That’s exactly how I see it. The market allows it and therefore they ‘get away with it’. They are a business and not a benevolent society for their frequent fliers. I have the feeling that when the pent up ‘post Covid’ demand reduces, prices will come down (a bit) because the supply / demand ratio changes. May well be wishful thinking. I too long for the days that a J flex fare was two thirds of what a J saver is now. And don’t remind me of the days that there were F savers, sometimes at less than J Flex+. Sigh….

EK should absolutely make hay whilst the sun shines, but I’m not sure it’s clear the market does allow them to ‘get away with it’ yet. They are making a change which will play out over the next 12-24 months and we’ll see if they decide it was a mistake or not.

The other thing I don’t see discussed is that EK and QR (even more so than EK) carved out a niche for themselves during COVID as the airlines that kept flying when no one else did. As the reward for that, they recently found they could charge direct J prices for connecting flights given there was limited or no direct competition. Are all those high value customers still going to fly EK and, e.g., pay £6K to fly LHR-DXB-JNB rather than LHR-JNB direct as BA and VS ramp back up? Somehow I doubt they’ll keep a lot of them which will be a driver of EK fares coming slightly more back to earth along with a downturn.

Agreed, whilst I think some of these fares are extortionate, I wouldn’t like to bet against EKs revenue management team!

Unless they all got laid off…

is a 30% devaluation realistic or is the cheapest fare I once saw late Dec-22 not available?

Sorry, I don't understand the question. 'Fare' suggest a cash ticket, the devaluation is about Skywards miles.

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