depends on how the relationship with your travel agent and how often you fly. it is more easy arrange your own with company assign travel agent when you travel alot

No. Strict corporate rules always applied with my employer with next to no leeway for negotiation no matter how often you travelled.

That is certainly how it was when clients were paying for my flights when I was working for others. They called the shots. And why not? They have the desire and the right to get people from A to B for the least amount of money. That just makes good sense. Most corporations don't care which airline they use. It's mostly driven by price.

Having said that, I sense there is a large pool of people like myself who fly regularly and fund their own tickets. We like to build status with one or more airlines, but are very sensitive to any contractions in a FFP's privileges, and that is definitely enough reason for us to start looking at alternatives. I have used Emirates exclusively since 1998, but I'm watching them carefully now.

It's still unclear whether Emirates values this group very highly. Time will tell

it really sad. some how my company try to do the same before, then few times they have make a big trouble. then the rule become more flexible for every one now only with a reasonable time, may be not directly flight be need to be safe when staff travel to and from airport and transit time can not in midnight or in airport overnight. now what we always saying the travel agent is help us to book the ticket, but we give the agent schedule for booking, they only help t verify is this price is worth over all

I'm in that (EK) group, although not from as far back as 1998, but I'm now wavering as I have QR Gold now too. I keep saying to myself to disregard FFPs altogether and go on cost/schedule alone as they've all been devalued so much, but I'll try and wring what value I can from them for now.

I was listening to a news article on Australian Radio National last week, and a former Qantas executive and aviation expert was saying that there is no way that airlines will be able to support their FFPs coming out of this pandemic. They are simply too expensive to run and may be the first major item to be cut as they start up again.

I find that a bit hard to believe, but I guess time will tell.

I pity all those people who insist on displaying their tier luggage tags prominently on their cabin baggage at all times. How will they be able to differentiate themselves in a post-FFP world? They will be reduced to having their J or even F boarding pass facing outwards in their shirt pocket for everyone to see!

The removal of FFPs will remove a lot of the excess gas from those blowhards!

took the words out of my mouth!

i have it on good authority that the majority of the pax with a PLATINUM tag on their bag aren't even platinum anymore, it's just an old tag :D

i don't think FFP will be cut, they're a good data farm. i expect the miles earned to be reduced further, and certain benefits cut (reduction in extra luggage allowance, silver status may lose J lounge access in DXB, etc)

Come to think of it, what does an iO tag look like. :confused:

It is glorious, I put two tags on the same bag so everyone knows

:D:D:D:D :tu:

Some people are very determined to do anything that in their mind elevates them from the swamp!

I requalified for platinum in January and my review date is 30 April, so I can legitimately plaster the luggage tags everywhere until exactly 12 months from now!!

I also qualified for tier mile rollover, and had 50,000 of my excess tier miles rolled over into the new earning cycle.

Great timing eh? With Australia not allowing any international travel for at least 12 months, I will be unable to earn any additional tier miles. I will re-focus by purchasing shirts with a large and prominent pocket. That should do the trick!!!

:D:D:D

Even Aer Lingus have gotten around to a 12 month extension for most:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/32498706-post29.html

Come on EK!

So, renewal date was 30th June for me. Currently, system is telling me in now need 35k miles before end of October (I had flights in July 2019). With very limited flying going on till the end of 2020...whatever is happening. I don't understand why EK doesn't make a move to re-assure their Gold levels or other levels per se. With the matching from Qatar, if EK doesn't come fast with a decent proposal, they won't give us any other choice.

Has any of you seen any information? Interesting, on emirates.com, the mention of limited amount of miles needed to renew seem to have disappeared too. I guess the process must be under review. My last flight was mid-march...first time for me in 30 years that I don't go on a plane in 4 months!

I'm on the same boat. I've had zero flight activity since Mid March. Feels weird, but I'm in no hurry in going on any non-essential travel. Actually, these 4 months have been great, with some much needed family time. So thats the silver lining.

Not sure a status extension if of much use to me anymore.

Being Dublin based at the moment I can't figure out how to actually fly EK given the new testing requirements!

Possibly:
- Pretend to have symptoms in order to get a test scheduled through the health service
- Wait a random number of days for the results
- Assuming a negative result immediately book an EK flight carefully ensuring not to exceed the 96 hour window, particularly if connecting (what happens if connecting flight cancelled/delayed?)
- Repeat process at destination for the return journey!

Or could just fly BA... God help us.

Same boat as you.... have gone over and over it, but there is currently no way to comply with the rules in DUB, so the EK flights must surely be empty

Surely there's a private hospital or clinic offering test services? If there's not a test facility already on the list, that's what they tell you to use.

T
The information is still there: 70% of miles to retain and an extension until the end of the year for some.

https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/...ywards-status/

this is not true. The two best benefits for me is (at the moment was) the breakfast or lunch in the F lounge. And the VIP parking lot in the Dubai mall. Especially when you go there on the weekend. no more 30 min - 1 hour parking lot search.

Was this recently lowered? Thought it was 80% before and remembering quite a cheap offering..

drive to the mall 20 mins, founding parking 1 hours, shopping 45 mins, back home 20 mins. if not shopping also can earn miles, I will prefer emirates mall

any rumor will extend all member to next year

I don't really see them having a choice not extending status - but admittedly I haven't heard of anything concrete yet.

It was 80% before, this has changed. They should just announce an extension and have done with it / stop wasting their team's time, most passengers aren't coming back before 2021.

Imagine for all of us not living in UAE....matched to QR valid till June 2021....if EK doesn't match and we lose our status or get downgraded in January 2021...it's easy to know what is going to happen. We can compare as much as we want QR and EK...but for those lowly like myself flying mainly in Y....Gold somewhere is better than Blue on EK....Crazy to think that today QR is out "EK insurance"! A dangerous game for EK too now that some can fly again. Not yet for my side!

yes, in some way switch to QR and switch back may be is the way how we can do if you still can not fly,

Has anyone had their status not get extended. My renewal date for gold was the end of July, for which I needed only a few miles to retain Gold. Of course I could not take my intended trips in June/ July. Now it shows I need the full 50,000 miles to earn Gold. I read that they were extending status by six months, but I will not have the chance to fly them prior to May (assuming things improve), so I was hoping they would go for a full-year extension like other carriers.

The website currently says:

Emirates Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members, with a tier status review between March 2020 and September 2020 who are unable to retain their existing tier, will have their existing status extended until 31 December 2020.

So you should see a tier expiry/renewal date of October 31st. You don't currently qualify for the reduced requirements for Gold as that is for expiry before April 1st. I would hope there are some more changes as the situation drags on.

I'm a Gold Skywards member for almost 10 years in a row, and my Gold membership has expired on 31st July 2020.
Automatic extension has been given up to 31st October 2020 for review date.
Obviously I believe a loyal member deserve a better treatment than only getting 3 months validity extension for a membership, during the Covid-19 pandemia.
During this period with all the countries outside EU have border restrictions, is almost impossible to get a flight and accumulate the necessary miles to renew the membership.
Today I have contacted the Emirates Skywards, and have complained about this, but the answer I have received is: "this is it".
OK, so means to be a loyal customer for so many years it definitively doesn't pay off.
Good lessons learned.
Well done Emirates, since you don't care about your loyal customers, probably another airline deserve our money.
Right ?

Anyone that believe airlines "care" about members in their loyalty programme are delusional.

Loyalty programmes are data farms. You give them data, they give you some (increasingly worthless) miles in return. Nothing more, nothing less.

Indeed, but the key point to me is that almost every other airline is better than EK at giving reciprocal benefits in exchange for selling your data to them and making the data farm not feel like a data farm to customers. If the loyalty scheme fails to encourage customers to book so the airline can gather data on their travel habits, it’s not exactly successful either!

You're right, I was seeing it only from my point of view and I apologise for that.

I no longer live in Dubai, so I can't use the VIP parking at Dubai Mall. I usually fly F, so the F lounge is not a Platinum perk that means anything. Skywards miles not expiring means nothing as I can't use them for upgrades with an F ticket! My daughters like them though, because I give them award flights, but even that means nothing during this pandemic! My wife enjoys her gold membership as my gold partner, but she rarely travels with me. Luckily, her company is booming, and she doesn't put travel at the top of her list.

So yes, I can see how Platinum means a lot more for those who mostly travel in Y and J. Upgrades and F lounge and additional luggage allowance are significant items. Emirates Mall VIP parking and Gold Partner can be very helpful.

It's paradoxical that the highest tier (and I assume iO as well) doesn't have much to offer when routinely flying F. There needs to be something that sparks our interest! But I'm not holding my breath. Emirates have never been the most responsive airline and Skywards is fairly ordinary and definitely getting worse. I suspect this may backfire on Emirates because there are a lot of people out there that I hear questioning their loyalty to them. Coronavirus is making us see that more things are possible even though we can do less right now.

Completely agree. I wonder what it actually costs EK to extend status.

Anywho, I’ve got my status match with QR approved, so all good. Less EK for me, then, I guess.

I'm in the same situation, although it doesnt really matter for me.

I earn my tier miles mostly from F flights so I pretty much already receive the gold tier benefits from the travel class anyway.

Starting to hear rumors of an extension of Skywards status to be announced mid September, depending on how travel restrictions look then.

Don't ask me why they kept waiting for so long.

I gather this has already been signed off, they are just waiting for a good PR opportunity to announce it.

Not exacally Skywards related but saw this and thought more then likely EK
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/cr...miles-in-dubai
Man jailed for embezzling Dh1.4 million worth of air miles in Dubai

"An expat has been sentenced to one year in jail after he was found guilty of fraud and forgery charges.

The Court of First Instance heard how the 35-year-old accused, an Asian, embezzled over Dh1,440,000, worth of air miles from an airline. He signed up to the airline's business rewards programme with 24 fake corporate accounts on the airline website. He used travel tickets of the customers of the company he worked for to fraudulently avail 9.2 million air miles.

He is accused of forging e-documents and e-fraud.

The wrongdoings ran between 2017 and 2019 and were reported at Al Rafaa police station.

The court ordered his deportation after he serves the jail term and pays a Dh20,000 fine.

The security officer in charge at the airline said: "As I was checking the travel tickets, I came across several accounts belonging to corporations signed up at our business rewards programme. The air miles were deposited in those accounts. The corporations were unregistered or cancelled business entities."

By looking further, the officer found that the taxes - on the tickets purchased off those air miles - were paid with the defendant's credit card. "He racked up Dh1,440,884 worth of air miles," she told the investigator.

During the probe, 1,306 pdf files (airline tickets and receipts) were seized for possible relevance to the case. As many as 236 other pdf files (airline tickets and receipts) were also found and used for possible relevance."

appreciate the update, about time!

AED 1.44m = USD 393k / 9.2m miles = USD 0.043 per mile.

If only airline miles were worth that much!!