Emirates Restricting First Class Awards
Emirates announced a rather frustrating new restriction on first class awards today. Effective May 12th, only Emirates Skywards elite members will be able to book first class awards. So after May 12th, you’ll need to either be an Emirates Platinum, Gold, or Silver member to be able to book first class awards.
Emirates first class awards have been fairly difficult to book in advance and when you were able to find availability, the number of miles as well as taxes and fees were quite high especially to and from Dubai. By far the cheapest first class award flights you would find are on their fifth freedom routes like NYC to Milan and Athens as well as Miami to Bogota.
I’m not really sure what the rationale for this change is. Emirates has the most first class seats across their fleet by an order of magnitude compared to other airlines. Additionally, many of their first class cabins went out either empty or not close to being full. The first time we flew Emirates first class was on our way home from the Maldives a few years ago and from Male to Dubai we had the entire first class cabin to ourselves.
Our empty Emirates first class flight from MLE-DXB
How Else to Book Emirates First Class
Finding Emirates first class availability wasn’t always the easiest to begin with so while this new restriction isn’t ideal, there are still a few ways to fly up front with them.
The first and probably easiest way is to book a business class ticket with Emirates and upgrade at check in. Emirates is unique in that they have last seat availability for first class upgrades. This means that if there are any empty seats you can upgrade at check in, in the lounge, at the gate, or even once you board! All you need to do is pay the difference of cost in miles. I’ve had countless clients do this over the years and it appears this isn’t changing with the new restrictions.
The second way is to just get elite status with Emirates! Luckily, there are two easy ways to get status through Emirates’ credit cards.
Emirates Skywards Premier Mastercard has a $499 annual fee and comes with Emirates Skywards Gold status for the first year.
Emirates Skywards Mastercard has a $99 annual fee and comes with Emirates Skywards Silver status for the first year.
Barclay’s Emirates Skywards Credit Cards
While these aren’t cards I would normally recommend picking up, if you are interested in flying Emirates first class and want the option to book first class awards outright vs. hoping for an upgrade, it could make sense to get one of these cards. The only downside is the status you’d get from these cards only lasts for the first year. You’d have to spend $40,000 and $20,000 respectively to keep the status in subsequent years.
Wrapping Up
Emirates announced an unwelcome change to booking first class awards and has restricted redemptions for only their elite members starting May 12th. The good news is there are a few ways you can still fly Emirates first class in the future.
