Sorry I mean classic reward ticket (instead of fare), enquiring if EK will be making more changes to classic reward flight skyward miles requirements by the end of the month?

I understand that this devaluation is taking place over a period of about 5 weeks. I dont know if that is actually true or if it is a rumour. I have seen some routings that have been ‘devalued’ and others that are (still ?) unchanged. I have no way of predicting what will happen next. If you tell me the route that you are looking at, I MAY be able to say if it has changed yet (but only if it is a route that I have watched). For instance it seems that DXB to Western Europe (all destinations in that area require the same miles) has definitely been changed already.
Just a general remark: the more specific you are with your questions, the more likely any of the ‘regulars’ here will be able to help you! Many of us try to be helpful, but we are not wizards in mindreading!

Same here. On my usual routes the devaluation for Y to C upgrades is actually 30%. Good I used up all my miles. Absurd!

What happens to the awards that were reserved (but not ticketed) at the previous mileage? I have a ticket reserved for MXP-JFK at 85K and they reserved the seat for me since my account is awaiting the miles refund from another reservation.
Would I be paying the new 102K?

Anecdotally it would appear that previously booked awards and upgrades on existing tickets are ‘charged’ at the old rates. Last week, I was charged the ‘old’ rate for an upgrade on a ticket I bought back in April 2022, but I have no personal experience for reserved award tickets. My gut feel is that you’ll be charged the 85K miles.

Update: I'm still waiting my miles back and called EK to check on the status. While on the phone I asked the pending reservation's cost and the agent told me 102K. I told them that the previous agent who booked the award quoted me for 85K. So the agent opened a case to listen to the phone conversation and get back to me.

We'll see what happens tomorrow.

I was just about to book 4 J tix for the fam EWR-ATH today, and prices went from 145k RT per ticket to 174k RT. Don't have enough points now. Big bummer, this would have been my first redemption. Thought I had time since they just devalued again a month ago....

Not knowing what your dates are and how flexible you are, you can try to find 1 or 2 saver awards (you almost certainly will not find 4), which will price out at 108,000 RT now it looks like (used to be kind of a steal at 90K until this deval).

They are out there, I booked 2 for JFK/MXP next month and 2 booked EWR/ATH for last November, you just need to hunt and peck and be flexible. Then book the others at flex at 174K

Not much of a consolation but might get you closer to being able to get 4 tickets.

Edit example: I randomly put in one set of dates and found 2 biz ATH EWR November 6-15, they are out there in places mostly off season.

Unfortunately because the kids have school I'm trying to book for the high season (July-August)! I think we're just going to go with Y instead. I think I'm even going to risk booking through an OTA (Chase), as that gets the price down to about $800 per seat (valuing UR at 1 cent each).

They're Q fares, though... any idea if I might be able to upgrade one or two of those to J within 48hrs of departure? Or do you know if those fares are disallowed? I'm 6'5" so was hoping for a little extra space!

What's the full fare basis code? It's not the first letter that matters the most, it's actually the 4th from the last character, this determines the fare brand (Special, Saver, Flex, Flex Plus). Specials are not upgradeable.


kuroko Aug 12, 15 7:41 am
First letter in fare base = booking class
4th letter from the right = type indicator;
F Flex Plus
S Flex
P Saver
R Special

Ahh, thank you! On the way out they're Saver, and on the way back to EWR they're Flex. I looked up the cost using Emirates mileage calculator and it looks like I should be able to upgrade one-way to J for around 82k points EWR-ATH and 51k points ATH-EWR. Assuming there's no communication problem between the OTA and Emirates, I guess.

Do you have any idea if the upgrade cost tends to change as the departure date nears? Or are they pretty set in stone?

Set in stone... unless the bean counters at EKHQ decide to devalue more! To be fair, the rates have been static as long as I've flown frequently with EK (last 6 years or so). It just sucks that I have a significant number of miles with EK right now.

If you're not able to upgrade before day of departure, I believe they prioritize first-checked-in-first-served at outstations (vs. DXB) for day-of departure upgrades, so come to the airport as early as you can if it's important to you.

Thanks for sharing your time, hopefully they don't devalue again before July!

In light of the changes discussed, I took my first GF flight this week instead of EK. Paid £560 rather than the EK option of over £1000 (for only a flex ticket) to BAH. Got an Op-Up to J, 2-2-2 seating and they had this strange concept where you could access the aisle from all seats. Not looked into their upgrade policy but it was a nice surprise. Fairly decent seat and PJs, didn’t bother trying the food.

I knew that changes were coming but seems like Emirates waited until the end to destroy J-F upgrade value.

e.g. J Flex to F for DXB-NRT - previously 42,000, then 48,300 and now 62,790 (i.e. a 50% on pre-corona).

Similar price increases on European routes. Very disappointing.

Same story in other cabins from the UK and, as far as EK goes, I'm out for now unless prices decrease. I defected to EK for flights to Asia after QR increased prices from the UK a lot and I noticed it was frequently possible to book EK F from London for not much more than QR J. Whilst QR prices have gone up a little bit after COVID, EK has increased pricing so much that EK J is now often priced above both QR J and direct flights. I have no idea who is biting at those prices but someone must be, I guess!

JAL First Class using EK Points
 

It looks like you can’t use EK Miles to redeem into JL First Class, the highest cabin you can fly is JL Business. EK’s website doesn’t even include First Class on the redemption table.

Does anyone know if this is definitely the case?

Now confirmed in my 'monthly email' this morning:


Your rewards matter to us. To support you through the recent programme changes, Silver, Gold and Platinum members now earn an increased 30% 75% 100% bonus Miles respectively when flying Emirates or flydubai. Book now to get rewarded.

Anyone knows how to get emirates award chart? The calculator seems to be gone after the devaluation

Where it has always been:
https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/...es-calculator/

Observation about F awards DXB-U.S. It looks like F awards from DXB to US have evaporated from about the first week of Feb 24 out as far as the reservation window goes. Anyone have insight whether this is A) just demand driven and any availability is being scooped up quickly, or B) EK rolling out a devaluation on these routes and whatever limited award availability normally exists will start to re-apppear (albeit at higher redemption rate), or C) maybe EK happens to be changing to new schedules for that period next year.

These routes were just devalued my good sir.

so 30% devaluation but (temporary) 75% more miles for Gold, meaning an end situation that is better than before? I couldn’t find the T&C’s on this deal cause there must be a catch.

The catch is it's not 75% more miles than before, it's 75% bonus miles rather than the previous 50%. In addition EK only awards 'bonus miles' on the miles you earn before cabin bonus so if you're booking anything more than Economy Flex Plus you're not really getting 75% bonus miles anyway (e.g. if you book a Business Flex Plus ticket you're really earning around a 39% Gold tier bonus, not 75%, and even less in F). If you fly in premium cabins the devaluation is worth several times the new additional mileage earning.

Update: The next day I saw that award availability for F DXB-U.S. was again showing up for the window of time I referenced. So I am guessing it was a system glitch of some sort. And the redemption amounts were unchanged from I had previously been seeing in the past couple of weeks.

What would you say the sweet spot redemption for Emirates is now? J class on the 380 via Aeroplan?

is there a chart or a list of upgrade costs at the gate/on board?
flying dxb-hkg booked in eco rev

presume its the same in points as prior check in MINUS tax?

Widely reported another devaluation is coming from 20 May.

They're all slow off the mark... it was on here nearly a week ago :)

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37745359-post30.html

And to add... Skywards have become so useless for me (a rare EK traveller these days) that I converted my remaining points to Marriott Rewards. Terrible value, but some were due to expire.

And... EK sent me a 50% off Skywards points today. Definitely a devaluation on the way :D

Devaluation confirmed
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...51f706f400.png

Was just browsing the CGK-DXB-AMS route and did find a one way Business Saver. Priced at 83K one way.

The Business Flex rate is still 120K, but reading the text above this can be still changed.

Upgrade prices to F are currently not affected, as it seems.

Ver happy that I upgraded DXB/BNE in November from J Flex to F yesterday! Just waiting to see if LHR/DXB becomes available to upgrade as well.

Here's a sample for JFK-DXB one way: business was 138K (flex plus), now 159K (flex plus); business saver 96K (NEW); first was 163.5K, now 188K. This doesn't seem like an incremental terrible change and the introduction of OW saver fares in business seems like a win. YMMV

The timing on this is wild. If they get away with this long term I have to give them credit for being absolutely invincible.

Across the board seems like about a 15% devaluation, with the addition of saver biz one way which is a nice add.

This might explain why PE -> Biz from DXB to CPH just went from 31.x to 36.x thousand points. Lovely. Being Dubai based id love if they just made the programme revenue based. God damn tickets are expensive.

This devaluation won't do anything to improve F availability. Really seems like EK is hiding F awards until T-7 (although I'm sure someone with top status will tell me they can see them just fine).