Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?.
Discuss Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?, on the Virgin Blue Velocity forum of FrequentFlyer.com.au, the home of frequent flyers.
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Member of: Qantas FF, Velocity, United MP, Northwest WP, Virgin Atlantic FC
Posts: 50
Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?
When I called a few weeks ago to enquire about redeeming points for an Emirates flight (CAI-xDXB-ADD), the agent told me there we now seats available on Emirates. I asked her to look at different dates and different routes, but she simply said "there's no need to -- Emirates has never released a single seat to us. There is no availability on any route on any day".
She promised to enquire for me about how many points it would take in theory, and said she'd have to call me back. A couple weeks later, I haven't heard back.
Have other people had a similar experience? Or was this agent smoking something? It is extremely deceptive to call Emirates a redemption partner if they have in fact never released a single seat!
I'm really hoping the situation is going to change soon, because the ability to burn on EK flights would add a LOT of really useful route options...
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Their mantra is that if any seat is available you can be on it, basically purchasing the seat. I don't see why Emirates would have to release it as the Velocity would be buying the seat?
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Member of: Qantas FF, Velocity, United MP, Northwest WP, Virgin Atlantic FC
Posts: 50
Re: Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?
Quote:
Originally Posted by oz_mark
Their mantra is that if any seat is available you can be on it, basically purchasing the seat. I don't see why Emirates would have to release it as the Velocity would be buying the seat?
When I rang United Mileage Plus to get 4 return Y seats from KUL to Chang Mai [in Thailand] they said they would have to phone Thai airlines to get the seats "released". I was on hold for 5 mins and the chap came back and said that Thai had agreed to release the seats and I would be given 4 tickets. Was quite simple. Can you imagine QF agreeing to a request to release 4 redemption seats together?
Their mantra is that if any seat is available you can be on it, basically purchasing the seat. I don't see why Emirates would have to release it as the Velocity would be buying the seat?
I'm fairly sure that mantra applies to DJ only, not to seats on 'redemption partners' like Emirates, those work the same way as with any other FF system, with a limited inventory.
This is what the Velocity Rewards website says. I think it is clear that they mean that any seat is available.
Quote:
With each of Velocity's International airline partners you can use your Velocity Points to purchase any available seat on any flight - allowing you to go where you want when you want.
If there is a seat available, you can be on it.
See below for the lowest return Economy redemption fares for selected destinations. Other destinations and fares may also be available and the price in Points will vary.
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You're right, it does. I've had a closer look around, if you look at the "Redeeming" page: Velocity> Redeeming - International Flights
It lists the rough points you'll need for each airline on some common routes, but it also lists a separate "Lowest Any Seat" column, which would be the one you'd need if they were out of award inventory. The cost is quite a bit higher.
Member of: Velocity Silver, PC Gold, BD Silver, QF NB
Posts: 404
Re: Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?
Quote:
With each of Velocity's International airline partners you can use your Velocity Points to purchase any available seat on any flight - allowing you to go where you want when you want.
That's blatantly false given that you can't book one-way awards. Maybe that's the problem here.
Member of: Qantas FF, Velocity, United MP, Northwest WP, Virgin Atlantic FC
Posts: 50
Re: Emirates not a TRUE redemption partner?
After numerous calls and weeks of waiting, I've gotten an answer about what's going on with Emirates and Velocity.
For Velocity's partners, they have two classes of awards: "award" and "any seat". The "award" redemption options are priced in a realistic way, and are competitive with other programs. The "any seat" awards are supposedly priced at 1 pt = 1 cent, but the cost they gave me for my flight was almost double what it would actually cost to buy that Emirates flight on the open market. They must be doing something strange like pricing it on Full Y (but likely only giving you a Discount Y ticket). The "award" tickets must be return tickets, "any seat" tickets can be one-way
While Emirates has promised to release "award" seats, they have never released a single seat in the history of the "partnership". So if someone wants to redeem on Emirates, they have to go the "any seat" route, paying a silly number of points.
Hi Nobby, that's not actually correct we do get access to Reward Seats on Emirates and have taken redemption bookings. The issue is that availability is limited and the campaign has been extremely successful.
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