Skywards redemptions on Korean Air & JAL

[Mattg]

Some of you will know that I'm not a big fan of the Emirates Skywards program. I think the redemptions are too expensive, fuel surcharges are ridiculous and Emirates makes it way to hard to redeem miles with partner airlines.

But out of interest I had another look at some of Emirates' partner award charts and there seems to be some reasonable value in Korean Air redemptions. This is interesting because - unlike many airlines - KE actually has good business & first class award availability on many routes to/from Australia, Europe and the USA.

As the award chart on the Emirates doesn't actually specify whether rates are one-way or return, I can only assume they are return as the charts for all other airlines are. A couple of routes that caught my eye are Australia-Korea for 105,000 miles in business class and Australia-North America for 165,000 miles return in business. That's actually not bad if you were travelling (say) from Sydney/Brisbane to New York JFK. Especially since KE actually has award availability most of the time!! I believe EK may also allow a free stopover on round-trip award tickets.

Here's the award chart: Korean Air | Our Partners | Emirates Skywards | Emirates

Out of interest, the Japan Airlines award chart also seems pretty reasonable. 85,000 Skywards miles for a return JL booking from Australia to Japan, 125,000 miles to Hawaii (via Tokyo) and 145,000 miles to mainland USA and back in business class. See here: Japan Airlines | Our Partners | Emirates Skywards | Emirates

I realise the process of actually making the redemption is likely to be coughbersome, and there is probably a large YQ payment involved for KE bookings (although JL has low surcharges). But otherwise, this doesn't seem to bad.

Am I missing something? Has anyone actually redeemed Skywards miles for a Korean Air or Japan Airlines flight?

 

[Www]

Any update on how you went with this one? I am more interested in the JAL side of things. JAL booked through Emirates appears to be the best value I can find for Sydney to Japan. An issue is how slow the booking process may be. I am interested in booking for my family in peak season, so would want to be able to jump on fares as soon as they open and not be at risk of having my points in the Emirates system if I am unable to book.

 

[ChrisFlyer]

I've not proceeded to make a full booking but did enquire once with Emirates re: Korean Air bookings, and EK confirmed that the figures on the website are for return flights. Next step when I'm ready to travel would be to find KE space using Expert Flyer, call EK to confirm the airline can access the award flights I want, and then transfer the points across from AMEX and call back to book (perhaps with a Plan B lined up in case the award flights disappear in the meantime).