Emirates Skywards Devaluation
May 31, 2026 | 3:03 pm
#121
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: NYC -- UA 1K; SPG Platinum; HH Diamond.
Posts: 3,259
It totally depends on the route and other factors but EK is also not looking to "give away" these seats when they think they can sell them for cash (which they often can).
May 31, 2026 | 5:07 pm
#122
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 7,413
If they can sell them, so be it. But going back a few years, it was much easier to find F awards on all sorts of routes, including the really popular ones like JFK-DXB, ORD-DXB. Now, you can't, unless very close to departure. And I'm assuming that Emirates didn't have trouble selling F seats back then either. So something definitely changed.
Jun 1, 2026 | 2:40 am
#126
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 7,413
But that seems like a minor issue compared to the fact that EK just isn't even making awards available until very close to departure date. EK is becoming Lufthansa: constant devaluations to the point of worthlessness, extremely high cash surcharges, and availability only found close in to departure date.
Jun 1, 2026 | 8:59 pm
#127
formerly wchinchen
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Honolulu
Programs: AA CK, EK Gold, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 3,468
It just takes work to search the calendar, day by day, and different iterations of city pairs until you find something. I don't search ex LAX/SFO anymore.
Jun 1, 2026 | 10:21 pm
#128
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 7,413
The devaluation didn't improve ex-US F award availability based on my experience. But I was able to get two DFW-DXB F awards for 2027 last week; but the days of readily available SFO-DXB are long gone.
It just takes work to search the calendar, day by day, and different iterations of city pairs until you find something. I don't search ex LAX/SFO anymore.
It just takes work to search the calendar, day by day, and different iterations of city pairs until you find something. I don't search ex LAX/SFO anymore.
Today | 12:33 pm
#129
Join Date: Jan 2018
Posts: 226
I'm Emirates gold (via credit card) and on May 20th I was able to book 2x F JFK-DXB departing middle of June. Not saying you're wrong or that availability improved, just providing a dp. I never looked prior to May 19th as I was initially booked IAD-DXB in J (and was hoping to upgrade at check-in) when it had the A380, I only looked at JFK-DXB once the IAD-DXB schedule was updated for June and the A380 still hadn't returned.