How To Spend 17+ Hours In Emirates First Class For Just 80,000 Points Round Trip…

Tricks aren’t just for kids. In fact, some tricks will give you joys you haven’t experienced since being a kid. If going from a first class lounge, to a fully enclosed suite-complete with a door to shut out the world, onto fine dining and, followed by a shower, all while relaxing blissfully on an airplane sounds about right, this is the trick for you.  You could spend half a million miles to do this using some points, or you could spend a mere 80,000 points and live the dream.

First, A Sales Pitch For Emirates First Class…

It All Starts With SPG Points. Yes Hotel Points, Not Airline Miles…

The key to all this magic and points saving is to unlock programs which make it harder to earn miles, and therefore require less miles for cool flights. Currently, the Japan Airlines Mileage Bank might just be the most shining example. There are basically two ways to break into the “mileage bank”: fly around the world on paid first class tickets, or collect Starwood (SPG) hotel points.

SPG Points Can Be Created Via Points Purchase, Their Credit Card, Hotel Stays, Uber Rides And More…

SPG has a credit card which instantly gets you almost half way to 80,000 points (after spending). They also currently have a major sale on their points, where you can purchase up to 30,000 points for just $686 (note, your SPG account must be open for 10 days before purchase). You can also grab SPG points for every SPG hotel stay, every Uber ride and promotions with airlines like Delta.

You Can Transfer SPG Points Into Japan Airlines Mileage Bank Miles…

SPG points can be transferred into Japan Airlines Mileage Bank miles at a 1:1 ratio. As a bonus, for every 20,000 you transfer, you get 5,000 bonus miles. So: 20,000 SPG=25,000 JAL. And yes, that’s for every 20,000 you transfer, so if you transfer 80,000, you’ll get 100,000 Japan Airlines miles.

You Can Use Japan Airlines Miles On Emirates First Class At Incredible Rates…

Japan Airlines uses a distance based chart to calculate how many miles you’ll need for a flight. Translation: it doesn’t matter where in the world you want to go from or to, or how many connections are involved, just how long the flight is-in miles. Using the Japan Airlines chart, you can see that any flights in First Class between 6,000-8,000 miles of total distance only require 100,000 points.

So, What Emirates Flights Are 6,000-8,000 Miles?

New York to Milan is 3,996 one way. London to Dubai is 3,421 one way. Dubai to Bangkok is 3,006 one way. Singapore to Dubai is 3,663 one way. All these flights work equally well in the opposite direction, and all of them would fall into the 6,000-8,000 total miles of distance category for a round trip costing 100,000 Japan Airlines miles, which you’ll make with 80,000 SPG Points. Truly, the options are limitless. If you’re made of points, you can even go much further…

Sold, How Do We Book?

We thought you might ask! First, you should know that transfers from SPG to Japan Airlines can take about a week, so if this is something you absolutely want to do, you’ll need to get those transfers started. You can hold tickets with Japan Airlines, but if your points aren’t in the account when the hold expires, you’ll have to start again to get booked. Once you’ve found seats, you must book these flights over the phone, by calling Japan Airlines at 1(800)JAL-FONE.

And Finding The First Class Availability?

To find seats you can book using Japan Airlines miles, the easiest way is to use Qantas.com. You can see an entire calendar month of space on the route you’d like based on First Class. Don’t pay attention to the (ridiculous) Qantas rates, that’s just a reference for how many points you’re saving by using Japan Airlines. If you want to step up to the big leagues, you can also use AwardNexus, a very powerful (paid) search tool. Either will get you on board, sipping Dom Perignon for free!