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.