Over 100 days of Emirates First Class award space available between the US and Europe this Fall/Winter

Emirates First Class is on the bucket list for many folks that are into points miles. It’s one of the blingiest commercial airline seats out there: gold-lined individual suites with closing doors, on-demand “fine” dining, a terrific wine and spirits list, onboard bar and, on the A-380s, the famous in-flight airplane showers. Greg and Nick loved it when they were able to fly it together in 2021:

Today, we came across a ton of Emirates First Class award space on its fifth-freedom routes from Newark (EWR) – Athens (ATH) and New York (JFK) – Milan (MXP). One or both flights has space available on many days in October, November, early-December and January. There’s space in both directions, but as is often the case, there’s more to Europe than back to the US.

Unfortunately, almost every date that I looked at only has one award seat available, so this isn’t a home run. But it’s still much more Emirates First availability than we’re accustomed to seeing.

There’s plenty of business seats on these flights too, so theoretically you could book one seat in first class and one in business if two people were flying. You can also upgrade an Emirates business award to first (if there’s space) for 39,000 miles each way, but in order to do that, the flight has to be booked through Emirates, not one of its partners.

Emirates flies the A-380 between Milan and New York, but uses a 777 between Newark and Athens. They both have the same seats, but if you want the full 36,000-ft shower experience, you have to book the A-380 between JFK and Milan.

The Deal

• Emirates First Class is available between the US and Europe many dates this Fall and Winter.

Using seats.aero’s “explore” feature, the following dates come up:

• JFK – MXP:
  • March – 20, 27, 29
  • August – 4, 5, 19
  • September – 30
  • October – 8, 9, 14-16, 20, 23, 29, 30
  • November – 3, 5, 12, 13, 19, 27
  • December – 2, 3, 7
  • January – 13-29
• MXP – JFK
  • March – 8
  • September – 20, 24
  • November – 7, 9, 11-13, 16, 20, 22, 23
  • December – 7, 10-16
  • January – 27-31

• EWR – ATH:
  • March – 3, 10, 16, 23-25
  • April – 6
  • July – 9, 28
  • September – 1
  • October – 10-12, 14, 18, 21-31
  • November – 1-14, 16-21, 23-27, 30
  • December – 1-5, 7-11, 13-18,
  • January – 13-18, 21-31
• ATH-EWR
  • March – 12, 19, 20-30
  • April – 2-6, 24-27
  • July – 10
  • August – 13
  • October – 23, 24, 28, 29
  • November – 1-16, 18-29
  • December – 1-16
  • January – 27-31

How to Book Emirates First

• Emirates Skywards: 102,000 miles + $106
  • Transfer partner of Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase and Citi
• Qantas Frequent Flyer: 107,700 miles + $101
  • Transfer partner of Amex and Capital One
• Air Canada Aeroplan: 200K+ miles (yikes!)
  • Transfer partner of Amex, Bilt, Capital One and Chase

Quick Thoughts

It’s unusual to find this amount of award space for Emirates First, even though most days seem to only have one seat available. For most folks, not having 2+ seats will probably be a non-starter, but solo travelers or folks who don’t mind splitting between business and first will have a lot to choose from.

If you’re interested, it’s probably better to book sooner than later, especially with only one seat available on so many days. It’s bound to get picked over eventually.

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