Emirates EWR to Athens First Class Upgrade Trip Report
Just flew EWR to ATH & upgraded from J to F at the counter (first time flying F. It was fantastic) and wanted to give a report on some things we learned.
Bought 2 J Tix last Nov for 105K pts/person. Put myself on the upgrade list but never got contacted. Heard that you can upgrade at check in so decided to try. The day before it looked like there were still 4 tickets in F available for purchase (cost: $15K+/ticket) so I thought my chances were good and transferred 60K points to my Emirates account (transfers from Amex are supposed to be instant but can take up to 48 hrs & didn't want to risk not having the points).
At the counter they initially seemed confused by my upgrade request & had to ask colleagues for help. After 5-10 min. They realized that to use my points to pay for my partner's upgrade, I needed to create an account for my partner and link it into my "family" in my account. Luckily this was easily done on our phones (I could add him as Family and send him a request to join), so 5 min later we returned to the counter, but their system didn't register the change. We walked around for 15min & grabbed some food then went back & SUCCESS, two first class tickets!
Other things we learned:
- if you're flying Emirates first class, you get access to the virgin Atlantic lounge which is pretty nice and open late (this isn't listed anywhere online).
- the 777 has paired middle seats in F which are really great if you have a companion. Each seat has doors to the aisle that you can close and a large barrier between the seats that you can lower to elbow height, creating a semi-private suite. The privacy doors & personal space were personally my favorite part of flying F over J
- we walked past business and I get why the reviews for business on this plane are not great. The seats looked significantly smaller than other J seats we've been on and the middle seat seemed extra cramped
- the entire flight experience was great. Fantastic service, on-demand food, alcohol, seats, space, giant touchscreens, etc. I could do without the over the top gold accented design, but we are otherwise ruined for future flights lol
TLDR: Able to upgrade from J to F at the check in counter for 30K pts/person. Needed to have my P2 listed as "family" in my Emirates account in order to pay for their upgrade (there's an option for Partner, don't have to lie and say they're related). Emirates F is fantastic, especially the two middle seats (if you have a companion)
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Posted May 25, 2022, 1:30 AM UTC · edited