Oh boo hoo, the Emirates first class reward availability restriction is not that bad!

Bloggers, you can cry me a river! Your gnashing of teeth over the changes Emirates have made to their first class reward availability is already old. Looks like another of those loopholes has been closed and probably with good reason.

Snagging a first class seat with points is always good fun. I’ve done it several times, taking a British Airways Boeing 777 to Washington and taking their Airbus A380 back. Most recently I did it on Qatar Airways, taking their Airbus A380 from Doha to Sydney and doing the same to return. What’s not to like?

What happened to Emirates first class reward availability?

For those that haven’t heard, Emirates have restricted their first class reward availability. This means fewer people can access those seats with points. Other airlines do the same, such as Air France with their snooty La Première. In fact, many airlines do it by stealth. You need to be extremely lucky to be able to snag a reward seat up front on Qantas for example, yet it’s “not restricted”.

Emirates Skywards members need to have status to be able to use points for first class now. Affiliated frequent flyer programmes are also on the no list, apart from Qantas Frequent Flyer and Air Canada Aeroplan, where anyone can still snag the seats.

Why does anyone care?

This is actually a very good thing for members of the Emirates frequent flyer programme. It means the good seats are no longer available to anyone who has applied to be a member of the programme. After all, it’s not like you need to jump through any hoops to join.

It’s actually a benefit for those people who have earned status by flying (or through the co-branded credit card, but the less said about that the better!). That means the most loyal flyers will have better access to the best seats. A win, in my book… if I were a member of Emirates Skywards!

Overall Thoughts

The shock and horror seems to be confined to people who game the system. A person with 45 frequent flyer cards and 58 credit cards who transfers points around solely to save money is, quite understandably, not going to be happy with this. They are also far from what I would call a loyal frequent flyer.

For actual Emirates frequent flyers, this is a positive step in keeping the first class reward availability to a smaller pool of people. That means more opportunities to redeem hard earned miles for the good seats.

What do you think of this change at the Dubai based carrier? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or queries, please leave them below.

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Featured image via Emirates.
Food pic by Shahram Sharifi on Airliners.net via Wikimedia Commons.
Seat image by Lefterismakris2007 via Wikimedia Commons.