Booking a flight and then using miles to upgrade is rarely a winning strategy to score a seat up front. But to fly Emirates first class – one of the world’s best and a bucket list item for many travelers – upgrading might just be one of the best and easiest ways to make it happen.
With an onboard shower, a bar at 40,000 feet, and incredible food and service, first class on Emirates has earned its reputation as one of the best ways to fly. But all that luxury can make it hard to book: Even with all the points and miles in the world, finding the award availability can be a tall task – especially for more than one seat.
But Emirates offers a little-known option to upgrade by one cabin using miles … including at the check-in desk on the day of your flight. That means booking a business class ticket from the get-go could be the easiest path if you want to fly first class to Dubai (DXB), over to Europe, or even down to Bogotá (BOG).
That’s exactly what we’ve done – not once but twice. Here’s how it works and why the best way to fly Emirates first class often involves asking to upgrade at the airport.
Read our full review of Emirates First Class flying from Los Angeles (LAX) to Dubai (DXB)!
The Basics of Upgrading to First Class
Emirates allows you to upgrade your ticket by one class of service, assuming space is available in that cabin. And that’s true whether you booked your initial ticket with cash or using miles.
That means if you booked an economy ticket (using cash or miles), you would be able to upgrade it to business class. If you booked a business class ticket, you are eligible to upgrade to first class. That’s pretty rare, especially for award tickets: Few airlines allow you to upgrade with miles if you booked using miles in the first place. Generally, upgrading any ticket using miles is rarely a good deal. But Emirates is the exception.
To be clear, you’ll wind up using more miles to book a business class award and then upgrading to first class than you would by booking a first class award outright. But the upgrade route is often much easier, as it can be tough to find first class award availability.
In addition to booking using Emirates’ own Skywards miles, you can also book Emirates award tickets via Aeroplan. However, these tickets are not eligible for upgrades. You’ll need to book directly through Emirates to have this option.
Once you’re booked, there are two ways to upgrade:
- You can waitlist a business class or first class upgrade in advance – more on this in a bit. But if no more award seats open up (and they often don’t), the request will be denied 48 hours before departure, and your upgrade request will be canceled.
- But on the day of departure, it’s a (possible) free-for-all: So long as there are still seats open in the first class cabin, you can use miles to upgrade at check-in, at the gate, or even after you board the plane!
How Many Miles Does it Cost to Upgrade to First Class?
It depends on the route you are flying – and what kind of fare you purchased. But it’s often reasonable.
Thankfully, Emirates makes it pretty easy to determine with the Emirates miles calculator on their website. Just search for a one-way business class fare on your route and click the option to upgrade.
As you can see, if you search in business class, the upgrade tab will show you the price in miles to upgrade to first class for your specific flight. If you’ve booked a one-way business class fare at the outset, you’ll almost always be charged the “Business Flex Plus” upgrade rate: 39,000 miles, in this instance.
In the example of my flight from Dubai to Frankfurt, booking into first class directly would have cost 102,000 miles. Booking into business class and then later upgrading to first class cost me 126,000 miles: 87,000 miles + the 39,000 miles to upgrade.
While this is, of course, a more expensive way to get into a first-class cabin, there’s a major tradeoff: In my experience, it’s also much easier. And the number of miles it takes to upgrade is far less than what you will find from many other airlines – if they offer it at all.
Here’s a quick list of the upgrade mileage rates for first class after booking a one-way business class award on a few popular routes:
- New York City (JFK) to/from Milan (MXP): 39,000 miles (or 50,700 if you booked a roundtrip saver award for 108,000 miles)
- Newark (EWR) to/from Athens (ATH): 39,000 miles (or 50,700 if you booked a roundtrip saver award for 108,000 miles)
- Miami (MIA) to Bogotá (BOG): 35,000 miles
- New York City (JFK) to/from Dubai (DXB): 70,200 miles
- Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD) to/from Dubai (DXB): 70,200 miles
- Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) to/from Dubai (DXB): 70,200 miles
- Los Angeles (LAX) to/from Dubai (DXB): 81,900 miles
- San Francisco (SFO) to/from Dubai (DXB): 81,900 miles
Flying with an infant in arms under the age of two? Emirates will charge lap children 10% of the cost to upgrade. So, in this example, it would have been an additional 3,900 miles to upgrade an infant ticket. That’s incredibly cheap, especially compared to other airlines, who often charge a percentage of the cash cost for adding a lap child to an award ticket.
Skip the Emirates’ Auto Upgrade Feature
After you book, you’ll have the option to set up your reservation for an auto upgrade by logging into your Emirates account and clicking the “Upgrade with Miles” button. It may not be worth it.
For my Dubai to Frankfurt flight, the airline confirmed that my business class itinerary was eligible for the auto upgrade feature to first class for 30,000 additional miles. However, since there was no first class award space, no upgrades were immediately available.
I transferred another 39,000 points from my American Express Membership Rewards account into my Emirates account. Once those miles were available in my account, I clicked the “Auto upgrade” button to join the waitlist. At this point, you can enter your phone number so that if your auto upgrade clears, you’ll receive a text message informing you of the good news.
But there are some important things to know before you set up an auto upgrade:
- You must have the required mileage in your Emirates account to use the auto upgrade feature. In my case, that means I needed at least 39,000 miles in my account.
- To use the auto-upgrade feature, you must set it up at least 72 hours before departure.
- Auto upgrades will clear (assuming there is award space) between 60 days and 48 hours before your scheduled departure.
- The upgrade request will be automatically canceled if your auto upgrade doesn’t clear at least 48 hours before your flight.
Keep in mind: Open seats in first class are not the same as open award availability. That’s why, despite plenty of open first class seats on our flight, my upgrade never cleared. Everyone in our travel group struck out over multiple trips with Emirates with this auto-upgrade function.
Your mileage may vary, but we found this option wasn’t worth the trouble. That’s especially true since it requires you to have the Emirates miles in your account in order to join the upgrade waitlist. If your upgrade doesn’t clear, you might wind up with thousands of miles stranded in your account.
There’s a better way.
The Best Option: Upgrading at Check-In (or at the Gate)
Emirates also allows you to upgrade to first class on the day of departure. In our experience, it’s a much safer bet.
On three recent flights, our team has had a 100% success rate of upgrading business class tickets into first class at the check-in counter or at the gate. In fact, you can even upgrade your ticket in an Emirates lounge at the entry desk on your day of departure. That’s what our founder and CEO, Jared, did on a recent Emirates flight from New York City (JFK) to Milan, Italy (MXP). That meant he didn’t have to leave the secured area from his inbound flight to go to the ticketing counter and then later re-clear security, saving time.
But in many cases, asking to upgrade is easiest at the check-in desk. That’s what we did last fall when four of us traveled from Washington D.C.-Dulles (IAD) to Dubai (DXB). Two of us were already ticketed in first class while the other two were ticketed in business class – there were only two first class awards seats available at the time we booked.
We made sure to get to the check-in counter at Dulles right when it opened – about three and a half hours before our scheduled departure – to give ourselves the best shot of scoring an upgrade.
The seat map for our flight still showed plenty of open seats in first class: Less than half the 14 first class seats on the Airbus A380 were shown as occupied. I liked our chances.
The two travelers with business class tickets told an agent they’d like to upgrade to first class. The woman at the check-in desk confirmed a few things and told them that it would be possible for 70,200 miles each – the same Business Flex Plus rate listed on the Emirates mileage calculator.
Here’s the real beauty of upgrading the day of: Emirates is a transfer partner with American Express, Capital One, Chase, Citi, and Bilt Rewards … and all those points (generally) transfer instantly. That means you can inquire about an upgrade and then transfer your points on the spot if available. No seats? No need to transfer your points and risk them getting stuck with Emirates.
One of my friends instantly transferred the 70,200 points he needed from American Express, while the other already had those miles in his Emirates account after a failed upgrade attempt on the waitlist. Once the gate agent confirmed the 70,200 miles were in their accounts, she issued the first-class tickets. The entire process took about five minutes.
Our experience in Dubai before flying to Frankfurt was a bit different, yet it ended with the same result: another first-class upgrade.
This time, only two of us were traveling from Dubai (DXB) to Frankfurt (FRA). I was booked in business class while our founder and CEO, Jared, managed to book a first-class award from the outset. This flight was operated on one of the airline’s new Boeing 777 equipped with their Game Changer first class suites, which was good and bad news. On the plus side, I was dying to fly it. On the downside, with just six first class suites onboard, I assumed it might be more difficult to upgrade.
We arrived at the Dubai airport at 6 a.m. for a flight that departed at 8:40 a.m. There were only two passengers ticketed in first class at the time, which left four empty seats. The agent told me it would cost 39,000 miles to upgrade.
But instead of completing an upgrade at check-in, the agent added me to a waitlist. She explained that travelers with Emirates’ Platinum Status – the airline’s top-tier – would be upgraded immediately. Since I had no status with Emirates, I would clear so long as no one purchased a walk-up first class fare or if a passenger with higher status didn’t request the same upgrade. I was told that the upgrade would occur at the gate before boarding.
We got to the gate about 10 minutes prior to the scheduled boarding time, and sure enough, all four of those first-class suites were still open. I stopped at the desk, and the agent confirmed I was on the waitlist, pushing through my upgrade for 39,000 miles.
It may simply be harder to get these day-of upgrades when flying out of Emirates’ Dubai mega hub, which is filled with ultra-frequent flyers with status. But in this case, I made it work again.
Thrifty Tip: For the quintessential first class experience on Emirates, opt for Emirates’ funky fifth freedom route from Milan (MXP) to New York (JFK). The airline flies its signature Airbus A380 on this route between the U.S. and Italy, meaning you can head to the back of the upper deck for a drink at the onboard bar and rinse off in the shower before landing. Plus, unlike the overnight flight to Europe, these flights are scheduled to depart Italy in the afternoon and are slightly longer (8 1/2 hours total), giving you plenty of time to soak it all in.
Bottom Line
Emirates makes it shockingly easy to upgrade an existing flight with Skywards miles. Better yet, it’s a pretty incredible deal when you factor in what you get.
And since Emirates business class award seats are fairly easy to come by, booking one and then later upgrading it to first class can be a great option. Just remember: You can only upgrade one class of service. So, if your end goal is to upgrade to first class, you’ll need to book a business class ticket.
