Is Emirates’ Devaluation Really This Absurd?!?

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

Emirates Skywards’ horribly executed devaluation

I wrote about the devaluing of first and business class awards.

• Emirates Skywards didn’t provide any advance notice of these changes
• After the changes started to be made, Emirates emailed me a press statement, but the program still hasn’t informed members of these changes
• Based on the statement from Emirates, this will be a gradual devaluation that lasts for over five weeks, as changes are being made between December 22, 2022, and January 31, 2023
• Initially Emirates didn’t even update its mileage calculator to reflect the new award costs, so members didn’t know whether the pricing changes were a glitch or intentional

One of the most poorly executed airline loyalty program devaluations I have ever seen is a no notice devaluation that lasts for over five weeks.

The devaluation is even worse than I thought

We can only do our own research as to what exactly is changing with the pricing since it isn't transparent. I reported how it seemed like Emirates was increasing award prices by 20%, since that was the increase in first and business class award costs for the markets where I saw them change.

Even though the new pricing hasn't taken effect, the mileage calculator has been updated to reflect it. I could have never imagined the devaluation would be worse.

New York to Milan and Newark to Athens are some of the fifth freedom flights operated by the airline. The one-way cost is 85,000 miles in first class and 72,500 miles in business class.

What will that pricing be like in the future? A New York to Milan award will cost 168,750 miles in first class. That is the one way cost. The price of an award increased by 99% compared to the previous price.

The award in business class will cost 142,500 miles, which is a 97 percent increase over the previous price. The award option was already discounted earlier this year because it costs more in early 2022.

An award went from costing 45,000 miles to 142,500 miles in less than one year.

You can still get a discount when you fly in business class with the airline. With the new award pricing, it will cost 180,000 miles, which is a 100% increase in miles needed.

Bottom line

The impact of the devaluation being rolled out is terrible. The value of flights from the US to other countries is being destroyed.

The cost of the first class awards has increased by 99%. Business class awards are going up in cost by 97 percent. The awards were already discounted earlier this year as they had cost more than 50,000 miles.

Terrible, terrible, terrible...

Do you think this is a good thing?