Hot Tip: For more information on routing, check out our deep dive into every Emirates’ route to/from the U.S. But those options didn’t jive with us wanting to visit Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, etc….and besides, Alex badly wanted to try lots of first class products! 🙂 In our case, we were “just” flying from DXB > LAX, so the value wasn’t quite as good as if we’d flown further. Japan Airlines uses a distance-based award chart the further you fly, the better the value! For example, you could fly New York > Milan > Dubai > Bangkok > Dubai > New York for 155,000 miles! (See our article to get more info on booking Emirates first class).

Unfortunately, since November 2017, Japan Airlines has added surcharges to these awards of up to $1,716. They only require 100,000 JAL miles per person for this particular route, meaning for 2 people we needed just 200,000 JAL miles. Now, there’s a much cheaper way in miles of flying Emirates first class: by transferring SPG Starpoints to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. There used to be several great value ways to book Emirates first class, such as using Alaska Mileage Plan miles - but now it’s a lot more expensive after their 2016 devaluation.įor example, if you used Alaska miles to book this route (DXB>LAX), it would cost you a whopping 150,000 miles per person one-way! That’s 300,000 total for 2 people…ouch.

Airline: Emirates Aircraft: A380 Flight #: EK215 Route: DXB > LAX Date: OctoDuration: 16hr 15 min Cabin & Layout: First Class, 14 seats, 1-2-1, lie-flat Seats: 2E, 2F Miles Used: 80,000 SPG Points per person (transferred to JAL, total of 200,000 JAL miles) Taxes & Fees Paid: $78.20 USD per person (note: bookings from November 2017 are assessed much higher surcharges, up to $1,716 for first class from the US) Typical Retail Cost: $8,618 USD per person (same route and dates) Typical Economy Cost: ~$500 per person Fun Fact: As of, this flight makes the list of the top 10 longest flights in the world.

Emirates a380 first class