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One Mile at a Time just discovered that Emirates has slashed their egregious award surcharges ( often in excess of $500 each way ) and set a new precedent for the industry. In fact, with these changes, it’ll completely change how I’ll look at flying to many locations around the world since Emirates has such an extensive route network. In the past, I’ve hemmed and hawed at flying Emirates using their own miles because the fees were just ridiculous. It took a really special reason to do it. If you’re unfamiliar, Emirates own loyalty program has long been one of the worst ways to actually fly on Emirates because of these insane surcharges, and programs like Alaska and Japan Airlines ( until recently ) were heavily favored because of their advantageous pricing. That’s no longer the case per se.
Fuel prices are at some of the lowest they’ve been in ages, demand is horrible, and the fact that these fees are still assessed proves they’re simply fuel charges in name only. British Airways…take notice. You could gain a ton of brand improvement by cutting these fees as you’re ramping up demand.
Emirates First isn’t fun at all…
Here’s how I will go about searching for Emirates space…On Alaska first/maybe Qantas
You can easily use the calendar function on Alaska…Qantas is another good option to search broad space. Here’s a look at how it would appear.
Why I’ll look to book now with Emirates vs Alaska – check these new surcharges. As low as $40
Emirates Skywards are some of the easiest points to accrue since they are partners of Amex, Chase, Citi, Cap1, and Marriott. That means I can earn these points far faster than I can Alaska miles, plus Alaska has limitations on the routes I can select.
Here’s a few examples of Emirates lower surcharges
London to and from Dubai…much cheaper from Dubai now
If you’d want to see what you’d fly from Newark to Athens
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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