Redeem Emirates miles (or Amex points) for low-tax JetBlue business class flights to New York

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• David says:

  5 Feb5 February 06:02

  Is it possible to transfer Avios back up to American Express Membership Rewards points?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:40

    No

• BJ says:

  5 Feb5 February 07:57

  This article would benefit from a few sentences to frame it in it in a more meaningful perspective. That is, that the ‘tax’ quoted are akin to essentially fully flexible fares on BA and Virgin and not to any old discounted fare, so if one is happy with the latter they should be paying with cash, not miles. That said the change and cancellation fees for Skywards reservations are also very generous unless things have changed since I last checked. Thus, the comparisons in the article are sound and reasonable. However, there is one problem with the comparison in the real HfP
  world if we are indeed assuming that the starting point to finance these Skywards JetBlue rewards is amex MR. Many HfP readers appear to travel as couples or as a family and for this reason amex companion vouchers are often key to their strategies. Thus, the starting point for them effectively becomes 1 MR: 2 avios instead of 1:1 with Emirates which changes the nature of the comparison substantially for couples or say a family of four with two companion vouchers. For solo travellers the Skywards JetBlue reward remains clearly the more attractive option, but only provided you can live with fewer flight choices and their destination is London area. For those in the regions transfers of MR to say Virgin for a much greater choice of low tax redemptions on Delta to Europe may be equally or even more attractive than a limited number of JetBlue flights to London. Nevertheless, a good article bringing our attention to new opportunities which are always welcome.

  • ChrisC says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:20

    It like also benefit by ceasing to call airline surcharges “taxes”

    • ChrisC says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:20

      Would not like

  • meta says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:24

    Fully flexible fares on BA or Virgin? I would like to know where I can get fully flexible one-way for £640+ per person from JFK to London?

    Personally, my partner and I don’t need to spend out MR points to book 241 tickets. Plenty of other options to earn Avios en masse. MR points (and HSBC points!) we use them to treat ourselves to fly on better airlines in J&F.

    On another note, the other day I wasn’t able to price JetBlue tickets on Emirates as one-way only as return.

    • meta says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:26

      I meant cash, not miles redemption btw for £640+.

    • BJ says:

      5 Feb5 February 10:45

      Sorry for confusion, I clarified my point on flexibility later.

  • BJ says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:35

    And to clarify, I meant that the BA or Virgin redemptions are akin to fully flexible fares. The ‘tax’ or tax and surcharge element quoted for these redemptions are actually much less than the cost paid for fully flexible fares so, despite the frequent grumbling, they are excellent value for what we get. In any case, without them the number of avios required would likely be much higher.

    • meta says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:59

      You pay 50k + £541 in surcharges on JFK-LHR off-peak redemption with BA.That’s £941 (if you value Avios at 0.8) and even if you used 241 then you need to add the cost of obtaining 241 plus an extra £541.

      That’s still at least £1.6k. 2x£541 on surcharges, £400 for 50k Avios and some for 241 voucher.

      vs 64k x 2 Skyrewards + $20 with JetBlue. Saving is therefore more or less £300.

      And another thing is that to get such low surcharges with BA you need to book a return flight from London. Even with the new style vouchers the return JFK- London-JFK is about £2.6k in surcharges albeit this can be reduced if you tag Jersey/Inverness/Europe.

      • BJ says:

        5 Feb5 February 10:42

        Ok fair enough but with avios you get choice of airports, more flights to choose from, ‘free’ domestic connections, a wide body versus narrow body aircraft, and a guaranteed minimum number of award seats released even at peak times. It’s not a done deal unless you just want JFK-LHR and can live with the limitations.

        • meta says:

          5 Feb5 February 10:57

          I think it’s a great option though to combine with 241 voucher so you get 2 trips to US for very low surcharges.

        • HP says:

          5 Feb5 February 11:55

          “Free domestic connections” – do expand on this – are you specifically mentioning Inverness/Jersey flights, or domestic in the US?

        • Rob says:

          5 Feb5 February 12:12

          Avios UK connections are free if connecting to a long haul.

• lumma says:

  5 Feb5 February 08:20

  And the amount of miles/taxes in economy? Or is it business only?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:40

    The chart is linked in the article.

    • meta says:

      5 Feb5 February 10:56

      I think it’s a great option though to combine with 241 voucher so you get 2 trips to US for very low surcharges.

      • meta says:

        5 Feb5 February 10:58

        That was for above as a reply to @BJ. Clicked reply on wrong comment.

• Michael L Wright says:

  5 Feb5 February 08:25

  Moving to a different aspect of this article, if I may, as follows:

  “If you can use ITA Matrix or have ExpertFlyer, you can track down which flights have I-class for sale. ”

  Please would you be so kind as to expand on this as those of us with NEW 241 BA Companion vouchers will benefit greatly by being able to search for “I” class seats on BA. I have downloaded the ExpertFlyer app but I could not find this facility.

  Do you know, please, if Seatspy and Rewardflightfinder are working on systems to enhance their products by being able to search for “I” class fares?

  Many thanks.

  Best wishes

  Michael

  • meta says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:29

    You need to sign up for paid version and search under Flight Availability. The results will display Available classes.

    • meta says:

      5 Feb5 February 08:29

      That’s for Expertflyer.

  • Peter K says:

    5 Feb5 February 08:41

    I don’t know about expert flyer, but search ITA matrix on HfP and it brings up an article on how to use it (2nd article down).

  • JDB says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:16

    The availability of ‘I’ class seats unfortunately doesn’t guarantee that there is ‘new’ voucher availability. There are other unknown factors in the algorithm so people like SeatSpy are going to find it difficult to provide the info.

  • dougzz99 says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:33

    Matrix is quite complex to use to its fullest capability, but very rewarding if you take the time to master enough of the features. Having said this Matrix has been a bit flaky for the last couple of months, whether this is Matrix or the data it searches I’ve no idea.

    • Lady London says:

      5 Feb5 February 12:49

      Basically Google bought it and dumbed it down to make Google Flights.

      Very good thing for consumers that aren’t as knowledgeable as HfP readers tend to be.

      I suspect that the corollary is the core ita product has been sorely neglected? For me the rot started when after the Google purchase they restricted number of airports on any search line to 5 which was bad enough. Then they restricted them to all one country which for me, castrated the product

      • Rob says:

        5 Feb5 February 13:16

        Matrix has just been relaunched and a lot of the old functionality put back.

• BuildBackBetter says:

  5 Feb5 February 08:57

  Missed Marriott Bonvoy transfers to Emirates.

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:38

    Didn’t miss it, but it is slow (my last Marriott airline transfer took a month) so I can’t recommend it easily for a specific redemption. Decent deal if topping up a pile for long term use of course.

    • Louie says:

      6 Feb6 February 22:55

      I think you were unlucky. The relevant thread on FT shows that most transfers take a day or two, a week max (maybe excluding Qatar), though I grant you there have been far fewer reports since the pandemic started.

• Richie says:

  5 Feb5 February 09:01

  What’s the comparison with redeeming EK miles on a daytime EK A380 flight from DXB-LON in PE or higher?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:37

    One way in Business is now 72,500 miles to Dubai I think. There is a big miles saving if you book a return – 125k on most days and could be less out of season.

    • Richie says:

      5 Feb5 February 09:45

      Thanks Rob, interesting stuff.

      • Wally1976 says:

        5 Feb5 February 10:15

        Last time I looked, DXB-LON on Emirates for early next year was 62.5k miles plus about £80 tax (business class). A return LON-DXB-LON could be had for 90k miles plus about £280 on some dates. I’m looking at this for next year, maybe outbound on Finnair then return direct on EK.

        • Rob says:

          5 Feb5 February 10:23

          They just went up – one way business redemptions (and only those) cost 15% more.

        • Wally1976 says:

          5 Feb5 February 10:34

          Rob’s correct, DXB-LON now 72.5k points plus 430 AED in business ☹️. That’s looking at dates in December by the way which is the latest available.

        • Wally1976 says:

          5 Feb5 February 11:07

          For comparison, DXB-LHR on EK one way in first class is 85k miles + 430 AED (about £87) (availability is quite thin on the ground though) and in economy it’s 38750 miles + 220 AED. Don’t think EK have PE currently.

        • Rob says:

          5 Feb5 February 12:14

          F is now a bargain compared to J, one way, but availability is tighter.

  • Russ says:

    5 Feb5 February 12:17

    I booked a one-way cash and miles flight yesterday from LGW-DXB. Cost 39,000 Emirate Skyward’s miles.

• Michael L Wright says:

  5 Feb5 February 09:47

  Thanks for your advice; I tried ITA Matrix but I could not find the I fares; perhaps I need to do more homework on it. I will try the paid version of Expertflyer. However, this post concerns me: –
  The availability of ‘I’ class seats unfortunately doesn’t guarantee that there is ‘new’ voucher availability. There are other unknown factors in the algorithm so people like SeatSpy are going to find it difficult to provide the info.

  My recollection is that BA initially said that if there were “I” class tickets available then NEW 241 Companion vouchers could be used to book them. So, is this BA back-peddling or a BA IT glitch? Thanks, Michael

  • dougzz99 says:

    5 Feb5 February 09:53

    At a basic level in the advanced option put “f bc=i” not the quotes just the stuff inbetween them.
    My memory of this is that the additional voucher seats come from I class, but agree there’s more to it as I availability doesn’t guarantee vaoucher seats.

• Michael L Wright says:

  5 Feb5 February 10:09

  Thanks. Presumably if one nominates a NEW voucher on the BA website it will automatically open up such “I” class availability as has been made available when searching Avios flights?

  • Rob says:

    5 Feb5 February 10:23

    Yes

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