Sam_AE

Not sure why there isn't a thread on here where people can post their EK award waitlist successes and failures. For those of us waiting to see if our waitlist will clear, it's hard to find information on this forum as to how often waitlist award seats are opened up to clear waitlisted passengers and when.

My suggestion is that these are posted in with this format:

EK Route
Class of waitlist upgrade J or F
Date of waitlist request
Date waitlist cleared or indication it never did

ft101

There's an official waitlist? I thought it was an irregular gesture only offered very occasionally.

DYKWIA

Indeed... the only "waitlist" I'm aware of is the "Automatically Upgrade" functionality on the website. I'd be a bit peeved if AS points holders were getting waitlisted and priority over Skywards holders.

lax.sea.jnu

AS points holders haven't been able to book awards on EK since August 1st.

IntrepidAfrican2

All awards or just F? I thought just F. Perhaps I’m mistaken.

DYKWIA

Yeah - bad example by me AS no longer a partner.

Sam_AE

As the OP here, I'll clarify --> I was on a F class award booking (using Skyward miles) -- there was an equipment change from the A380 to the 777.

I called in and was offered to be placed on a waitlist for another flight that didn't have F award seats available but is on an A380. I found 3 other flights that also happened to work for me on the same day, all on A380s, and all travelling to the US or Canada. It happens to be that I have the flexibility to fly back from DXB to any US or Canadian airport -- and I'm desperate to fly F on the A380.

I have a hard time believing they would have put me on the waiting lists if I didn't already have the F class booking and/or the points in my account. If this is a rare thing, then I should be in a good position for at least one of my waitlisted flights to clear, right??

extramileage

I'm not sure how automated these are, so I would recommend calling from time to time to just to see if things have opened up in F on the flights you're interested in.

Sam_AE

I ended up DM'ing Emirates on Twitter. They said that I'm on a 'priority' waitlist and that as soon as a seat opens, the system will automatically hold it for me so I can then confirm. So, this does seems like a legit, automated waitlist process.

Sam_AE

I'm approaching the Dec 29th departure of my flight that I now have 4 different waitlists for F on the A380. My preference is the DXB-YYZ flight but I was told by an agent today that there are only 3 revenue seats left on that flight so she didn't think my odds looked that good. The direct JFK flight had 4 revenue seats and the MXP connecting JFK flight seems to have availability on the DXB-MXP leg but not the MXP-JFK portion (yet). The agent seemed to think that I'd likely have the most success on the JFK flights (assuming I am successful at all).

I had thought that on the day of travel, that any available seat (award or not) becomes available for use by those on the waitlist. The agent said that's not true. Anyone with any experience as to whether I should hold out until the day of departure and just show up for the flight I want? Or will the waitlists all get cleared the day before/day of the flights?

Sam_AE

Since this was my idea to start this thread, I am pleased to be the first to report on my waitlist experience. After a change of equipment (from an A380 to a 777), I waitlisted on 3 different routes in F on the A380. I was put on the waitlist on October 28th for Dec 29th flight.

DXB - YYZ -- Availability seems to be 2 seats -- not cleared
DXB - JFK -- Direct flight at 8:30am -- T-minus 4 days -- CLEARED
DXB - JFK -- Connecting via Milan -- T minus 4 days -- CLEARED
DXB - LAX -- not cleared

Interestingly, while my PNR showed online that I had cleared the waitlist for the two JFK flights, I did not receive an email telling me that. I happened to be checking regularly and noticed this morning that there was availability for the two JFK flights -- so I logged into my account and noticed that my waitlist had cleared. It isn't clear to me whether Emirates would have eventually held the flights for me (??) -- although there does seem to be a lot of availability on both of the flights (ie 5 or more seats can be booked).

DYKWIA

Where does it show the waitlist status on the EK website? Is it part of the MMB? It’s not something I’ve seen.

Sam_AE

If you have a waitlisted flight, you'll see it in the "manage your booking" section. Once your itinerary is displayed, it'll have the flight you're confirmed on as the first flight listed -- and it will say "Confirmed" under the header "Status/Flight Number". Under that will be each of the flights you may be waitlisted on. Under status on those it will say "Waitlist" until such time as it gets confirmed.

Sam_AE

As a final post to this thread that I started... after getting confirmed on a flight from DXB - JFK on the A380, I remained on the waitlist for the DXB-YYZ flight (which was my preferred routing). T-24 hours I did a search for award flights and found 1 seat popped up on the DXB-YYZ flight. Just like my original 'waitlist" -- I did not get any notification that there was a flight available. So, I called EK -- only to find out that the space I saw could not be seen by the agent -- it was apparently a phantom award seat. While I was on the call with the agent, the seat disappeared -- so the agent couldn't see what I had seen and claimed that it was likely a phantom seat. A few hours later, the seat was back -- so I called in again. The agent claimed there weren't any award seats -- but this time, I asked him to do a search and he found the same phantom seat that I was seeing on my end. He placed me on hold and was somehow able to confirm me on that seat. Not sure whether it was truly phantom or not but either way it was only because I called that I got the original DXB-JFK and then the DXB-YYZ flights.

viewfromthewindowseat

EK Route: DXB-JNB
Class of waitlist upgrade: F
Date of waitlist request: 12/21
Date waitlist cleared: 12/22

Think I got lucky here with all the Omicron stuff