 1st class locked out for award bookings. Is this because 11 months is too far in advance or am I too late to the party here? Trying to figure out the optimal time to try to book or if I need to just book the business class version of this now and pray that a 1st class spot opens that I can use more miles to upgrade to.

The business class route in total is ~ 137k miles + $580 USD in fees.

I'd be fine going business class for the DXB - MXP leg but would really want 1st for the LAX - DXB leg.

Metanoia

Welcome to the EK Forum!

LAX-DXB, in my experience, has only one first class seat allocated to awards and if even one person books a revenue ticket, they remove that award seat from inventory.

European routes in August are going to be killer hard as well, I looked for availability this year and the month of August had no awards available for MXP in J or F, so if you see J (really, D) inventory I'd grab it!

I'd invest in a ExpertFlyer subscription if I were you, you can set alerts for award availability there and get texted/emailed when it appears. I'm hoping my LAX-DXB segment in a few days gets a buzz...

skywardhunter

Yeah better chance of something popping up short notice, EK don't religiously release award seats at X days and an alert through EF is your best bet. Good chance of only finding something short notice. I'd book J and ipgrupg to F If something becomes available, EK should be pretty flexible with upgrading you for such the difference in miles and fees as applicable

skywardhunter

For $3500 I'd just buy a revenue ticket

Metanoia

Yep, you could fly all the way to Cairo or other cities with cheap F fares.

donjo

I think there is a misunderstanding. Round trip first class on Emirates to Dubai from Washington DC prices at $25,000 per ticket. My goal is to get from the United States to Dubai, round trip, first class, for about a week during the first half of June. I found reward availability from the United States leaving from Washington DC for those dates. I have no status on Emirates. I would be using AMEX points to book the reservation

Mwenenzi

So going to book direct via the Amex MR portal?
Or transfer Amex MR points to Skywards and then book an award with the Skywards ff points?
Have you booked Skywards award before?
AS is also an EK ff partner, but very high AS ff miles for awards on EK

Zol

Hi Donjo, I think the confusion is what is your question?
Yes that sounds about right for the quantity of miles and amount of surcharges / taxes that you will have to pay. What others have suggested is ticketing to other destination on the Emirates network such as CAI being the final destination and DXB as a "transit" point which could bring the price of the ticket down but obviously with the added hassle of having to go there.

You can consider redeeming on AS but I don't think you can transfer from Amex to AS

Mwenenzi

I also wondered what the question was

If OP has the ff points/miles and an award is available, no reason not to book it now.

Metanoia

If you're using AMEX points directly through their travel portal they're valued at USD 0.01 so you're burning $4,150 worth of points plus $3,500 in taxes, if I understand you correctly. So that's $7660. As for the entire revenue ticket thing, sometimes point-beyond travel to low F demand locations can get you some really great fares. I just searched ExpertFlyer, and if you're willing to position to YYZ and travel on certain days of the week,"stop over" in DXB and then turn right around in Cairo, you can bag relatively the same fare for less "value" and earn a boat ton of redeemable miles on a program of your choice (AS comes to mind as you're US based). Can you clarify how you plan to book?

donjo

My plan was to transfer AMEX points to the Emirates frequent flyer program. So when I entered June 2 through June 9th, they have space available and show the following result for 2 passengers: 435,000 Miles + USD 3,444. Total price in Skywards Miles and USD, including airfare, taxes, fees, and carrier-imposed charges for 2 passengers. I do like your idea of ending up in Cairo though. I suppose I could spend a couple days there, fly to Dubai for a few days, then back to Cairo for the return trip. Adds a repositioning flight to YYZ which I'm ok with, and the back and forth to Cairo but saves an enormous amount of money, plus I'd get 5x points on Amex for the travel spend. That's the kind of advice I was looking for. Only thing I would add is that paying for the flights will be somewhat north of $15,000 vs the $3,444 since it's for 2 passengers. Thank you!

Keyser.Soze

Great suggestion, I just signed up for ExpertFlyer!

m3red