I'm new to Emirates so am unfamiliar with their skyward program, so forgive me if these are dumb questions... My mother has booked, paid and ticketed round trip from the UK to SYD/AKL next Feb/Mar in business (J class). I made sure that the segments between DXB and SYD/AKL were on the A380 (so hopefully there are no more delivery delays!)

Now... I'd like to try and upgrade her to First on the segment from SYD to DXB....

1) If Expertflyer.com shows availability in 'A' does this mean that the upgrade is available or is there a hidden class not visible to Expertflyer?

2) I'm not a skywards member, but I have lots of Starwood points that I can transfer into skywards once I join. Anyone have experience on how long it takes for points to move from SPG to EK ?

3) Related to last question... can EK hold an upgrade for me before the transfer from SPG completes?

4) I see that at the EK website, manage booking, there is an option to upgrade the flight... can I go to my mothers booking and upgrade using my (yet to be created) skyward account, or should I do it by phone, given skyward account will be mine, not my mothers.

5) Upgrades from AKL and SYD take the same number of miles. She is flying AKL->SYD (one week stopover) SYD->DXB. Can I upgrade both flights for the same miles, or would this be considered two upgrades (in which case I won't bother for the AKL to SYD segment).

Thanks for any advice.

DAK

Don't know

No experience on transfer time, but you may need to set up a Skywards account for your mom and transfer the points to her account for this kind of upgrade, esp. if you two are not flying together.

Highly doubt it. I've had EK hold an upgrade for me for 24 hours so that I could find a ticketing office and pay a ticket change fee (REALLY annoying that I could not have this processed over the phone). Again, check whether points in your account can upgrade another person or if she will need her own account.

Just call. I've never had success with the website. Again, check if you can upgrade your mom with miles from your skyward account if you are not flying with her.

There is a mileage calculator on the skywards website that will tell you how many miles you need to upgrade. AKL-DXB may be the same as SYD-DXB.

To answer your first question, as long as there is availability in A you will be fine.
As for your last question, expect they will treat both of the segments as part of the upgrade, so no two seperate upgrades.

If you fall short of the miles required, you could always buy up 25,000 miles.

Also for holding an upgrade, my last dealing with a similar matter was in Oct last year. I had to create a reservation (a whole new one actually) to secure a seat in F (flight was zeroed out 3 months in advance, and a F1 appeared on a Sunday morning). Oh and they could only hold it for 3 days, but they extended it another 2 days until the matter was solved (by moving my original paid booking to the new dummy PNR).

Good luck

Hello all,

Could I ask the Skywards experts a few questions?

If there is 2 of us with separate Skywards account and we buy 2 tickets under one single PNR, can we use points from both Skywards accounts to upgrade? Or do we need to book under 2 separate PNRs and upgrade each passenger separately?

To be sure, am I correct, if there is A or C class availability, then we can upgrade?

Also, do the fare rules change to the upgraded class ticket, or original fare rules apply?

Many thanks
Kevin