Skywards Changes 2010
 

Hi Mates,

Have recieved some very interesting and confirmed news that massive changes ave been planned by EK for SKYWARDS beginning from 2010. This is not a rumour anymore. Its confirmed news.

The changes are being worked out but as of what I have been informed the below mentioned are going to be some of them. But pls don't crucify me if this does not happen 101% as mentioned below because this is EK and they can change their mind 1000 times before 1st Jan 2010.

1) The Silver Tier moves to 30K & Gold Tier qualification will move further to 60K.

2) The much awaited new PLATINUM tier will become avialable and it will be 150k with atleast 70% flights in paid J or paid F. I have no idea what EK plans to offer their PLAT tier paxs.

3) Redemption which has already become tough in the premium cabins and it will become even more tougher.

4) No more than 5 seats in I Class for upgrade in any given flight and no more that 2 seats in Z Class for any given flight.

This is all that I know of today. I am sure that perhaps you guys in DXB can figure out more of this & add to it sooner rather than later.

Look's like EK pulled a big one off by giving away all those miles to paxs & taking away other airline's business from them. Like thy say nothing comes for free or there is no such thing as a free ride.

Safe Flying

EGT

Thanks heavens I chose LHR-DXB-BOM at the weekend for my next flight to get me to gold rather than go on BA direct.

as far as redemptions go I have not seen a normal J or F award for months now its all peak peak peak. I will get rid of whatever points I can .:rolleyes:

agreed.

emirates is absolutely crazy.. why mess with a winning formula? because of one down year? I guess the oil prices story is bs.

i have a lot of brand loyalty.. but if my miles become worthless i'll be done with it..

Having flown EK on a regular basis for the last 7 years, 2 trips a year BHX to BKK that nets me 26K tier miles and seeing the benefits of a silver card depreciate on a regular basis I think next year will be the year I vote with my feet. :(

hmmm... should i go for a milage run and get gold this year?? always 10k short of gold every year..

I might just bite the bullet, use what ever miles i have .. and move to eithad... or Qatar airways.. thats a bummer .. have to rethink my strategy ...

Is I class for business class redemption? It's a paid fare bucket now as well for discounted business class.

Good, it is time for the Plat tier. 150k is doable if you compare it say HON with LH (600k in 2 years) but well ok, flying F in LH generates more tier miles than with EK.

Anyway, from a communication point of view, I am wondering how EK will communicate the 70% cutoff. This is not easy to explain with a headline. "7 out of 10 flights must be in Business or First Class"?

Guys - we seem to get this sort of post every 2 or 3 months... normally from someone who has got it from a friend of a friend who once went out with someone who knew an Emirates flight attendant.

The Platinum rumour has been going on for longer than the 3rd MAN flight rumour :)

Cheers,
Rick

but the OP said it's not a rumor anymore. it's confirmed news!

:D

I believe this will come to fruition .
I have tried to get first class seats for next year and am unable for a reward ticket, it has not been a problem in the past.

I am Gold status and and complete around 10-12 flights per year in F, sometimes J however If they are going the same way as many others and making it near impossible for the loyalty to be rewarded I shall use what points I can , prob on their partners, and ,move to another carrier.

They have waitlisted me for an award which prob will not be confirmed until about 3-4 weeks before , if it does get confirmed , useless to me really .

Anyway I hope they have a change of mind but dont really think that will happen, have to wait and see I guess.

I am on 162'000 Tier and 87% have been in J & F, with more trips this year, and more than 09 next year, am looking good for Platinum - it's long awaited if you ask me! If it happens of course

Ideas for plat members:

Our own lounge (acceptable for this to be just in DXB), or our own areas in the lounges, with waiters
Extra people in the lounge
The ability to kick other none platimun out of our preferred seats (I like 2B)
Free economy tickets for family, or at least family members being treated as Platinum
Free upgrades for colleagues/mates on the same flight in a lower class, if seats are available
F champagne when (if) in J
Champagne in the Car Service (cold), or water in DXB at least! - They can manage it in BOM

some more benefits i think:

More baggage allowance
Chauffeur drive in dubai even when travelling economy class
100% bonus miles
Free upgrades from J to F???

Like these too, however, surely once you get platinum, with a free upgrade, how many passengers would be booked into F when you can get there for free..

A special male only cabin just for platinum holders with women only FA's and we get to chose the uniforms.

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.

Forget your dreams...
 

...it's all getting (even) worse:
http://www.skywards.com/ms_default.aspx
:td:

Marc

So ELITEGOLDTRAVELLER was incorrect in just about everything :)

Funny that.

Cheers,
Rick

Yeah someone from EK surely owe's me a big tab i ran at a recent night in IST;)

By the way I did ask to not to be crucified incase it turned out not to be true in my OP :)

But I was atleast right that there will be changes in SKWARDS from 2010. The sole consolation.

Safe Flying

EGT