Free upgrades would be too much to ask even for Platinum - that would kill the revenues in F.

But what would be a decent compromise is to have all unsold seats in F/J be available for mileage upgrades from J/Y regardless of fare bucket. A 100% tier bonus would be the minimum to expect for Platinum - but it will not be very effective if redemption keeps getting harder.

What I think Platinum should reasonably have (champagne and strawberries in the car is wishful thinking!):

1) A 100% or more tier bonus

2) F lounge access for self and family (or 2-3 guests) with a J ticket; F lounge access for self only with a Y ticket; J lounge access with family (or 2-3 guests) on a Y ticket

3) Much greater non-peak redemption rate inventory availability (Gold should also have some advantages here)

4) Highest priority for op-ups (obvious) but no op-ups if booking class is not oversold. Instead, Platinum should offer:

5) 4 upgrade vouchers/year that are redeemable for confirmed upgrades as long as even a single seat is open in the higher class

6) Reciprocal arrangements for lounge access with at least their bilateral partners (this would help address the BIGGEST weakness of Skywards, which is the lack of membership in a global alliance). This would make a big difference to US residents who EK presumably wants to attract with more gateways in the coming years.

7) Soft landing to Gold for Platinum card holders for 1 year would be awesome.

To make the qualification criteria easy to understand, it should simply be the following:

a) 150K tier miles with at least 100K tier miles in J/F classes, or
b) 120K tier miles in J/F

It might even be easier to just use (b) - sort of like the old SQ PPS system. Having the tiers be 30, 60, 120 has a nice sense of progression!

Look forward to the details!

I wonder how much notification Emirates will give to their loyal patrons before implementing these changes ?? :td:


Best Regards
Flying Fireman

Yes I Class is business class redemption.

Uhh, so I can expect the worst regarding mileage credit when I book a paid I class fare, especially when crediting to other programs...

I think moving the qualification threshold for Gold to 60K is acceptable.

However, I am surprised about the 150K barrier for Platinum. I would have expected something in the range of 100K. This would be in line with airlines like United Airlines that have their "1K" status at 100K (and the earning structure at UA is similar, too).

Actually you should be ok AFAIK because paid Business class no matter if it is J or C or I should get the same mileage on EK.

Atleast this is what I know although others are welcome to correct me if I am wrong.

EGT

If this is true, I imagine that a lot of people who travel between Asia and the US will switch from EK back to US carriers. I would.

I think that speaks out for a lot of us, we all have a lot of Brand Loyalty, and are concerned about our miles becoming useless, yet with the huge numbers of new pax Ek's won with the fantastic service levels, I doubt they'll bother much if a few "vote with their feet" by these changes, In fact it's almost as if they are "double daring us" to do so...by such changes.
:D

ditto for your statement for most of us really (esp me!)

ditto for your statement for most of us really (esp me!)

ditto for most of all of us (at least I can speak for me!)

I think its funny how they offered the double triple miles for so long.. and there were so many cards in dxb with huge skywards offers.. and now they're becoming worth significantly less than they were in previous years.

I am a huge fan of ek.. for service + the planes + skywards.. skywards was key because it was one of the best ff programs.. but I dont see how I could ever justify purchasing J with EK when other airlines are cheaper.

Simply disappointed!
 

I'm somewhat surprised and shocked! Having just read that tier (re-!)qualifications will move up 5k resp 10k I have to say:
No, it's not acceptable to move tiers that easily from one barrier to another! This is a 20% increase, but what's the add-on as a customer? Me, being company-wise forced to travel strictly in Y [although relatively frequently] will strike the new regulation quite harsh. Emirates should keep in mind that: Every little helps.
Anyhow, while I have been able to "easily" maintain my status in recent years, I'm less optimistic for my future. Maybe, Emirates has really lost trust/relationship in/to those customers that brought up the airline in the past. As it seems to me, they try to establish another (more than daunting) LH/BA/AF-style system, which has lost me (except the case of lacking opportunities) as a customer already. However, if this might be the case, myself might better change to a similar ...... system offered by a European carrier.
Discussions about additional - even more - exciting membership levels are fine with me, but one should also keep in mind those customers, who made the business growing...

Simply disappointed!

marc-DE

Um Marc, the figures here posted are pure speculation. I myself could have posted that the barrier was shifted by 30% - not that you need to believe it then.

Nothing is confirmed.