Restriction on First rewards
 

https://www.emirates.com/ae/english/...es-calculator/

A few less influencers?

A touch less instagramming?

Churners churned elsewhere?

Fantastic move by Emirates.

Look after the status holders, and they look after the airline.

Agree. Far too diluted of a product

I assume the US credit card market and the ease of earning transferable miles there is a factor, alongside maintaining exclusivity. Would be nice to get some additional Platinum availability or something as the next step.

Understandable why they've done it. I guess most people who fly enough on cash fares to earn the points to redeem will have status of some sort, so it's really only going to upset those who are paying for the flights with points accrued on credit cards.

For the UK market at least the warning signs came when Amex had to devalue the conversion to Skywards a couple of years back.

Understandable, however I would say maybe a few weeks notice may have been considered fairer, rather than 48 hours notice if that.

I think the short notice period is arguably a bit mean, but this comes just after a big global double Tier Miles offer, which I imagine is deliberate - if you aren’t going to earn Skywards status now you probably never will.

As someone who hangs out in churner circles (and as an aside has no particular interest in flying EK on points at least not since the cheap AS awards went away), it seems most churners are doing the airport upgrade path after booking J on points usually on one of the fifth freedom flights to minimize YQ). And it is not clear this change addresses that. Also if they really want to book direct they can just get one of the Barclays EK cards that give you Silver or Gold in the first year (churners going to churn and all that).

A lot of bloggers/influencers have suddenly less topic to write about, dried up source of inspiration....

While I have not been bothered by vloggers and "influencers" on my EK flights (maybe I'm lucky considering I'm in NY), I don't feel strongly about this change one way or another. Maybe because I pay with $ and have status...but so be it. AF restricts LP much more than this and LX has had restrictions on F for many years.

The idea that restricting EK F awards is going to limit "influencers", social media clout posting, or people who don't behave appropriately... this is Emirates and Dubai we're talking about.

I just booked F on GameChanger before this change kicks in.

That being said, anyone in U.S. can just grab the Barclays Emirates card and get silver status for a measly $99 AF

I booked J on points and was planning to upgrade when more seats were released, which I was projecting would happen May 13. Oof. Curious to see if I'll be restricted from upgrading.

It has nothing to do with keeping influencers out.

Restricting F achieves:
- Eliminating brokered F seats once and for all (revenue protection).
- Forces Americans to get the co-brand credit card if they don't already hold status (revenue stream for EK).
- Turns F redemptions into a benefit of status rather than a competition against the masses.
- Ratchet up the exclusivity on redemptions because EK has a large high-value-pax base in UAE and has no problems shelling out cash for F.

Remember that Gold/Platinum status already requires at least one paid segment in J/F to qualify.
Achieving EK status costs more than the equivalent status on any other airline, and protecting that revenue from top customers is what drives the profits.

The interesting question will be whether QF (and AC) will be required to impose similar restrictions. If not, I presume it'd be easy enough to transfer from one of the points currencies across to QF instead of EK itself...