Sir Tim Clark relents: you can (finally) book Emirates Premium Economy using miles

Emirates’ frequent flyers can finally redeem their hard-earned Skywards Miles for travel in Premium Economy. Until now, the airline’s President Sir Tim Clark had instituted a personal ban on these bookings, as well as on mileage-based upgrades to Premium Economy. But he’s how convinced – and the floodgates are open.

Under this week’s changes, travellers can now:

• Redeem Skywards Miles for reward seats in Emirates Premium Economy.
• Use Skywards Miles to upgrade from Emirates Economy to Premium Economy (and still, from Economy to Business Class).
• Spend Skywards Miles for an upgrade from Premium Economy to Business Class.

Speaking to Point Hacks back in January, Sir Tim acknowledged that “the whole management is on my case. I’m the one that’s stopping it,” referring to reward bookings and upgrades to Premium Economy. “Eventually, we will relent,” and today is that day.

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Emirates reward rates in Premium Economy

Outright reward seats in Emirates Premium Economy start at 15,000 Skywards Miles one-way. Upgrades from Economy to Premium Economy begin at 7,020 Skywards Miles, also one-way. But these rates would apply to the airline’s shortest routes. From Australia, those rates are naturally higher.

Here’s a look at Emirates’ Premium Economy reward rates on its direct routes from Australia.

Emirates’ calculators and booking engine haven’t yet been updated to show the upgrade rates from Economy to Premium Economy. But they do now reflect that these upgrades are possible – and they also indicate during booking if an upgrade would be available once the booking has been ticketed.

In a pleasing move, Emirates isn’t applying its stratospheric Business Class and First Class carrier charges to Premium Economy bookings. Instead, these redemptions mirror the much lower carrier fees applied to Economy Class. This means a one-way Premium Economy seat from Melbourne to Dubai attracts a co-payment of only $348.91 – the same as Economy. On the same route, the co-payment for Business Class is otherwise $1,238.61.

But to compare, the number of Skywards Miles required for Premium Economy is almost triple that of Economy (from 30,000 Miles from Melbourne to Dubai). But it’s just over half of what’s needed for Business Class (152,500 Miles on the same route).

Sir Tim previously remarked that of the Miles needed for Premium Economy, “you’d probably find it’s not far short of the demands we make for redemption in Business.” It’s nice to see that this isn’t quite the case – either in Skywards Miles or in carrier charges.

Why now?

“This has been in development for some time,” shares Dr Nejib Ben Khedher, DSVP of Emirates Skywards. “The offer will initially be available exclusively to our Skywards members,” hints the loyalty boss. In other words, you can’t yet book Emirates Premium Economy reward seats using Qantas Points.

But that might change. Emirates has “plans to extend (this) to other airline partners in the future,” he adds. Emirates had initially held back Premium Economy reward seats so that it could better-analyse its sales data from those paying for a ticket. But, clearly, it was time to shift.

Speaking previously with Point Hacks, Sir Tim says, “I sympathise with our frequent flyers. One of the problems they’ve had with the industry, and not just with Emirates, is redemption. Simply, because the demand for inventory has been so strong post-COVID, that at the moment, we can’t really see any release of that high class pressure (from paying commercial passengers).”

But in recent months, Emirates moved to block First Class reward seat bookings from all Skywards members, except those holding active elite status with the airline. The only advance notice came by way of a minor website update, around 48 hours before the change was to take effect. Now, those without Skywards status can only redeem for Emirates First Class through selected partner airline programs, such as Qantas Frequent Flyer and Air Canada Aeroplan.

The developments in Premium Economy come at a time where Emirates Skywards Miles will soon be much harder to earn in Australia. From 1 October, points transfers from CommBank Awards to Skywards will cease – after also recently shifting from a 4:1 to a 5:1 conversion rate. American Express Membership Rewards will similarly worsen its conversion rate to Skywards from mid-December, shifting from the existing 3:1 rate to 4:1. Once implemented, it’ll be the least favourable airline conversion rate in the Membership Rewards program.

Also read: Emirates President: “I’m the one that’s stopping” points bookings in Premium Economy