I just purchased the $399 Skywards Plus subscription and used it to purchase a roundtrip itinerary for 4 passengers; I was able to use the 20% discount/voucher to save 160K points. The process was very glitchy/quirky, and Emirates was unable to provide much help via phone or chat support. Here's what I figured out; I hope this helps someone:

• Click through the "20% Discount Class Reward" card to apply to promo code as described in Post #45.
• The system will only apply the discount to an adult fair. So, I had to book my party as 4 adults, even though it's actually 2 adults and 2 kids.
• I was booking Business Class. However, unless you have enough miles to purchase the itinerary without the 20% discount, you must enter Economy Class in the search engine. Otherwise, when you attempt to make the purchase, the system will error out and say that you don't have enough miles to purchase the flight. Once the flight options pop-up, you can then select Business Class and everything will work as it should.

I'm platinum, and Australian. Skywards+ doesn't really interest me as I routinely booked paid F from Australia to Africa, Europe, USA and other destinations, travelling at least 5 times a year. Consequently, when I re-commence travelling, I will again get a minimum of 60kg per trip and I will easily exceed the 150K tier miles for platinum. I certainly don't need additional skywards miles. I don't need them for upgrades so I will continue to use them to give my kids reward flights.

For those like m3red who rely on upgrades to F from their employer-provided J ticket, Skywards+ would be advantageous to receive the extra Skywards miles now necessary to obtain those F upgrades, and to get those extra tier miles to retain their gold status. There is an obvious need out there for this service.

But, as seems to happen to platinum members who always book F, there is no incentive to sign up for things like Skywards+. I would love to see something that really inspires those of us in this situation.

It looks like international travel may be possible again from Australia around April/May next year. I will have already pre-purchased at least 3 trips by then, so I'm really looking forward to flying once again in another 8 months or so. I can't wait! First destination is Cape Town!

Gets popcorn and beer...

I pay for all my tickets with my own cash, and I’ll use miles to F if I can but with 3 people I tend to have to pay for at least one seat, like last week. If the F fare is reasonable then, given I pay for my own tickets, I’ll book that.

For what it’s worth I think Skywards plus is a waste of time. I’m not sure the relevance of work providing tickets is to this conversation, perhaps you had forgotten the topic by the time you typed the sentence?

My apologies. There was no intention to upset you.

As for forgetting the topic whilst typing......... perhaps. Um, while you're there, could you please remind me which planet I'm on? It seems to have slipped my mind.

I receive some employer-paid J tickets (for flights under five hours. the rest F. Personal travel usually paid F), and my assistant thinks Skywards+ is a scam. Probably a strong word, but there you go.

Emirates best ever promotion on miles was 100% bonus (shortly before their devaluation) which worked out at AED0.056475/mile. The advanced Skywards+ package (20% extra miles, 20% upgrade discounts, 20% one off award discount) costs AED2700 so to extract value, it would need to "save" me at least 47,808 miles over a year.

So I see it as a simple question of maths. While I'm fairly confident I would come out ahead, as I don't have the need for the extra miles, it's also a pass from me. Time probably better off spent checking the prices of EK wines on google.

Wish they would bring that one back sometime soon

It is a take it or leave it option depending on ones personal circumstances. Not sure how that constitutes as a “scam”.

you’re right. Presumably you missed the next sentence in the quote, but hey ho, and apologies for not making it clear that I don’t think it’s a scam.

Oh sorry for not making it clear, that was my mate Dave responding with that completely pointless opinion...

😂😂😂😂

Using 20% Disc for Tickets Booked from Family Acct
 

I have been pooling all our miles into the Family acct for some time now and I am about to redeem about 500k for some tickets for us from that account.

For that redemption, i am thinking of subscribing to Skywards+ for the 20% discount though I am wondering it it applies as strictly speaking a) the miles don't come from my account (rather from.the Family's, for which I am Head) but b) I guess that in theory the membership will be to my name, so a theoretical "mismatch".

Has anybody encountered this?

Thanks!

Not experienced it, but the T&Cs seem quite convincing that rewards are not allowed from a Family account:

https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/...ds-plus/terms/

Doesn’t the paragraph you quoted say just the opposite? :-

“Skywards Miles must be redeemed from the member’s individual account or My Family account”