Hi,
Pointhacks just published a post about flights from Sydney to Christchurch First Class reward seats.
He went with his partner. When I search 2x people I can’t find any tickets, only when I search 1 person. Or do I have to do it in 2 separate accounts and book them.
Looking for tickets from January onwards 2024.
Hi @drubi99,
It does look like there are only single seat reward flights available on this route from January - July 2024. As you mention, in the article (Emirates First Class to Christchurch for under $200 - Point Hacks) it shows how to book this reward in the full length video @ 3:02mins, so if you can’t find anything it’s fair to say that people are jumping on it already.
Usually there are only 2 x 1st class reward seats released per Emirates flight in my experience but I have a feeling on very popular routes it can sometimes only be 1. Why “give it away for free” when you have have someone pony up the cash instead!?
But… all is not lost… a “trick” I have used is to book 2 x business class reward seats and then in the 2 weeks leading up to my flight departure I start checking the same flights every day for any newly released 1st class reward seats. Emirates does this quite a bit, where they will release a couple of reward seats if the flight is relatively empty (in 1st class). I will then purchase the rewards seats and cancel my business class seats (only after the new ticket has been issued). Of course, you need to have a slush fund of points to be able to do this, and it will cost you 6,000 points per person to cancel your business class itinerary, but you’ll get all your fees and taxes and points back from the original flights. Personally I’m willing to pay the small points hit to get the upgrade to 1st class. If it doesn’t work out and no 1st class seats open up, you will still have a lovely experience in Business class - and you have the itinerary you require to meet your travel needs.
I have just returned from a bucket list trip to Dubai, UK and Maldives this month with my wife where I did exactly this. Out of 8 flights booked with points all in business class on Emirates & British Airways, I managed to upgrade 5 sectors (KUL - DXB, FRA - DXB, DXB - Male, Male - DXB and DXB - KUL) to 1st class (both A380 & 777). All up I paid 940,000 points and AUD$7,674.20 for this glorious experience.
I did spend many hours hunting and searching and checking and re-checking flights and seat availability but it was well worth it in the end. As more and more people are flying and using their banked points from 2+yrs of COVID lockdown, it’s getting harder and harder to do, but it is possible with persistence and a lot of lateral thinking.
Best of luck!
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