nnn

Thanks. That may not be an issue here because it seems like a fresh booking is still available. My concern is if it takes a long time to get miles back, because then the seats could disappear on me after I cancel and before I rebook again. Which is why I'm curious how fast the miles get redeposited after cancellation.

jackiedada

Its been some time since I cancelled and rebooked my F award tickets in 2018 and things may have changed but I believe the miles get deposited back into your account almost immediately after you cancel. I would recommend you do this on the phone with an EK agent rather than through the website. As ft101 rightly pointed out, my bigger concern would be the award inventory - you may want to double check that before going through with the cancellation and re-booking.

jackiedada

This is correct and indeed the system does not apply the 20% discount to children.

Here is the thing though - if you book your child as an adult then you are not able to input the correct date of birth as it will only allow you to enter a valid date > 12 years. In my case, I was not sure whether DoB changes are allowed post booking and had the miles to continue with the purchase without the 20% discount on 1 ticket so I went through with the booking. Wrote to EK through the Feedback/ Complaints option on the website and the extra miles deducted were credited back to to my account within a day - no questions asked.

The terms clearly state that the discount applies to "all travelers" in the booking. Here is what the Terms say for reference:

The discount will apply to all travellers within the same booking.

Skywards+ Terms and Conditions
.

acswank

How were you able to do this? I keep getting the insufficient miles message. It will let me book Economy but not business. Phone support says I’ve done it correctly so having tech support reach out but given the other person said they never did, I’m naturally skeptical. The yellow dot shows up on both so I know I have the promo code entered correctly.

jackiedada

If I recall correctly, I first selected the Y flights, then went to the next page where it showed the total miles to be deducted including the 20% discount and then I went back and selected the J flights. Hope this helps.

nnn

I went through with this process successfully. The EK phone agent cancelled my full-price award, and refunded the miles back to my Skywards account immediately. I then made a new booking right away using the 20% Skywards+ voucher. I confirmed right before calling EK that award space was still available for a fresh booking. That was a good use of $399.

Thanks for posting this. I ran into the same issue, and resolved it the same way. It took a few days, but EK eventually corrected my account balance. They had to reissue the child ticket so that it could be issued at the 20% discount, but the PNR stayed the same.

jackiedada

Glad it worked out for you nicely. Yes the 20% mileage discount on Classic rewards is by far the best use of the Skywards+ membership - totally justifies it.

joeyg1219

Also wondering this - can the discount be used to book for someone else? It's been giving an error after the payment page... Appreciate any help!

jackiedada

AFAIK, one does not have to be a member of the traveling party to use the 20% discount.

joeyg1219

Thank you!!! Confirming this is correct - worked for me to book for 2 passengers that were not the account holder

hyslopc

I am in the situation that I fly EK 4-5 times a year, so not really a frequent flyer but it gets me to Silver (just). I always book Y and upgrade to J. If I price my EK or Amex (they are priced 1:1) miles at $US0.01 per mile (which is the rate I've read online), then paying for J costs twice as much as booking Y and upgrading. Obviously I don't have that many miles given I only fly 4-5 times a year so I use Amex miles for the upgrade, but even those are in limited supply, I used to have a lot but they are dwindling since I started using them for EK upgrades.

I see Skywards+ as a good way of making my Amex miles last longer. I did the math, and (again, assuming $0.01/mile), the cheapest way to sit in J is to book Y Flex and upgrade with points, but Flex+ is not far behind. Saver is much more expensive, surprisingly enough. If I use the 20% upgrade discount and book Flex+, the number of miles required for the upgrade is vastly reduced. I will save more than Skywards+ costs, but most importantly I should be able to make my Amex miles last a few years longer before they run out completely (at which point I will need to start flying Y or paying full price for J).

My questions:
1) Have I missed anything?
2) I can upgrade both myself and my partner with the 20% discount, right? We always fly together.

singal3

Were you ever able to book this? It's silly that you need to have 20% more miles in your account to use the 20% off...

hyslopc

Just joined Skywards+. First surprise: the biggest tip I've read everywhere (including here), "12 months plus until the end of the month, so join at the start of the month" doesn't apply anymore. I joined today, 01FEB22, and my membership expires 31JAN23.

hyslopc

I contacted Emirates about this. Their first reply was to ask whether I could count to 12, and knew the difference between 12 and 13. After pointing out to them that the example on their own website gives a 12.7 month subscription, they didn't reply. After sending a reminder, I was told it's with Emirates management.

I think there's a big caveat here: you should start your subscription early in the month (as everyone points out), but not on the 1st. If you start it on the 1st of the month, then it gets rounded up to the next month, but the rounding is 0, so you get exactly 12.0 months.

You should start your subscripion on the 2nd of the month for maximum subscription time. Ironically, the 1st feb (which I chose) gives you the shortest possible number of days. We'll see what Emirates replies with.

EKfreak

I have heaps of Miles in my amex and Emirates account... If i want to use a reward upgrade so i will buy the economy flex ticket then upgrade straight away to business. But say i only have 200K points in my emirates account yet the upgrade award takes 240K points but with the skyward + membership would give me a discount and make it 200K points - can you do that or do you have to have the FULL amount of points in your skywards account before booking a upgrade reward?