Thrifty Traveler Premium is reporting good availability on Emirates for non-stop business class on their fifth freedom route between Newark to Athens. This is one of the best deals for business class travel to Greece at 90,000 Skywards Miles roundtrip.
The Deal
- Non-stop availability from Newark to Athens in Emirates Business for 90,000 Emirates Skywards miles
Availability is good from mid-October – February, including some availability during the holidays. Classic awards seem to be primarily Mon-Thurs departures. Here’s what I found in mid-November when searching for a week-long round trip from EWR to ATH with +/-3 days of flexibility:
Note that Emirates displays the total mileage and taxes cost for the entire trip for all passengers for whom you’ve searched. Taxes for this route aren’t terrible at $219 per RT.
These flights are operated on Emirates’ 777-200lr. There’s a lot of debate as to whether these seats are fully flat or not. They are officially angled lie-flat, however the only part that has any angle is directly under your head, so many people don’t even realize it. The product overall gets great reviews.
You’ll need a a free Emirates account to search for availability, but the ability to book these award flights is made easier by the fact that Emirates is a transfer partner of all the transferable currencies:
- American Express Membership Rewards
- Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Citi ThankYou
- Capital One
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Brex
- Bilt
Most of those transferable currencies transfer instantly, with the exception being Marriott Bonvoy which can take ~3 days.
Quick Thoughts
I love fifth freedom flights and this EWR-ATH leg is something that I’ve always wanted to check out. This is an unusual amount of availability, so I would book ASAP if you’re interested. Emirates is known for suddenly shutting down international availability without any warning.
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So you have flown this and think it is better than Lufthansa Biz?
Tim, is that screencap from the Emirates website, or did you use one of the smart search tools? Really interesting display
Those are both from Emirates site
Yep, Dave’s right.
Meh, we flew JFK-MXP and J product / service were underwhelming. On flight over, wife upgraded with points to F and liked it. On way back (out of MXP) the desk agent screwed up and refused to upgrade us to the 2 F seats we knew were available. I was able to finally talk with a supervisor who confirmed they WERE available, but she just sold them cash about 3-4 minutes ago.
Overall experience was a big letdown
Shoot, sorry to hear that…sounds frustrating!
I could only find 145k rt for jfk-mxp this summer to jan next year. And it say flex reward. I guess its not too bad, but can anyone find saver for 90k?
I’m still seeing quite a bit of availability when I search in October/November, didn’t go beyond that. Are you searching RT?
Looks like the plane we took nonstop from JFK to Dubai. That was 100k. It was lie flat. Best business class I have taken Loved the bar at the back of business class
I’m flying this route in about a month. Good to know that the angled part is under your head. I used my Brex points
and the 2000 point new account bonus Emirates was offering recently.
Awesome, great score! Yeah, the there’s disagreement over whether or not it’s lie-flat should be an indication as to how mild it is.
Awesome. Glad you wrote about this as I was getting worried about it because some people seem to make a big deal out of it. I sleep with my head elevated some anyway so it should be fine
not the best time of year for Greece…
RT only?
You can do one way, but all the dates I saw reprice to 72,000.
Right so I guess not. Is Emirates miles the best way to book this?
Yes
Fifth freedom routes area great, I have the JFK to Milan route booked for this fall. I booked a day before the mileage price went up plus before the taxes increased. I want to try the Singapore JFK to Frankfurt route next year.