Always a fan of flying, Spencer wanted to find ways to upgrade his travel experience. Over the years, Spencer has been a guest speaker on multiple YouTube shows as well as podcasts on maximizing point...
Edited by: Kellie Jez
Kellie’s professional experience has led her to a deep passion for compliance, data reporting, and process improvement. Kellie’s learned the ins and outs of the points and miles world and leads UP’s c...
15 comments
Deanna
June 20, 2018
Hi this is the exact post i was looking for. This is exactly what i want to do and would love some of the stop over options but not sure how to do all of this yet. Have the points scared to mess it up. So anyone who wants to lend a hand it would be appreciated. My husband and I live in Oklahoma (yeah i know one of the worst for flying out of) We are planning on going to Nairobi mid February to the end of Feb for a mission type trip. We have to be in Nairobi from the 17th – 27th. I have no problem with positioning flights out of IAH, LAX or NYC really makes no difference we will have to go somewhere. I REALLY want the Emirates A380 and am willing to get a flight from Dubai to Africa unless someone can figure out a better idea. We can spend extra days on either end to make it work and wouldn’t mind spending a couple of days in Dubai. So any expert flyers with advice on making this a trip of a lifetime? Am I correct after reading the post that we could get roundtrip from Houston for 85000 points? How many from LA or NYC? Hoping for help. Thanks Deanna
JK
October 18, 2022
Depends on which card you are using points. I used AMEX, so you just have to create a skywards account on Emirates and transfer the points from you AMEX to the skywards. It is super easy from you AMEX account. The points show up up with a minute or so. Flying the A380 and the Emirates experience was a big motivation. I was also nervous about transferring the amount of miles then not being able to book. I did a search to book with points just before transferring to make sure there were seats available to booked with points. I live in an area that is only serviced by a small regional airport thus flying to JFK then leaving switching airlines there.
JM
December 17, 2019
I went on JAL website and there is no option JFK to DXB. Is there other way to do it?
Stephen Au
December 19, 2019
Hi JM,
You’ll need to make sure you’re selecting Emirates as the partner airline you’re looking to book on. You’ll need to visit this link which is specific for JAL partners.
https://www.ar.jal.co.jp/arl/en/jmb/award/partner/round.html
Thanks for reading!
OLEG BUDANOV
April 15, 2021
Learned a lot, shared some. Saved myself about 5K. Happy reader right here.
Thank you.
Logan
January 07, 2023
I was looking to book the business class flight from JFK to MXP. However, when I go on the Emirates website, I see the round trip flight for 145,000 miles and not the 90,000 miles mentioned in the article. Am I doing something wrong?
Jarrod West
January 09, 2023
Hi Logan,
You have to find dates where saver award space is available so it is helpful to be as flexible as possible.
Shay
March 19, 2023
Looked through months of dates and don’t see any saver award flights. How long before a flight do they open up the Saver award space?
Paul Smith
February 13, 2023
Does the JAL link no longer work?
Jarrod West
February 14, 2023
Hi Paul,
All of the JAL links seem to be working on my end, which are you referring to?
Nate
April 22, 2023
Hi Jarrod,
Is the JFK to MXP still available on Emirates at the lower miles? When I go on it is much larger mileage/surcharge.
Thanks!
Jarrod West
April 24, 2023
Hi Nate,
The saver pricing for round-trip awards on that route is now 108,000. I recommend using a tool like Seat.Aero to locate dates where saver award space is available.
Marguerite Machen
July 10, 2023
I just spoke with an agent after searching for flights from US cities on the A380, 5 different cities just one leg nonstop to Dubai and they are all over 250K RT for one person and surcharge is always the same from all airports from sfo to jfk its $1,700! What happened? I went last year and it was 180K with about $300+ tax fee. I’m sad because I wanted to fly emirates business class again but this is unreasonable.
Rob
July 25, 2023
I’d love to find any under 500k, let alone the 145k or 90k discussed. What’s the secret or have things drastically changed in the past 6 months?
Jarrod West
July 26, 2023
Hi Rob,
It is best to be as flexible as possible with either the destination you fly to or the date you travel. Emirates Business class award space is known for getting booked very quickly.
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