Emirates Air Miles Changes

[DrPat 423]

Don’t know if any regular users of Emirates from the UK to BKK have noticed the changes they made to Skywards miles in February.

 

The changes mean that the miles awarded for a return economy saver flight from the UK to BKK has been reduced from 6,000 to 4,200, whilst at the same time the miles required to upgrade a one-way economy flight from Dubai (DXB) to the UK has been increased from 32,500 to 57,500.

 

This means in order to obtain a single one-way DXB to UK upgrade will now require more than double the number of UK to BKK return flights, fourteen rather than six.

 

A couple of years back they made it impossible to get a free chauffeur driven car (which is included in a business class flight) on a miles upgrade by only allowing upgrades at the time of check in – too late to book a car.

 

Profits only rose by 34% to $1.5 billion last year, so I guess they have to make savings somewhere.