After Emirates Skywards hiked its surcharges for rewards bookings a few weeks ago, it was only a matter of time before Qantas would follow suit.
That day has now arrived, and the surcharge on outright award bookings is now obscenely high. Ok, let’s be honest; surcharges on most Qantas redemptions are already very high compared to their competitors. Emirates always took the cake, but now it’s most likely the most expensive way to redeem your points with a 53% to 224% increase in taxes depending on the route.
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Examples Of Increases
I’ve looked at some of my old receipts and compared them to the current prices. This way, we can compare apples to apples before looking for a possible solution to this “problem”.
Example 1: Perth to Amsterdam First Class One Way
Having flown Perth to Europe with Emirates in first class, it previously cost me $632.31 in taxes + points to fly this route. Now we’re seeing that price jump to $973.5 for a one-way flight in either business or first + points.
Of course, don’t forget points cost for these flights increased as well a few years ago.
Example 2: Hong Kong to Amsterdam First Class One Way
Another booking I’ve got data for is the Hong Kong to Europe route, which used to be very cost-effective since surcharges out of Hong Kong used to be much lower.
In 2019 I paid just AU$191.7 for a one-way ticket in first class from Hong Kong to Amsterdam via Dubai. Today, that price has jumped to AU$619, a whopping 224% in taxes alone!
My Theory?
To me, it’s clear that Emirates doesn’t really want partner redemptions on its flights and for its own rewards program, wants to encourage upgrades over outright redemptions. I’ve been looking at different prices and have noticed that the sample routes I looked at favoured upgrades over outright redemptions. Of course, one-way cash fares are never an economical option, so by promoting upgrades, Emirates can actually increase bookings by discouraging one-way trips.
The Solution
Looking at Emirates’s frequent flyer program, you can clearly see some benefits of booking direct. For example, on a route like Perth to Amsterdam, the cost of a flexible return ticket in economy works out to around AU$1897 (return).
This gives you the possibility to instantly upgrade to business for 78,000 Skywards. Once you factor in that the total trip would also earn you 13,576 Skywards miles, the total cost to upgrade from economy to business (return) comes down to 142,424 Skywards miles. If you were to redeem the same ticket outright using points, the price would be $1878 + 224,000 points for business return! That’s a staggering difference of 81,576 points for paying $19 extra. Of course, for first-class redemptions, there’s no way around forking out the huge taxes but I feel it’s more justifiable compared to business. The only option to save a few bucks would be to position to Singapore which would save you around $300 on a one-way trip.
This is all without factoring in the benefits of earning Skywards status from flying revenue fares. As an added benefit, Skywards members get a lot more award space than what’s released to Qantas Frequent Flyer, so that’s something else to keep in mind!
The easiest way to earn Skywards point in Australia is via American Express, which transfers points from Membership Rewards at a 2:1 ratio.
Summing Up
Yes, this is terrible news for Qantas Frequent Flyers, and personally, I will be looking at Skywards to make my next Emirates booking. In fact, my last Emirates booking for this year in July was made with Skywards using the Skywards+ membership to save 20% off my redemption cost; it’s definitely worth looking into if you have more than one person travelling on the same itinerary.
However, this isn’t the end of the world! There are many other interesting airlines and products (some far superior compared to the Emirates bling) worth trying. With products like the new Finnair business suite coming online, it offers frequent flyers a very cost-friendly way to fly in style!
You seem to use the word “taxes” as a synonym for “surcharges.” They are not synonyms. Recommend revision.
I use the word “tax” because I feel it’s more closely associated with revenue-raising. For example, the surcharge on a first-class ticket from Sydney to Amsterdam is US$164.4, the rest isn’t a “surcharge” in my opinion. However, I assume your comment is regarding the correct grammar? This is totally fine (and I do appreciate the feedback) but I have to warn you, as someone who speaks English as a second language my site is FULL of grammar and spelling errors. While I edit my writing, at the end of the day it is what it is.