Introducing Skywards+
 

Just got this. Wonder if it is a targeted promotion or available to all? $300 annually, hmmm..

Hello xxx, Skywards+ is a paid subscription that enhances your Emirates Skywards membership. Why settle for your usual benefits when you can have more?

Bonus Tier Miles
Earn 20% additional Tier Miles when booking online

Bonus Skywards Miles
Earn 20% additional Skywards Miles when booking online

Discounted flight upgrades
Get a 20% discount on flight upgrades when booking Flex and Flex Plus fares online

Discounted flight rewards
Get a 20% discount on 1 Classic Reward flight when you book on our desktop site

Preferential Cash+Miles rates
Enjoy preferential rates when you book your flights using a combination of Cash+Miles.

Irresistible offers
Earn more Miles, enjoy exciting hotel, car rental and tour discounts and get to know new Emirates Skywards partners. Visit our Special Offers now.

I didn't get anything. Currently based in South Africa.

Me neither. ‘Paid subscription’
How much, I wonder. :confused:

Is this real, actually?

"exclusively available to a limited number of selected Skywards Members" according the email.

Quite a few caveats in the small print such as discounted upgrades are only for Flex and FlexPlus bookings. Nevertheless I am certainly tempted.

$300. Mentioned in the OP, come on, Ambo ;)

Received the relevant email this morning. (If it’s not genuine, it’s a very odd scam !) Perhaps I was targeted because I have lost my EK status after switching (mainly) to OW carriers and also Oman Air. Only one Emirates flight taken this year so far.

The email link takes me through to an official EK page offering a One Year subscription @ GBP 234.00

There just doesn’t seem enough to tempt me at this stage. The ‘benefits’ are set out in a very cold, formal ‘Terms & Conditions’ page. I can appreciate that this is legally necessary - although am equally rather surprised that no other effort has been made - thus far - to ‘sell it’ to me in a more enticing, marketing-led, upbeat manner. A couple of specific examples showing how I could recoup the fee with a couple of trips would make a huge difference. I guess I could, with a little effort, do some calculations / projections myself. But surely it makes sense for the supplier to do this rather than the (sceptical) customer .......... ?

Meanwhile any other thoughts & pointers welcome ;)

Sadly I have not received such an email but then again, why would EK send it to me when I fly on a Y flex+ every three weeks. I would not need to do any sort of calculation and would pay that in a heart beat!

So basically for $300, you get the same benefits as ~2 years ago.
Tempted though.
And on another note, I find this a really good marketing idea. It’s something we haven’t seen with other airlines. Long time ago Emirates did something innovative!

I got this offer. Tempted because I think I will struggle to renew gold this year

Yes, in cases like your own - and no doubt many others - it would certainly make financial sense.

That said, a neat way for EK to add another revenue stream ; as opposed to making more of an effort to improve for all customers what is, in general terms, a rather mediocre FFP.

In many ways, I invariably think of EK as a high quality carrier with a poor reward programme ; in contrast, say, to BA : an average, middle-of-the-road, carrier - but with a much better FF programme. But then perhaps the dichotomy is actually no great surprise, and indeed born of necessity so to speak.

QF FF was paid only for a long time. I think it was A$100 per year. But this is something quite innovative.

At a cursory glance it makes best sense for moderate J fliers and heavy Y fliers as it makes upgrades a bit more within reach and frequent. Not really anything special if you're regularly booking F.

No. QF had/has a one off joining fee if living in Au/NZ. Are numerous ways of joining without the fee. QF ffp never had an annual fee to my knowledge (~20+
years) . QF Club is a paid annual membership, but lounge access only

I stand corrected. I'm pretty sure I got it waived through my bank for free when I joined. However for top tier credit cards in AU/NZ we have to pay an annual fee of $50 to earn QFFFP. The only exemption are QF issues cards.

No offer for me, but it looks interesting for someone who only just qualifies for Gold and sometimes slips to Silver for a few months. Gold would be earned/retained with ~42,000 miles.

However, I've recently been matched to QR Gold and will retain that due to a 3x points booking soon so less pressure for the next 2 years.

My missus got this offer, but I didn't. I fly on EK slightly more than her, but both of us are not-frequent EK flyers these days.

She always tends to get the upgrade emails as well!