Emirates first class ticket using partner miles
 

Good afternoon comrades,

I was thinking of going to Dubai from NYC with my family. I want to go first class on the A380 and want to know if there is a way to do it with points. Also, if there were a way, would one be able to get 3 tickets on the same flight using points. I have about 250K points in my Amex account, and about 500K in my United account as well as about 300K in my Delta account. Any advice would be appreciated. I am not a member of Emirates frequent flyer program.

Emirates is not a partner of UA or DL. I don't think any of the membership rewards partners' miles could be used on on EK, but I could be wrong. Emirates doesn't really have a lot of partners since they are not in any alliance.

Alaska airlines is a partner, but I don't think that helps you much.

Emirates first class ticket using miles
 

For the least amount of miles needed, in a US-based program, Alaska is it. For 3 round-trip tickets you would need approximately 540,000 Alaska miles.

It is possible to find 3 F awards, but it is all dependent on when you go and whether it is a busy season.

Wow... without miles that's a $20k roundtrip flight.

14 seats and two daily flights... I wonder how many people are actually full fare passengers?

do you have starwood points? You can transfer Starpoints to Japan Airline from NYC to Dubai. You will need 110,00 starpoints for a round trip (135,00 mileagebank miles).

I don't have starwood points as of yet.

I'm sure there are a couple every flight. Lucky wrote on his blog that there was what he believed to be a member of the royal family going back to school in NYC with a representative from the school. It's hard to imagine paying $20k for a RT but if you've got the money, more power to you!

It's not very hard - that would be mostly 'frugal' executives who cannot justify spending $40k on a charter private jet.

Airlines are (usually) not staffed with a crowd of unreasonable folks only capapable of setting the unbelievable prices on its product - I have a fair amount of confidence that $20k is a well-researched number where market demand allows the airlines to maximize their revenue (i.e. [price per ticket]*[# tickets sold]).

Moderator action
 

Please write about miles and points, not about the politics of the destination.

Agreed, but also we do not know the contract prices at which many of these seats are sold to frequent customers. We see only the list price.

Interesting!

EK is starting to assess fuel surcharges on redemptions from their own FF program miles as of March 31st. Do we know if Alaska and Japan air will follow? I haven't seen much about it as it is pretty recent.

So, if JL the best option as of now? It takes up to 7 days to transfer from SPG to JL and you can only transfer 79,999 in a day from one account. There is a more than a nominal chance that inventory may dry up and you will be stuck with JL miles. Anyone have any experiences booking through JL?

If people weren't paying for it, they wouldn't have invested so much in the product's exclusivity. It's also not always expensive (see: ex-CMB fares)...

You don't see UA doing chauffeurs, caviar service and Dom Perignon because it wouldn't make sense with a cabin full of non-revs, mileage tickets and upgrades. People are paying for Emirates...

And quite frankly, F on emirates is going to be better than any 40k bizjet charter for this route (if that's even possible).

Korean
 

Korean Air is also partners with Emirates, and offers a decent dedicated award chart starting at 30k round trip. First class from the US is a bit more pricy than it is with Alaska miles, but you can transfer 1:1 from Chase Ultimate Rewards (not Membership Rewards, sorry).

You can find their award chart here:
http://www.koreanair.com/local/na/gd...sp_rm_pa03.jsp

You have no idea how much money certain people have from this region. Some small examples....College students would leave well over 20K in a USA banks after done with their education and go home. Some students would give cars to friends. As to the Royal family members that do not fly their own air equipment I know they paid people who were millionaires to move out of an entire neighborhood in the most expensive part of Arizona to establish a compound while one member of the family received medical care. Gifts to everyone who took care of them, doctors, nurses, etc. Oh and a new medical floor and wing.

You do have a huge wealth gap issue though with very very poor people