Instant Improvement! Emirates massively slashed award surcharges

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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