Emirates Business Class Awards Devaluation Came Without Warning

Emirates Business Class Awards Devaluation Came Without Warning

In an unannounced move, we’ve seen a devaluation of business class awards on Emirates. Devaluations are around 15% per award, meaning you need 15% more miles for an award redemption than you used to. Here’s a look at the changes, so you can know what’s happening.

Before February 2022

Up until January 31, 2022, some sample Emirates award prices for one-way business class flights were as follows:

• Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Dubai (DXB) – 100,000 miles
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Dubai (DXB) – 113,750 miles
• New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP) – 62,500 miles

New Pricing as of February 1, 2022

Here’s the new pricing on business class awards:

• Washington, D.C. (IAD) to Dubai (DXB) – 115,000 miles
• Los Angeles (LAX) to Dubai (DXB) – 132,500
• New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP) – 72,500 miles

So here’s the difference:

• IAD-DXB
  • From 100K up to 115K
  • 15% increase
• LAX-DXB
  • From 113,750 up to 132,500
  • 16.5% increase
• JFK-MXP
  • From 62,500 up to 72,500
  • 16% increase

When the changes first happened, One Mile At a Time noticed the business class devaluation reflected in “live pricing” before Emirates’ award calculator was updated. Oddly, this devaluation applies only to one-way business class awards with Emirates. Round-trip fares in business class, as well as all tickets in economy and first class, seem unaffected.

The outbound flight from JFK to MXP prices at the new cost of 72,500 miles. The return flight adds only an extra 45,000 miles. The total cost is 117,500, meaning that round-trip awards now offer a much better “per flight” price than one-way awards.

Booking a one-way business class award with Emirates in this scenario costs ~62% of the price of a round-trip booking–showing that the devaluation seems to affect only one-way awards.

And unfortunately, Emirates has made it more difficult to look for other options over the past year, when they ended partnerships with Alaska Airlines and cut access to first class awards via numerous programs. Thus, if you want to fly in business or first with Emirates, it’s increasingly difficult to get those seats through other programs.

The silver lining is that this seems to affect one type of booking right now, though it could also be a sign of things to come.

Final Thoughts

It’s always bad news when airlines devalue their award programs–especially overnight, without any announcement. However, this seems to match what Emirates has done previously with first-class awards, where the round-trip price is better “per flight” than one-way awards. As of now, pricing on round-trip business, all economy, and all first class awards seem unchanged. However, Emirates made an overnight (and unannounced) devaluation of one-way business class awards–costing about 15% more miles than what you needed before.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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