Is Skywards+ a worthwhile investment?
 

I recently joined Emirates Skywards after relocating to Dubai a few months ago. I now fly with Emirates (in business) at least once a month or more.

I can see that I can pay for Skywards+ (there are three levels). I already have silver and will hit gold before the end of this month and I wondered what other's views are on paying for Skywards+

The lounge access could be useful (I did fly with my family recently - I was travelling for work in business, they were returning to the UK in economy on the same flight). I noticed the 20% redemption on classic rewards (I think this means just straight points for flights rewards) but it's just once per membership year although I guess I might not use it that frequently.

Bonus tier miles will get me to Platinum more quickly but probably not that much more quickly.

I do like the idea of 20% saving for upgrades.

Any thoughts on paying for this service and which 'tier' people paid for?

(I have searched the forum but maybe because it has a boolean search character '+', I cannot find any other posts)

Happy with my standard plus subscription :)

The 20% extra miles and 2 lounge accesses is good enough for me (1 lounge access is 150, so that's $300 just in lounge access) and when you add 20% bonus miles and preferential cash + miles offer I think it's worth it (assuming you fly a lot with EK.)

If you don't fly a lot with EK, then it's not worth it.

Lounge passes good if you travel with infrequent travellers in bigger groups.

20% discount on miles upgrades is valuable to me - you can save 5-6 figures a year on that and that’s a lot of value.

Agree with your first statement. If you fly a lot with EK, you would be Gold and lounge passes (for yourself +1) are a bit moot.

Also agree with the second one, were it not that upgrades on my usual routes between South Africa and Europe are too scarce to make this work for me.

So for me not a worthwhile investment although I agree that for some it could be.

Most of my flights are between UK & Dubai in business (Flex or Flex Plus) so I could probably use miles to upgrade to First and get a good saving on points there. I don't often fly economy with EK as it is usually business-related travel. I expect to hit Gold this month and probably Plat within 3 to 6 months as I fly quite frequently.

My kids fly alone several times a year, my oldest with be 16 soon and then I don't think they will need to fly as unaccompanied minors. I guess they could have the passes and use the lounge but do they need to fly with me or can they just use them when flying alone? It seems a lot of money to give them lounge access. I guess if I hit Platinum I could give my eldest son Gold status and that would also cover the lounge.

The extra 10kg could be useful this year as we are moving things between UK and Dubai as I only recently moved here.

Discount is also valid for at the airport space available upgrades - I haven't done an onboard one, but I think it probably is, as it seems to modify the price in the system directly rather than being some manual override.

You need to be travelling with them, they haven't implemented something like family vouchers.

Thanks, that is useful information! Thought it was for web based upgrades only. Need to look more carefully into this.

I thought so too, but I was in CHC recently and the EK staffer processing it said, hey, there's an offer here - and it was the 20% discounted mileage cost for the upgrade.

However, I think it does need to be done using the EK ticketing platform, as I also recently did a check-in upgrade at a different station where the staffer (outsource) did it manually at the desk (i.e. airport control system) using published mileage rates and that hasn't had the discount applied (but in that case it's only a couple of thousand miles so I didn't want to make an issue of it).

So I think best not to do it at the check-in desk itself, but go a little earlier and do it with the EK staff member at the standby/control desk, or at the lounge, where you've got more time and better luck on them using the system which can show the automatic discount.

Or....it could be a bug and it shouldn't be allowed, EK IT and all :D

Just for everyone's info, T&Cs state that the 20% off is valid for airport upgrades, but not onboard:Emirates Skywards Programme Rules | Emirates Skywards | Emirates United Arab Emirates

When I first looked at signing up, it was online upgrades only, and this is confirmed by the internet archive on 8 March:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230308...ogramme-rules/

This changed at some point during the summer as can be seen on 10 June:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230610...ogramme-rules/

A friend of mine with Skywards + recently travelled ex DXB and the discount could not be applied to his ticket at the airport. In the end he was charged the full amount for the upgrade and waiting for a reply from EK customer service.

I guess that this (positive, for once) change is because the Skywards+ product is clearly not that competitive and has received little interest. Apparently fewer than 10,000 people globally have subscribed...

FYI- if you cancel your flight your 20% discount will not be reinstated. I just found this out the hard way, and the wording on the website is not that clear. I specifically looked for this before signing up for my subscription, and only see it on a link mailed to me by the chat agent. Serious BS but not surprised.
https://www.emirates.com/english/sky...-rules/#161244

They seem to be having a technical issue and on my last two flights, I was not getting discounted upgrades. When I called the call center, they told me they were facing an issue with the system and that they should be able to process the discounted upgrade at the airport. At the checkin counter they told me they could see my Skywards+ membership but that the rate was not being discounted due to a technical error, but that the first class lounge would be able to process it (plat member). At the first class lounge, they also could not process the discounted rate but told me that they can deduct the full miles and that if I write to the Skywards team, they’d refund the rest. They also mentioned that a lot of passengers were facing the same issue. So I did that (in the lounge, not onboard). And when I reached out to the Skywards team and explained the whole situation, this is the condescending response I got back:As per the Skywards+ procedure, instant upgrades are not eligible for the 20% Discounted Upgrade Rewards. You need to upgrade the flight online in order to get the Discounted Upgrade Rewards benefit.



Thanks for giving us the opportunity to explain the Skywards+ programme.



Let me know if you need further help.


The refund is only 2000 skyward miles so it’s more a matter of principle than anything else at this point. Any tips on how to proceed?

Is it me or has customer service for passengers across all tiers gotten significantly worst in the last year or two?

For me customer service has been fine - good even - except any queries relating to Skywards or Skywards+ - which has been uniformly terrible and like pulling teeth to get anywhere.

Unfortunately the call center agents are simply (very good) travel agents rather than people who can help with any element of Emirates issues.

My friend had exactly the same problem as you - it required a few follow up to the Skywards team but he finally got the following response:--

I'm sorry for the difficulties, inconvenience caused and time you've taken to process your upgrade at Dubai airport.

The discounted upgrade couldn't be processed as your ticket XXX was reissued. The discount wasn't linked to the new ticket.

I've now processed the upgrade and deducted XXX Skywards Miles.

You can view the change by logging into your Skywards account on www.emirates.com.

In future, in case the discount isn't recognised, they can deduct the full amount of Miles. The airport team will contact us to apply the discount.

--

Hope you are able to get it resolved.