Skywards review: Cheat you of your collected air miles 22

Beware of Transferring your miles!
Recently I received an e-mail from skywards stating that my miles are expiring soon, but I can transfer it to someone I love.
I transfered 21000 miles and my credit card was charged nearly $700. I later learned to my dismay that the miles are not worth the money I paid.
I would have rather gifted the cash to my wife rather than gifting the miles. I honestly believe it is an unfair practice to keep you bound to Emirates. I learned it the hard way.
If your miles are expiring please let it expire. Please do not transfer. It is absolutely of no use.

P.Benjamin.

I have been traveling with Emirates since 1989 when Emirates did not have their own aircrafts as yet. I have to say that lately, with all the changes they made, the take over of new Senior Managemnt (tim clark) it is not worth flying Emirates any more. I give the airline more than 100, 000 miles per annum and USED to try and change flights from Star alliance to Emirates where I can. Recently, i had a huge fight in a particular airport because they could not wave 2 kg of excess luggage which they charged 94$. i was travelling BUSINESS CLASS and with so many years of GOLD MEMBERSHIP and still the station supervisor was not able to wave the mere 2 kg of excess luggage. The argument is that 'these are the new rules of Emirates and there is nothing we can do' - practically take it or leave it. It is not about the money - it is about the 'PRINCIPLE'. Emirates used to put the customer FIRST and unfortunately greed is creeping in and now the $$$$ is more important. No choice but to go back to Star Alliance.

Recent Exchange with Emirates management over the recent reduction in value of 75% of the majority of its members Skywards Miles

Dear Sir Ref Skywards Response:

Dear Sir Tim Clark

I have after considerable distress and numerous emails (still awaiting two replies from Paul Holland) have received a reply from Sharon Hurdiss agreeing to reimburse my personal expenses. This should have been accepted without question on the first time of asking having been agreed by 3 crew members on the ground.

I am still however very unhappy about the whole situation as this was not the only issue.

I would like you to justify why my & my wife's Skywards miles accrued over the past 7 years have been devalued 75% this year.

The last time we upgraded to business class it cost us 32, 500 Skywards Miles each. When I inquired for the flight back on Friday the 15th it was 57, 000 Skywards miles each an increase of over 75%.

This disgraceful devaluation has been imposed at a time when the fuel costs for the Journey to Emirates has fallen by more than 35%. None of these savings have been passed on to customers.

I fully understand that your business needs to make a profit and Emirates results showing an increase of 43% up on last year demonstrates how successful you have been, however screwing your loyal customer base at this time by slashing the value of their hard earned loyalty by over 75% is utterly reprehensible.

Hopefully you can justify why you have done this as I really would like to know.

Kind regards

Alwyn Owens EK233734001

I have no idea if you sir if you are aware of the discriminatory and blatantly unfair treatment of the vast majority of your Skywards members implemented in February this year.

I have copied you in on my recent exchanges.

Hello Mr Owens,

Thank you for expressing your views on the new Emirates Fare Brands that have been introduced.

Effective 12 February 2015, Emirates now offers four distinct fare brand products: Special, Saver, Flex and Flex Plus. These fare brands have been designed to offer transparency and clarity on the exact benefits of each fare as well as offer you more choices to fit your travel needs. Each fare type have different earning levels, the higher the fare brand you purchase, the more Miles you earn and lesser miles will be required for a reward upgrade. A Flex or Flex Plus fare will always allow you to earn more Skywards Miles and Tier miles. A Flex Plus fare ticket will also allow you changes and cancellations at no cost.

We acknowledge that changes do affect members differently and that some may find the new fare brands less favourable. The change however does bring more transparency to you as a consumer so you can take advantage of maximum number of Miles, the best price or the greatest flexibility for your upcoming trips.

For more information regarding Emirates Fare Brands, we invite you to review the FAQ's available online at emirates.com.

We appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us.

Regards,

Janet Atichi
Skywards Member Services

Dear Janet

Typical of the cynical responses received on other matters that demonstrate a complete disregard for your customers.

Please would you justify to us what makes it fair that Skymiles we have accrued over many years are suddenly worth more than 75% less?

Your reply suggests that 'Transparency' gives you the right to mug people in broad daylight. The fact is you have devalued them by more than 75% that is very transparent and discriminatory.

I find this an unacceptable and disgraceful response. Any decent company would have compensated the 'some may find the new fare brands less favourable' your weasel words victims of the arbitrary changes.

Also you have not addressed the fact that you have not reduced your fares when fuel prices are 35% lower than they were. I have paid dearly for many flight changes in the past £75.00 a time now over £100.00. Where was that factored in may I ask?

Kind regards

Alwyn Owens

Skywards is terrible,
Most of above complaints were written before the latest change in how many tier miles you can get travelling emirates.
I guess this change is effective starting 2015.

Previously, you travel dubai to europe and you get 6000 tier miles for a return ticket for economy flex fare. Now you need a flex PLUS fare to get the same number of tier miles. If you talk about economy saver, then the the tier miles are reduced by 30% and the same for skywards miles.

Useless. I really wont fly emirates for purpose of getting skywards rewards. Only if they offer me better deal for the same flight compared to others. No way i will invest in emirates for their cards etc.

I am having trouble with Emirates about a damaged case and sent e mail to dubai but no reply so i sent it again customer service no reply i am a silver member always fly business class there service stinks

I recently changed my mbna visa and amex cards ( Emirates skywards ) to the 'elite ' skywards accounts visa and amex.
Unbeknown to me a different account was opened for the new cards and a new skywards number given, but no notice or card issued and not able to access the new account online on my existing email address.
In spite of speaking to MBNA and Skywards offices they seem to be having problems merging the skywards accounts.
Has anyone else had this problem.
Any advise would be appreciated.

I am trying to get upgrades from economy to business flying DXB to SYD in April 2015. My travel agent rang the call centre and was told that there is not 1 seat on any flight in the month of March and April available for upgrade. What is the point of accumulating miles when you can't spend them. I understand that we could just buy economy and 'hope' that business class upgrades become available and I would understand the lack of seats if we were travelling earlier than what we are but 10months out and no seats- Come On Emirates you can do better than that

Emirates is inconsistent in its upgrade policy - I am a business woman with a gold emirates card and my husband has a silver card. In the last 10 trips he has made, he was upgraded every time! as opposed to the 2 times I was upgraded in the last 10 trips! I suspect there is a secret list kept by Emirates and certain names are upgraded regardless of the colour of your card.

I am a silver memeber of skywards and have been collectiing miles since 2003 almost 10 years now, out of those 10 years I have only managed to get 2 flights with the miles I have had . trying to get an upgrade with miles is impossible, I thought i had a chance this time as I booked emirates flights . I enquired about the upgrade and had good availability on three of the four sectors, even the emirates call agent was surprised . I tried to upgrade 1 segment of our journey and despite having enough miles between three of us all the hurdles began to be put in place, each time i got past them then there seem to be another one, first problem we needed to transfer miles from one account to another so we could use the miles to upgrade, as my daughter now a skywards member, not a skysurfer i thought this would be straight forward, infact the answer was no she cant transfer as although she is skywards account holder, because she is not 18 she cannot do it . so I asked if i could upgrade two tickets and pay for the third as i had enough miles for that . the answer to that was no because you must upgrade the whole journey by cash so it could not be done and that was after they told me that and upgrade was not available on the second sector of one leg due to no seats available, so how could i upgrade for both legs ? that left me confused .
I have come to the conclusion that is time to move to a better airline, Having spent 10 years with emirates they boast they are the biggest airline, which i believe they are, they have succeeded here but they are no the same emirates I enjoyed 10 years ago .
just noticed etihad has lost more cheaper fares on offer as well as qatar.

WORST EVER! I SHIFTED LOYALTIES FROM STAR ALLIANCE TO EMIRATES - BIG MISTAKE!
Lufthansa gives me a US return ticket to and fro Bangalore for 80k miles and Emirates used 40k miles from banagalore - dubai! ridiculous!

very bad ...?
[protected]
Booking Reference CMXPXW

@wally - EK doesnt fly PER to AKL or CHC... you need 25k miles to fly SYD, MEL or BNE to either... and seeing that PER is AUS as well, it advises you of this... you would have to fly PER-DXB-AKL... happy travelling

Now Gold members cannot take a guest into the lounge. Also my miles accumulate, and cannot crack it for 2 outwards and return dates that are acceptable for a redemption. Shame on you Emirates

I just returned from my trip and decided to look at my wife’s miles. I found out that she does not earn any miles and I get 20% of her miles. That is a major rip off. It does not make any sense for anyone to lose 80% of their miles. I called customer service and they refused to correct the situation only 2 days after my trip. All I asked was give 80% of the miles to my wife; I would have even taken 50%. This is not fair, now my wife lost 80% of the miles (16, 000). I will never fly Emirates. FYI, they give you generic email address for filing complaints which are customeraffairsny@Emirates.com, sykwardsbom@Emirates.com, and skywardsdxb@Emirates.com. I encourage everyone to send email to them.

I've read the comments above, and I am sorry you gentlemen and ladies had to go through inconvenient situations,
Remember though that life is a journey and you have choices, [censored] happens and you can still choose to let it happen and be in peace, and not be affected and remain calm and centered. can't you?
won't you?

for your own sake not for any body else's, when you are upset and you're "Venting" you are also associating with this stuff, is that the kind of experiences you want in your life?

What kind of experiences do you want?

is it not true that we will find what we look for? you have always done and you will always do.

doesn't it make sense to let that "complaining" slide and take responsibility to guide your own life, and choose what experiences are worthy of your association?

someone might say "but it's hard!" and to that let's consider the answer

"The quality of your life depends on your choices"

if you are looking for a guide, try "the master key system" by "Charles Haanel"

Wish you all well,

Coco

I totally have to agree that the Skywards program of Emirates is a scam! It's just bad, horrible, unbelievable!

Over the past 4 f***** weeks I tried to book a flight with my reward miles as they are expiring at the end of the month. Considering they NEVER answer emails you send them and RARELY give replies to requests you send through the online form I of course had to call. 14 Euro cents a minute plus cellphone fees. I wasted roughly 50 Euros on calls only! And for what?! Nothing! I checked ALL fllights from Japan to anywhere with ALL partner airlines plus Emirtates and ALL dates from today until the end of March and there apparently isn't a single bloody flight available. According to their site I should be able to fly to destinations such as Hawai, Singapore, Shanghai or whatever but in reality there is absolutely NOTHING I can do with the miles! To top it all, when I called the call-centre for the fifht or sixth time the guy I talked to (who was surprisingly friendly for once. usually they are rude as hell. Some even hung up on me cause they found my routes too difficult!)- anyhow- the guy I talked to literarily told me that there ARE NO flightawards on partner airlines! He said they have on or two seats a month on these, basically on a last minute basis. WTF?!?! Furthermore he told me that from Southern germany, which is the area I live in, it's pretty much the same thing with Emirates flights, especially Frankfurt. Next thing he told me was to exchange my skywards miles for gift vouchers. Thats like spending 5000 miles (which is a flight to Africa from Germany) on a voucher worth roughly 10 Euros.

This is so sad, so annoying. Makes me so angry. I will definitely not ever again travel with Emirates. neither would I recommend it to anyone else.

Shame on emirates, I travel on emirates every other month from Dubai to Toronto.They are now not giving my 15 year old a limo to go to the airport for a fully paid business class ticket.I think like your real estate the airline will go down soon.My family has been frequent flyers on emirates for the last 2 years but i think its time for a change.YES WE CAN!

I'm a regular Emirates traveller from Manila to UK. Last year I did over 50, 000 miles and was rewarded a gold card thankyou very much. I felt at the time like Emirates were rewarding me for my loyalty, however that has all changed this year since Skywards reviewed their rewards policy. Here are some statistics (for economy class bookings):

Last year Manila to UK return would earn you 25000 miles (inc FF card bonus) and 15, 400 tier miles.
This year Manila to UK return will earn you 12000 miles (inc FF card bonus) and 6, 000 tier miles

Also last year it would cost 32, 000 miles to upgrade to business class for MNL - DXB. Now it is 42, 500.

In short, if I do the same amount of travel this year then I will not earn enough tier miles to retain a silver or gold card.

Emirates is generally more expensive compared to Etihad, Qatar and KLM out of Manila, however its worth the extra cost due to the benefits of the gold card. Once this runs out at the end of the year however I will have no incentive to continue to book with Emirates.

Myself & my wife travelled with Emirates from Perth to Europe late in 2006 & we earned just under 20, 000 miles each.

I have tried many times to navigate the Skywards web-page (redeem miles) on Mileage calculator etc & every time info. appears on the calculator ite erroneous eg Perth to NZ will 'cost' 120, 000 miles so after ringing them to query this I get nothing but rude, discourteous & abrupt replies from the 'Help staff' claiming I must be doing something wrong...yet I get a letter in the mail the other day offering me a Citi credit card & it states in the marketing that Im really close to a trip to NZ & I only need 25, 000 miles! ...WTF?

Their Skywards site is mis-leading or it has in-built errors
as I've just tried the calculator again & it still says 120, 000!
but nobody wants to know...I no longer fly Emirates simple.

ppl so stupid i dont find any reason on y there are no seats
i have redeem miles on a flight and never had trouble the terms of the rewards as long as seats are avalible if i once i called my travel agent and seat are close for revenue caled skywards and got peak economy ON A CLOSED FLIGHT do u thing other airlines does the same i dought

if u can spend more miles in peak buzz and 1st class do u think other frequent flyer do the same i dought no premier class bookings i am a mmbr of singapore air had hard time redeeming miles for buzz cls

i still beleive skywards is the best

I was told my points had been credited and then when i went to use them there were none on my account. I was told that because the 6month period had elapsed i couldn't get them even tho it was their mistake they have terrible customer service. Air NZ is far better, friendlier and more helpful!

Skyward WAS a good reward program but now it is completely useless. If you try to book a ticket using your miles the airline will refuse to book you arguing that there a no seats for Skyward members available! But at the same time they sell heavily discounted tickets on the same flight/same day! Skyward is not rewarding its Members but penalizing them. Being a frequent flyer on Emirates, and former Gold Member, I will now look to fly with airlines giving "REAL" rewards to its members and not making booking and traveling with miles a hassle. Sorry Emirates but we have many airline option, for myself and my entire staff!