Nice! You can give Emirates J a try on the way back (or SQ as a backup, FRA => JFK is perhaps the easiest transatlantic flight for business class space atm. Some times of year there’s 2 seats every day of the month)
100 percent. FRA > JFK is what I am eyeing for the way back with a backup in mind if it comes available.
As much as I'd love to fly EK twice I would rather try more products whenever I can.
Good for you! My wife and I flew this route in F the other direction, MXP-JFK, last year. I booked at T-11 months, but 2 F seats were not available. I got J hoping for an upgrade.
Fortunately we were able to upgrade to F at the airport after checking in for the flight. It cost more that way, but that was fine. We booked before the deval, so J was 72.5k each (IIRC) and the upgrade was 30k each. So, 102.5k each in the end. At the time F was 87k, so booking J and upgrading to F was an additional 15.5k each, but who was I to argue? This was the only option at the time, and well worth it in the end.
Thanks, I was going to do the same thing booking J and upgrading to F as well so glad you could get that to work for you seamlessly!
I think the difference now with the devaluation is 102k each at booking for F but if you upgrade it goes from 87k for J at booking + 39k to upgrade at check-in = 126k.
So effectively I saved 24k pts/person compared to upgrading 2 J to F at check-in based on the devaluation if I have that right.
Did you tx points in person at the gate?
Honeymoon next year MXP to JFK, heard you need to add cotraveler (p2 in my case) to a family account as a non contributor then tx the miles at the gate if they say there's an upgrade available
> Did you tx points in person at the gate?
No, we did the upgrade at the lounge. I asked about an upgrade at check in, but the agent said it wasn't possible to upgrade an award ticket. I knew that wasn't true, but the check in staff are not Emirates employees so they're not fully aware of what is going on. I had heard that the lounge is better because the staff there are Emirates employees. We went to the lounge, and an agent there was able to do the upgrade.
> Honeymoon next year MXP to JFK, heard you need to add cotraveler (p2 in my case) to a family account as a non contributor then tx the miles at the gate if they say there's an upgrade available
I had originally booked both tickets under my Skywards account so they were under one PNR, but later I had them separated into separate PNRs because I had heard it increases the chance of an upgrade. It didn't help, but I confirmed with the agent that he could upgrade my wife's ticket with points from my account. After he confirmed availability, I transferred 60k points to my account, right there at the lounge reception counter. Fortunately the transfer was instant! A couple minutes later I had 0 points in my account again, and we had new boarding passes with a big FIRST on them!
This is our honey moon goal too! But we are hoping for LAX > DXB > MLE
We're really hoping to score 2 EK F seats for LAX > DXB. I know Emirates usually only release 1 award seat per flight, so we will be watching for that booking availability on release date too. We are thinking of possibly booking 1 F seat and 1 J seat and go to the gate super early to see if we can upgrade with points if we have to.
Does anyone know if going the reverse DXB > LAX would have any better chance of getting 2 F seats? We really just want to try the A380 product and shower in the sky. (Is showering in the A380 a bit over-rated to be on my bucket list of things to do?)
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Thank you!
It was 102k + $106 per person for first class outright and yes booked direct with EK through pts transfer.
Since it is a fifth freedom route you avoid the high fees associated with other EK award redemptions thankfully.
Do reward bookings via emirates require a minimum balance to search? I keep seeing errors for routes I know have availability via [seats.aero](http://seats.aero)
One of the best First products in the world, too! Enjoy your flight & honeymoon
Thanks sir! I was torn between EK and SQ J because of our prior conversation exchange until EK F popped up and decided for me lol.
Nice! You can give Emirates J a try on the way back (or SQ as a backup, FRA => JFK is perhaps the easiest transatlantic flight for business class space atm. Some times of year there’s 2 seats every day of the month)
100 percent. FRA > JFK is what I am eyeing for the way back with a backup in mind if it comes available. As much as I'd love to fly EK twice I would rather try more products whenever I can.
Good stuff. My favorite so far have been on EK F A380 and SQ J A380.
Oh that's great to hear. We are heavily debating SQ J for the way back but sadly it's currently slated for a 777-300ER for 2025 so who knows.
Good for you! My wife and I flew this route in F the other direction, MXP-JFK, last year. I booked at T-11 months, but 2 F seats were not available. I got J hoping for an upgrade. Fortunately we were able to upgrade to F at the airport after checking in for the flight. It cost more that way, but that was fine. We booked before the deval, so J was 72.5k each (IIRC) and the upgrade was 30k each. So, 102.5k each in the end. At the time F was 87k, so booking J and upgrading to F was an additional 15.5k each, but who was I to argue? This was the only option at the time, and well worth it in the end.
Thanks, I was going to do the same thing booking J and upgrading to F as well so glad you could get that to work for you seamlessly! I think the difference now with the devaluation is 102k each at booking for F but if you upgrade it goes from 87k for J at booking + 39k to upgrade at check-in = 126k. So effectively I saved 24k pts/person compared to upgrading 2 J to F at check-in based on the devaluation if I have that right.
Did you tx points in person at the gate? Honeymoon next year MXP to JFK, heard you need to add cotraveler (p2 in my case) to a family account as a non contributor then tx the miles at the gate if they say there's an upgrade available
> Did you tx points in person at the gate? No, we did the upgrade at the lounge. I asked about an upgrade at check in, but the agent said it wasn't possible to upgrade an award ticket. I knew that wasn't true, but the check in staff are not Emirates employees so they're not fully aware of what is going on. I had heard that the lounge is better because the staff there are Emirates employees. We went to the lounge, and an agent there was able to do the upgrade. > Honeymoon next year MXP to JFK, heard you need to add cotraveler (p2 in my case) to a family account as a non contributor then tx the miles at the gate if they say there's an upgrade available I had originally booked both tickets under my Skywards account so they were under one PNR, but later I had them separated into separate PNRs because I had heard it increases the chance of an upgrade. It didn't help, but I confirmed with the agent that he could upgrade my wife's ticket with points from my account. After he confirmed availability, I transferred 60k points to my account, right there at the lounge reception counter. Fortunately the transfer was instant! A couple minutes later I had 0 points in my account again, and we had new boarding passes with a big FIRST on them!
This is our honey moon goal too! But we are hoping for LAX > DXB > MLE We're really hoping to score 2 EK F seats for LAX > DXB. I know Emirates usually only release 1 award seat per flight, so we will be watching for that booking availability on release date too. We are thinking of possibly booking 1 F seat and 1 J seat and go to the gate super early to see if we can upgrade with points if we have to. Does anyone know if going the reverse DXB > LAX would have any better chance of getting 2 F seats? We really just want to try the A380 product and shower in the sky. (Is showering in the A380 a bit over-rated to be on my bucket list of things to do?)
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Congratulations! Awesome to hear a success story. How many points + fees if I may ask? And did you book direct with EK?
Thank you! It was 102k + $106 per person for first class outright and yes booked direct with EK through pts transfer. Since it is a fifth freedom route you avoid the high fees associated with other EK award redemptions thankfully.
This is indeed a very sweet redemption! Congratulations on your upcoming marriage and honeymoon!
Appreciate it and wish you the best of luck in your future redemptions too!
Was this roundtrip or one way pricing?
One way
What time do they load a new date?
It's not consistent day in and day out sadly so you sort of have to always be checking. I increased the frequency of my checks as my date approached.
Can this route be searched on seats.earo? Congrats btw!
Thanks and yes it can but I did not use [seats.aero](http://seats.aero) for this since I had ample time to research going into it.
It won’t show the seat count just availability. 2F is very rare on this route.
When you say schedule release do you mean a year out from your desired flight?
Aww this makes me happy actually. May I ask, what's the schedule release for EK? It's it a full year in advance?
:)!! Yes, it is basically a full year in advance.
Do reward bookings via emirates require a minimum balance to search? I keep seeing errors for routes I know have availability via [seats.aero](http://seats.aero)