Fly Emirates First Class For Under $150

The Emirates A380 First Class suite is — arguably — the single greatest in-air experience available to a paying passenger. Caviar service, an onboard shower spa, private suites with sliding doors, and a chauffeur waiting at both ends of your journey. If you paid cash, you’d be looking at roughly $25,000 one-way.

If you know what you’re doing, you can book the same seat for $150 in taxes plus 102,000 Skywards miles.

The trick is “Fifth Freedom” routes

A Fifth Freedom flight is one operated by an airline between two countries neither of which is the airline’s home. Emirates flies several of these, most famously Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH), and the awards on these routes are bookable with Emirates Skywards miles at the same low fuel-surcharge rates as the rest of the network.

Getting the miles

Don’t bother transferring from US bank programs at base rates — wait for a 30%+ transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards. When the bonus is live, 78,000 Amex points becomes 102,000 Skywards miles.

The hardest part is the patience. Bonuses run 2-3 times per year. Subscribe to our transfer alerts to be notified the moment one goes live.

Search availability

Use the Emirates website directly. Award space on Fifth Freedom routes tends to open up 11 months in advance and again in the last two weeks before departure. Mid-week dates in shoulder seasons have the highest probability of opening.