Flydubai, UAE’s low-cost carrier, has been treading closer towards the Emirates group. Both the state-owned airlines, after all, are cooperating in many ways, and perhaps will eventually merge. The new update is that FlyDubai will be adopting Emirates Skywards frequent flyer programme next month. On August 1, 2018, Flydubai’s OPEN programme will cease to exist and switch over to Skywards.
FlyDubai adopts Emirates Airline’s Skywards Programme
If you already have an account with Flydubai’s OPEN reward programme and have accumulated points on it, you will not be able to transfer them to Skywards at all. Instead, you’re being asked to redeem the points before July 31, 2018, or have your unredeemed points converted to a Flydubai voucher. Since this merger was announced earlier this month, they’re not leaving people with many options in such a short amount of time.
However, for those OPEN members who have Gold status and more than 4,000 tier points, they will be able to transfer their reward points to their Skywards account.
If you book a flight on Flydubai after August 1, 2018, you will be able to earn Skywards Miles as well as Tier Miles. You will need to supply your Skywards membership number instead of your OPEN number.
Although both government-owned sister companies are run entirely independently, Flydubai and Emirates have been teaming up more and more in the last year with Flydubai offering routes not covered by Emirates, introducing codesharing and now with Flydubai operating Emirates Zagreb, Croatia route for 3-months this winter.
I’ve taken a few Flydubai flights from Dubai to Europe and always had an issue with earning points on it, as I could not transfer the points to any other airline. I was only able to use my OPEN rewards points on Flydubai. This move means that now I can earn and redeem Skywards points on my Flydubai flights. A significant positive in my book.
I have an upcoming work trip to Tanzania in September, and I have the option of choosing between Flydubai and Emirates. Emirates provides me with a Business Class return ticket for approximately $3,400 (12,585 AED) on its Boeing 777 aircraft. This will give me 8,400 Skywards miles + 8,400 tier miles, and whatever tier bonus is applicable, for the angled flat seat
On the other hand, I have the option of a lie-flat Business Class seat on Flydubai’s B737 Max 8 aircraft for approximately $1,600 (5,975 AED). Details are not yet available on what the rewards point earning would look like on a Flydubai flight with Skywards, but using OPEN I could make 11,533 rewards points and 1,424 tier points and transfer it to my Skywards account. I’ll be sure to keep you updated on how this works out for me.
Flydubai’s Business Class seat on its B737 Max 8 aircraft features a 78-inch lie-flat bed.
What do you think about the move? Will you use Flydubai more now that it is linked to Skywards? Let us know in the comments below.
From a price value perspective I would definitely take the fly Dubai option to Tanzania at $1600. For less then half the price, you get a fully flat seat versus the sloping sleeperete on the 777 not to mention a guaranteed window or asile seat. I somehow think that Emirates really needs to update its 777 business class product. It’s simply not competitive!