Emirates has been on a tear lately, waging war against the points and miles riff-raff. Over the past few months, it banned kids under 9 from being in first class, changed the rules so you have to be an Emirates elite in order to book a first class points ticket, and reduced its transfer ratios from Capital One, American Express, Citi, and Chase (Chase is completely ending the partnership). Oh, and it dramatically raised the surcharges for awards between the US and Europe.
To no one’s surprise, Emirates is still on the warpath, and there’s a new target: Qantas.
The News
- Qantas has announced several negative changes for Frequent Flyer customers who want to book Emirates first-class with their Qantas points.
- Effective immediately, it’s no longer possible to book a first-class ticket for a child under nine years of age
- Starting 2/18/26, you’ll have to have Qantas Silver Status or above in order to book Emirates first-class
- Starting 3/31/26, Emirates awards will be increasing across the board, with most first-class redemptions going up around 20%
Qantas Award Charts
Here’s the current Qantas award chart for Emirates redemptions:
And here’s the one that will be in effect. starting 3/31/26:
Qantas’ award charts are distance-based, and one of the more popular Emirates routes to fly from the US is the “fifth freedom” flight from New York to Milan, which clocks in at just over 4,000 miles one-way. Currently, a first-class award comes in at 123,100 Qantas points one-way. Come March 31st, that will jump all the way to 147,800 one-way, an increase of ~20%
Quick Thoughts
This really isn’t a surprise to anyone; Emirates has been giving stinkeye to its partners for a while now and definitely seems to want to further prioritize its own elite members over members of other rewards programs.
At this point, you can still book Emirates first class with Air Canada Aeroplan and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, but availability is extremely hard to find. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before we see booking restrictions and price increases within those programs.
It’s also possible to book first class with Emirates Skywards points as well, either by getting a credit card for instant Silver status or by booking a business class award and trying to get a day-of-departure upgrade. Realistically, those are the most viable options if you do want to sample one of Greg the Frequent Miler’s favorite flights of 2025.
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“I suspect it’s only a matter of time before we see booking restrictions and price increases within those programs”
Can AeroPlan price for Emirates F go even higher? it’s about 400k now for JFK-MXP… I doubt they even sell that. It’s pretty absurd already.
Not surprised at all about these developments. I expect other airlines will adopt similar policies. First Class was developed for passengers who had the money to pay for it, it was never created so the masses could enjoy a luxurious flight using points. Their target market was never people who are not rich. All the wannabe influencers tastelessly flaunting their flights using points probably had an impact too by degrading the exclusivity of First Class that the airlines were trying to project. It’s no longer exclusive if any Uber driver or Starbucks barista can fly it using points. Having experienced long First Class flights multiple times I don’t think it is that big of a deal. It’s exciting the first one or two times but then the novelty wears off.