Everything you need to know about free first class travel with Emirates

As the Dubai-based company is known to be among the most luxurious when it comes to premium cabins, it also recently unveiled its version of premium economy redefining the product for the entire industry.

If you say. Emirates is immediately thinking about the Airbus A380, the carrier has more than 100 giants of the skies in its fleet, was the first to put a shower aboard an aircraft, and, with the new first-class cabin aboard the latest 777/300s to enter service, has once again redefined the concept of luxury and exclusivity.

The dedicated frequent flyer program is called Skywards, and the carrier does not participate in any Atlantic alliance but has numerous partnerships with other airlines that allow people to earn and/or use miles to book award tickets.

The elite statuses of the Skywards program

There are four levels of the loyalty program provided:

1. Blue. It is the entry level, free and as with all other programs has as its only benefit that it allows you to accumulate points
2. Silver. It is obtained after 25 flights or 25k qualifying miles
3. Gold. Intermediate level requires 50 flights or 50k qualifying miles
4. Platinum. It is the highest level, it is obtained only after accumulating 150k qualifying miles

By not participating in alliances, there are no special benefits. All members at the Silver level and above are offered lounge access and priority check-in. Also depending on the level there is a bonus in earning miles: 25% for Silver, 50% for Gold and 75% for Platinum.

Finally, Gold and Platinum members get priority baggage drop-off and small benefits on the waiting list and in the possibility of guaranteed seats for last-minute reservations.

How to earn Skywards points

There are three ways to earn miles for residents of Italy:

1. Flying with Emirates
2. Flying with partner companies
3. Transferring MR points to Skywards points

Like all airlines, Emirates allows its passengers to earn points by flying. To get an idea of how many points you earn you can use the calculator found on the company's website.

A flight from Milan to Dubai roundtrip earns from 900 qualifying miles for a hyperscale ticket up to 15k miles for a first class ticket.

Earning miles with partner companies

There are 15 companies that have a cooperation agreement with the Emirates carrier, three of them are European: Tap Portugal, EasyJet and S7. It is difficult to think of accumulating large amounts of miles in this way, but we know it is important not to waste a single point, especially if you do not have accumulation plans with these companies.

The most interesting partner remains Australia's Qantas especially for flights to the southern hemisphere.

Earn miles with business partners

You can also earn handfuls of points with classic business partners such as hotels, car rentals, shopping in Dubai, but obviously we are not talking about figures that can make people accumulate enough miles to get an award ticket.

Transferring MR points

Emirates is one of the partner companies of American Express, Italian customers can convert the points earned through the use of the card with a conversion rate of 5:4, for every 100k MR points you get 80k Skywards points. This is definitely the easiest way to get enough points to book an award ticket with Emirates.

How to book award flights

Not being part of any Atlantic alliance there are few ways to book a ticket, and if you are looking for a seat in the first-class cabin, you can only and solely aim for direct booking with the Dubai-based carrier.

There is no award table, and again to get an idea of how many points you need to book a ticket you can use the calculator found on the company's website.

A round-trip ticket from Milan to Dubai in economy costs 45k SW, for business it starts at 90k while no less than 135,ooo Skywards points are required for first class. If instead of stopping in Dubai we continue to Bangkok, the miles required rise to 75k for economy, 150k for business and 225k for first class.

Then there is the opportunity to go to New York with Emirates thanks to the "fifth freedom flight," an excellent opportunity to use the miles, try an absolutely unique product at a very competitive rate.

The cheapest first class tickets

Of course sometimes happens to be able to take 7 first class tickets for the same price as a Ryanair flight, but this is not the norm. Traveling in the most exclusive cabins in the skies costs so many euros but can cost "very few" Skywards points.

One tip for those who want to try the experience is to aim for "fifth freedom flights," which are those that connect two cities from the same flight/plane before returning to Dubai, at example the flight Miano New York or flight Hong Kong Bangkok.

The cheapest rate is the for a First Class ticket, round trip, for only 30K Skywards points. We are talking about very short flights where it is not possible to fully enjoy the experience, other than the seat and other amenities of the place, since the flight is less than 2 hours long.

We are talking about three routes:

• Male, Maldives / Colombo, Sri Lanka
• Accra, Ghana / Abidjan, Ivory Coast
• Harare, Zimbabwe / Lusaka, Zambia

There are then 4 routes that last less than 3 hours and cost 60K Skywards points. Here, beyond the seat, you can enjoy a full lunch and drink plenty of champagne, but not shower in the clouds on the A380.

It is possible in these routes:

• Larnaca / Malta
• Bangkok / Phenom Phen
• Singapore / Penang
• Bangkok / Hong Kong

A single route to South America allows, by spending 75k Skywards, to experience a" short but intense" first-class experience on a flight of just over 3 hours connecting Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires and vice versa.