Lorna at Vicenza

I've got to spend OH's Emirates air miles in the next 48 hours or he will lose them.

Shall I
a) book us a no kids, long weekend in Dubai and meet up with you lot for drinks and your witty banter?

b) book tickets for the kids and myself to fly back to the UK in June when they finish school and OH is still working?

c) flog the miles to a mate who wants to visit his son in Australia giving him a massive discount, but making enough money on his ticket to fly myself and the kids back to the UK anyway with some extra spending money.

There's shit all worth buying in the Emirates catalogue so that's not on the list.

mikewot

c

mentalist

Option C as it's a no brainer

britexpat76

C

Miss Anne Thrope

I'd check and see what's available first. You might find it very hard to redeem the miles for any flights worth having, certainly at short notice. Among the "enhancements" to Skywards that Emirates introduced last year is significantly reduced availability of seats and upgrades unless you spend double the amount of miles and even then very hard to redeem on busy routes (which is most of them)...

I definitely agree with avoiding the Emirates catalogue. A friend had miles and cash (to cover delivery) deducted for a small item. Neither was a very large amount but the item never showed up and he could never get any satisfaction from Emirates. They have contracted this out to somebody else and characteristically deny any responsibility or knowledge through the usual channels. There is no longer any way to contact the catalogue people other than by email. Absolutely avoid.

By contrast I had a relatively satisfactory experience with Etihad's catalogue (the mileage redemption rate was a bit of a rip-off but I had expiring miles that I didn't want to waste).

Lorna at Vicenza

Emirates began a flight partnership with EasyJet in November last year, presumably for flights in Europe.

I have checked this already and myself and the kids can get return tickets from Venice to Manchester, tax etc, inclusive. I thought I'd have to pay for the suitcase but they deducted another 6.250 miles for this, but it doesn't make me go over OH's miles limit.

Checking out Dubai now, looks like we'd have to pay the taxes on those flights.

Thanks for the tips about the catalogue.

The Dean

YES! Flights taken by 'cashing in' flight miles or points etc are still taxable - this can hit you hard on the so-called discount airlines. I'd say A - come and see us in Dubai.............

kittycat1

Come to Dubai and we can go out on Ladies night

scrubbedexpat141

C

Take the cash money then you can go where you want with whoever you want.

Spugsy

Jesus, we've been using those blue air miles cards for 5 years now, just logged on and I can get LOADS of stuff!

x-box, big SLR cameras, ipad 64gb...or I can exchange them for AED 6,000 worth of sharaf DG vouchers.

Amazing.

Miss Anne Thrope

I guess the AirMiles crew are being buried in the rush since they start to expire from end March. So many of us must have finally logged on and tuned in in the last few weeks. Me, I'm settling for Spinney's vouchers (in a pathetic attempt to get a star from Meow).

scrubbedexpat141

It's only the miles earned prior to March 31st 2010.

Spugsy

Actually I need to start being good with money (after 5 years of sambuca and lovely holidays) so I am also trading my points in for: AEd 1,600 worth of Sharaf DG vouchers and AED 2,000 worth of Spinneys vouchers.

Not bad is it?

Spugsy

Well whatever it is, I've got half a million of the buggers.

Miss Anne Thrope

there you go.....for what it's worth! Welcome to getting (a little bit) older and more responsible! Feels surprisingly good, doesn't it?