For the past few days, I’ve been researching a fascinating trick for upgrading Emirates flights (and no, it’s not nice to get dressed up and say it’s your honeymoon), and I even got it firsthand on an Emirates -Flight tested. Okay, in fairness I failed, but that’s not because it wasn’t working, it’s for other reasons (more details below). I would argue that this is the best opportunity in the aviation industry to secure last seat availability for international first class. The basics for an easy upgrade to Emirates First ClassEmirates first class award seats can sometimes be hard to come by, especially when multiple people are traveling. Fortunately, the availability of business class awards is much easier to find in many markets. This is where the trick comes in:
That’s right, as long as an Emirates seat in first class is available on the day of departure, you can upgrade to it for a reasonable number of miles, even if you have an award ticket in business class (this principle applies to an upgrade from Economy to Business class). The best way to upgrade Emirates flightsI’ve written in the past about how to upgrade Emirates flights with miles. You can usually upgrade to a class of service and only if your ticket is issued directly by Emirates (a partner ticket would not qualify). The catch is that I wrote about it in a situation where a confirmable upgrade seat was available at the time of booking. Airlines pre-allocate a subset of seats for awards and upgrades, so the process is simple enough if those seats can be confirmed. But what if they have to be put on the waiting list? I tested this on an Emirates flight I took from Athens to Newark yesterday (not to be confused with the Emirates First Class Review I published yesterday which was for a flight in June). When it came time to book, the flight from Athens to Newark that I wanted to take had Business Flex award tickets (62,500 miles each way) but no First Flex award tickets (85,000 miles each way). So I decided to book business class and worked on securing an upgrade. The problem is that Emirates publishes very little on its website about the upgrade process. So it really took a lot of trial and error and asking a few friends to find out what the system was. How many miles do you need to upgrade Emirates flights?Emirates Skywards has a mileage calculator on their website that allows you to search for a specific route and find out how many miles you need for an upgrade, award ticket, etc. I entered a simple Athens to Newark itinerary and here the result was under the business class column: As you can see:
Note that upgrade costs may vary depending on the type of ticket booked. For example, if you booked a Business Reward for a return flight between Athens and Newark on Saver Level (instead of Flex Plus), you would only pay 90,000 miles for the return journey, but then an upgrade would be 78,000 miles for the one way – and the return journey (so you pay fewer miles in advance, but more miles for the upgrade). I suspect most people will be using this for Flex Plus tickets, in which case the first example is more relevant. What makes Emirates unique here is that you can upgrade a mileage ticket just as you can upgrade a cash ticket. This is because Emirates uses the same type of fare package (as Flex Plus) for award tickets and cash tickets. Booking a one-way business class award ticket and upgrading to First Class with the last seat availability would cost a total of 92,500 Skywards Miles. That is only marginally more than the 85,000 Skywards Miles that would be required for a purely one-way first class award, which is accompanied by significant capacity restrictions. Put Emirates upgrades on the waiting list with automatic upgrade functionalityAfter booking, I decided to try my luck with Emirates’ automatic upgrade feature. I signed up for my reservation and clicked the “Upgrade with Miles” button. This confirmed that my flight was eligible for an automatic upgrade with 30,000 Skywards Miles, but also that there was no immediately verifiable upgrade availability. Emirates’ automatic upgrade system is essentially like waiting for an upgrade. The catch is:
There is a notification system. So when you request your automatic upgrade, you can include your phone number so that you can be notified when your upgrade is canceled. When an award or upgrade seat becomes available, your automatic upgrade will also be canceled. Additionally, in theory, revenue management can sometimes delete automatic upgrades from waiting lists, but that’s far from a safe bet. I’ve heard that some people are lucky with this, but I definitely haven’t. I was informed 48 hours before departure that my upgrade had not been approved and my request was canceled. Upgrade Emirates flights with miles at check-inEmirates allows upgrades with the last seat available upon check-in. Unfortunately, this only works at the airport and not via online check-in. When you arrive at the check-in counter, simply let the agent know you want to upgrade with Skywards Miles and they can do it for you. So how did that work for me? As mentioned above, I flew with Emirates from Athens to Newark yesterday. I arrived at the airport a good three hours before departure (just before the check-in counter opened) and looked online and saw that three of the eight first-class seats were still for sale. In fact, a few minutes later, when it was my turn to check in, I looked again and saw that first class was sold out. Grrr:
I kept an eye on the availability of First Class and all eight First Class seats remained occupied, so there were no no shows. In a way, I’m happy to experience Emirates’ long haul business class because … wow. I’ll leave it at that for now, apart from the fact that an upgrade to Emirates First Class is very, very, very worthwhile. You can even upgrade on board an Emirates flightThe upgrade option does not end at the airport. Even after boarding the flight, the crew can process a mileage upgrade directly if there are still places available. When I got on board I told the crew that if there were any spots left in first class I would like to upgrade to one and they said they would let me know (again, at this point I was just doing this scientific reasons and to see what kind of reaction I would get and if this worked in real life as I expected). The two potential catches with upgradesI am convinced of the information above, although I should add a few caveats:
Bottom lineWhile most airlines offer miles to upgrade, I would argue that the Emirates Skywards upgrade program is one of the most lucrative. You can request an upgrade in advance and if it cannot be confirmed immediately it can be placed on the waiting list up to 48 hours before departure, then it will be canceled. If that fails, the real trick to securing an upgrade is to re-submit the request on the day of departure, either at the airport or on board. Not only can you upgrade award tickets (which very few airlines allow), but you can even get last seat availability (which most non-US airlines don’t allow). This is a great trick considering that Emirates Awards availability in Business Class is often easy to find, while Emirates Awards availability in First Class is difficult to find even with the cabin wide open. With this strategy you can also use miles to get the last seat in an Emirates first-class cabin. Assuming there are award seats in business class, getting the last seat in first class from Newark to Athens or New York to Milan for 92,500 Skywards Miles is a pretty great deal if you ask me. Anyone planning to take advantage of this great Emirates upgrade strategy? Or does anyone have experience with upgrades on the day of departure at Emirates? Via https://globalconnekt.com/the-trick-to-upgrading-emirates-flights-with-miles/
1 Comment
|
AuthorBest Travel Tips Archives
March 2022
Categories |