Taken from the Skywards website under Member Benefits - Membership Tiers:

When you become a Skywards Gold member, you are entitled to a premium level of service and privileges. In addition to all the benefits of Skywards Silver, you'll also enjoy exclusive Gold member benefits, including:
Guaranteed seat reservations, even on fully-booked flights.
Personal travel assistance from our dedicated Gold Desk.
Complimentary E-gate access at Dubai International Airport*.
Complimentary access to members and a guest, to all Emirates and affiliated Business Class lounges. For lounge access in some countries, minors may need to be accompanied by an adult. Members and accompanying guest must be departing on the same Emirates flight.
Premium Skywards Opening Doors benefits from our worldwide partners.


what does "guaranteed seat reservations" mean? does it mean that 1) if the flight is fully-booked you are guaranteed a seat if you attempt to book when the flight is fully-booked? or 2) if you already have a seat reservation and the flight becomes fully-booked, your seat is guaranteed...ie. EK won't boot you off the flight?

i was trying to get a new reservation for this friday from dxb to ist but economy was all booked. so i called skywards gold desk, but they told me they could not book any full-fare reservations (only upgrades, reward travel) and that i'd have to call the regular reservations number - 214-4444. so i called the 214-4444 number and to my disappointment they could not get me a booking. i quoted the "guaranteed seat reservation" clause but that didn't do diddly squat. reservations told me i should call skywards. ha!!!

in the end, i gave up. canceled my hotel booking in Istanbul and now stuck in dubai for the long weekend.

Similar thing happened to me in BHX once, I cannot remember the pitfalls, I rocked up at the airport with a ticket for the follwoing day and they said they would do all they can, but no guarentee.. I got on, but that was only as a seat became available (in J with a Y ticket), I think you have to give them 48 hours notice, and you have to already have a ticket, i.e you cannot purchase a ticekt on a full flight, but if you have an open jaw and ask to get on a flight 48 hours prior, they guarentee this - I may be wrong though!

Hey I was on the beach today in DXB - just fabulous - but i think that was due to the looming :mostly cloudy: weather ahead of me in the UK for 10 days!

strangely enough around 22:00 last night, i was playing around with ek.com and low and behold, seats have opened up for the flights i wanted to get on. seatcounter.com also confirmed about 15 seats back on the board.

i wonder if a particular agency snagged up a batch of seats earlier in the day and was unable to fill those reservations. i did notice the price per seat went up approx 300dhs. perhaps EK playing supply/demand games?