Correction, one does not have to use the portal to leverage the discount. The call center can also apply it, and is used to doing so as many of us receive the wheel of death when trying to access our benefit online.

extremely buggy - the discounts don't show up for upgrades. It used to be fine before.

I remember reading that someone had issues applying the award discount if the miles came from a Skywards My Family pool. Does anyone have recent DPs of this still being an issue?

I think that’s against the T&C of the Skywards+ program so DP or no DP, I would not count on that working.

I got an email reminding me that my Skywards + subscription was ending.

The email also included this: "You will also benefit from reduced rates if you re-subscribe by 31 May 2023."

The rates offered to me are the same as for the the general population. Perhaps they are considering increasing prices as of June 1.

Not clear, but if you were planning on signing up in June or soon anyway, it may make sense to sign up now.

I am new to the Skywards program (have zero points), and have a question about redeeming Skywards for a flight. My thinking is to transfer American Express Membership awards to Skyrewards for travel in Feb-2024.
The one way flight in question is about $2262USD (business). When I try to price using "Book Classic Rewards Flights," I am seeing lowest price of 151,250 Miles + USD 1,277.

Are 150K Skyrewards points only worth about $1K USD? Or am I reading this incorrectly.

It depends… Some markets get charged a huge carrier surcharge as you are seeing. That’s payable whether via cash or points.

US and UK are some of the highest surcharges (as you’ve seen).

I signed up in June and the rates remained the same for me, iirc.

Another observation is that if you renew on the 2nd onwards of a month, the expiry is set the end of the calendar month as they extend it to the end of the calendar month in which your expiry date falls. So its 30-Jun-24 for me. So you can theoretically get an extra month of subscription. If I were to subscribe on June 1, then my expiry would probably have been 31-May-24. Not too sure about this though - perhaps someone can confirm.

Award strategy-
My wife is a skyward plus member and qualities for the 20% classic awards discount

Unfortunately, there is only one first class award seat available.
To qualify for the 20% skywards plus awards discount, both tickets need to be booked in the same cabin. The flights are from MLE-IAD
Do I redeem points for two business class tickets, apply the 20% discount and then upgrade one of them to first class. Is this strategy even possible given that EK would need to separate the bookings if there is only one first class seat available?
Or do I book one first class ticket (apply the 20% discount) and book the other ticket in business class and hope an upgrade becomes available later?

Does anyone else have this issue: I have re-subscribed to Skywards Plus and tried to book 20% discount on classic reward. I keep getting the message "you have used all your discounted flight rewards" which is NOT the case. Emirates skywards sent me an email with a link to use - this doesn't work either! Does anyone have any hacks? This is driving me up the wall. Thanks.

I know it's been asked and answered, want to do so again if there's any experiences that differ? Can a Skywards+ member access the benefits on tickets booked outside of emirates.com? i.e. travel agents? Anyone had success doing so?

I have booked the flights through their call center and the bonuses were applied. So the benefits are not limited to flights booked solely though the emirates website. Not sure about travel agents. Best would be to call the Emirates contact center and confirm.

From my reading this week when looking to sign up again (been pre Covid since I did it last) fly Dubai booked anywhere gives the bonus but Ek flights must be booked direct with EK.

I'm getting an error when I try to do this online, my account has the promotional code applied when I access it through my Skywards+ subscription details page under "My Vouchers" -

Warning:

• Promotional code: This is a mandatory field, please review and try again.

There is a 2nd box under it that needs to be populated with something called an "additional promotional code". I have no idea where it gets populated from. Tried the call center, they've put in an escalation but not sure what they might be able to do. All reps I spoke with said they can't apply the 20% discount manually from their end, and assured me I have to do it through the desktop site. Anything else I can try?

My login never worked. They finally applied it in their end, after I initiated a chargeback. Make sure your travel plans are solid, as you will lose your 20% off coupon if your plans change. Emirates customer service is terrible.