12 hints, tips, hacks and strats for your next Emirates flight

If you’re travelling with Emirates, you’re already off to a good start. It is, after all, the airline with a metaphorical trophy cabinet the size of Concourse B. But there are still ways to further enhance the mile-high luxury. So with that particular destination dialled in, please ensure your seat is upright, seatbelts are fastened and presumptions are stored in the overhead locker, this itinerary of pro tips, is about to take off. Find the full details on these Emirates tips below the gallery. If you’re a resident of the UAE, it’s highly likely you’ve already signed up to Skywards, the Emirates Frequent Flyer programme. If you haven’t yet done so – it’s completely free to join, so you really have nothing to lose. Through this membership reward scheme, you can rack up Tier Miles and Skyward Miles every time you travel. The Miles can be exchanged for discounts on flights and upgrades, whilst Tier Miles count towards raising your membership band from Blue through to Platinum. Each level comes with its own suite of perks, including advantages such as Emirates Lounge access, priority boarding and enhanced WIFI options. Once you have your Skywards membership, there are some ways you can indulge in a spot of pointsmaxxing. If you’re responsible enough to own and use a credit card (no judgement, but we’re not all quite there yet), it’s worth doing some research on which banks are offering Skywards collaborations that fit you best. Soft reminder to always check the annual fees and joining charges. The Emirates Islamic Skywards Black card, fast tracks your march to Gold Tier, and offers you up to 3.5 Skywards Miles on every dollar spent. Emirates NBD has a number of options, some of which automatically boost you to Silver Tier (which includes Business Class Lounge access) and HSBC’s Emirates Skywards Infinite card also offers some premium points stacking conduits. One final tip for those fantastic pieces of plastic, many premium UAE credit cards (Emirates linked and otherwise) will also give you free access to the Terminal 3’s Marhaba Lounges. You can also buy or multiple Skywards Miles (with a current bonus of up to 6x miles on flights you’ve recently travelled), if there’s a specific reward or redemption you’ve been hankering after. Just log into your Skywards account and navigate to the ‘do more with your Miles’ page. Only mildly more complicated if your name is actually Miles. There are two main factors that effect the price of your airfare – availability and seasonality (three if you count ‘working for the airline’). In peak travel times, such as school holidays, both of these fare variables are working against you, so the best advice is often to book seats as early as you can. Buying during sale windows, which gives you access to discounted fares, is also a great way to secure a bargain but busy dates are often blacked out for travel. Other ways to reduce ticket prices include building in a little flexibility to your schedule, travelling on the shoulders of peak travel times (just before or after the seasonal fare hike), and – little known fact for you – there’s a Hold My Fare feature on the app which will let you hold a price for 24 hours whilst you talk yourself into the holiday we all know you need. Emirates operates a range of aircraft, most of which are variants of the Airbus A380, A350 and the Boeing 777. Each one has different configurations, advantages and designated routes. Between Emirates’ huge cabin retrofit programme and its separate Starlink rollout, individual aircraft can now offer quite different onboard tech. Do your research to find out what’s available for your specific destination and what will work best for you. The A380s famously have the Sky Bar set up in Business Class and the new A350 units have 3-3-3 Economy seating, 13.3-inch 4K screens, USB-C charging, and every seat gets a 60W charging outlet.