Ouch!!! Emirates raises taxes on award tickets on Milan New York (and beyond)
The downward spiral for Emirates' Skywards loyalty program continues. From 2021 onward, the airline's frequent flyer [...]
Emirates
The downward spiral for the Emirates Skywards loyalty program.
In this article:
From 2021 onward, the Dubai-based airline's frequent flyer began a policy of devaluing which with today has eliminated, almost, for good, all that it offered.
In recent times we saw the increase in the amounts of points required to issue a prize ticket, it was Restricted the ability to redeem first class To those who hold at least the silver card and today, as reported by OMAAT the last frontier has also fallen: surcharges to award tickets for fifth freedom flights to the US have been increased.
The list is really long: they were devalued airline tickets with partners, and the great devaluation of tickets occurring in early 2022.
One exception, The introduction last year, of the saver tariff Where, however, any kind of flexibility is sacrificed.
Emirates' golden-egg "chicken"
The Dubai-based company has lots of fifth freedom flights, but the most famous are two: the Bangkok/Hong Kong and the Malpensa/JFK.
Since always the route from Milan is a real golden goose for Emirates, especially at the level of marketing and international interest, this is because is the only route to the U.S. operated with an A380 that does not depart from Dubai.
Fees nearly trilated to fly to New Yorpk
At present, the increase would appear to have involved only routes to the U.S.A, but it may only be a matter of time to see the novelty propagated to other routes as well.
Until yesterday, or the day before, it was possible to book a one-way award ticket for as low as 87,000 skywards and €131 in taxes.
Today, the same ticket costs 413.77 supplament, the increase is about +215,84%.
Increase also impacts economy tickets; previously 84€ was enough to redeem a bigleitto award, plus 17,500 skywards.
As much as €144 is needed today, the increase is about +71,43% , with no difference whether you take the economy fare at 17,500 miles or the standard fare at 30,000.
In conclusion
Basically EK aligns fees and surcharges to fifth-freedom flights to the level of those for flights transiting through Dubai.
Unfortunately, as I always repeat, devaluation is always around the corner. Sure companies that want to maintain a relationship of trust with their customers give advance notice, those who are not interested in the trust relationship apply the changes in silence and without notifying anyone.
This is the classic example for which One must earn and burn, Not set aside for retirement.
