Qantas Frequent Flyers Will Still Have Access To Emirates First Class
While Emirates will limit access to its own members, Qantas Frequent Flyers will still have full access to Emirates First Class award seats going forward.
This weekend, we all got a fright as Emirates announced it would be restricting access to First Class award space to Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members exclusively.
This made us ask the question: what about Qantas Frequent Flyers? Qantas and Emirates have a long-standing partnership, and naturally everyone was worried the rules would also apply to partners.
Well, we have some good news!
Qantas Frequent Flyers Are Safe
The Qantas media team has just confirmed to Flight Hacks that Qantas Frequent Flyers will not be affected by these changes. A Qantas spokesperson told Flight Hacks that the adjustments apply solely to Emirates’ own Skywards members, and that Qantas Frequent Flyer members will still be able to redeem First Class award seats on Emirates. They noted that Emirates is just one of more than 45 partner airlines in the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme, and that the number of Classic Reward seats offered by partner airlines grew by almost a third over the past year.
This means you can continue to book Emirates First Class award seats using your Qantas Frequent Flyer Points going forward.
Emirates has one of the best First Class products in the sky, and considering they already have sky-high award surcharge fees, it would make no sense to block Qantas from having access to Emirates First Class.
If you want to learn how to book Emirates using your Qantas Points, check out our in-depth guide here.
Update: Emirates Confirms News
Emirates have now also confirmed the news an Emirates spokesperson told Flight Hacks:
“As part of our regular business review, Emirates Skywards has revised the criteria for Classic Rewards. Starting from 12 May, Classic Rewards for First Class will exclusively be available for Platinum, Gold, and Silver Tier members only. This change has been implemented to provide our premium and loyal members with more rewards, exclusive benefits, and greater access to Emirates’ renowned First Class travel experience.
Emirates Skywards Blue Tier members can still redeem Miles for upgrades prior to flight departure (from Business Class to First Class) and use Cash+Miles to save on First Class tickets. Members based in the UAE, KSA, India and US can also sign up and enjoy immediate Silver Tier membership status with the loyalty programme’s cobranded credit cards including Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, SAB, ICICI Bank, Barclays, and HSBC.
Members of airlines which partner with Emirates Skywards are not impacted by this change.
We remain committed to providing our 35 million members worldwide with more opportunities to fast-track Tier status, world-class privileges, and the best loyalty experiences in the air and on-ground.
For more information on earning and spending Skywards Miles and to view the Miles calculator, please visit emirates.com/skywards.”
