On Our Radar This Month

September 2012
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New Emirates Route Yields Free Business Class Award Space

Emirates will begin Washington, DC-Dubai service starting Sept. 12, charging 145,000 miles for a free Business Class saver award ticket. That’s not bad considering that Emirates current promotional Business Class fares on this route start at $5,700 if you buy your ticket by Sept. 19. After that, the fare increases to $10,500 with a two-week advance purchase— and goes even higher if you don’t make that deadline.

Business Class Mileage Availability on Emirates’ New Route

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Emirates Business Class Seat on Its B777

Why You Don’t Need Emirates Miles

You just need FCF’s highly-recommended Starwood Star-points credit card (see Aug. 2012 issue). You can transfer 120,000 Starpoints in two stages from Starwood and with the 25% bonus you’ll have the 145,000 miles. (The math: First transfer 79,000 points, which with the bonus equals 94,000 miles; then, 24 hours later, transfer 41,000 miles, which yields 51,000.)

[["","<strong>Departure Availability<\/strong>","#colspan#","#colspan#","<strong>Return Availability<\/strong>","#colspan#","#colspan#"],["#rowspan#","<strong>Handful<\/strong>","<strong>Decent<\/strong>","<strong>Go For It<\/strong>","<strong>Handful<\/strong>","<strong>Decent<\/strong>","<strong>Go For It<\/strong>"],["Washington, DC - Dubai","","Nov.","Oct., Jan.","Jan.","","Oct. to Dec., Feb. to April"],["<em><strong><span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Handful:<\/span><\/strong> Award space is available for two people traveling on the same itinerary about 4 to 8 days during the month indicated in the chart (at time of research). Worth pursuing if you're flexible.<\/em>","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#"],["<em><strong><span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Decent:<\/span><\/strong> Award space is available for two people traveling on the same itinerary about 9 to 12 days during the month indicated.<\/em>","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#"],["<em><strong><span style=\"color: #6699cc;\">Go For It:<\/span><\/strong> Award space is available for two people traveling on the same itinerary about 13 days or more during the month indicated.<\/em>","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#","#colspan#"]]