One Mile at a Time and The Points Guy have both shared a great discount on Emirates First Class, with fares as low as $3,800 to travel from Toronto to destinations in Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is supposed to be one of the best first class experiences. There is a bar, an on-board shower, and a first class lounge that stretches the length of the entire terminal.
Dates vary, but there’s still a lot of availability. You can use Google Flights to plug some options in and play around. If you want to make it a multi-city itinerary with a stopover in Dubai, I recommend you find dates that work for a round-trip journey first. You can also use the map to explore other destinations, but fares seem to increase a lot if you start somewhere other than Toronto.
I’m not quite sure it’s worth it. I’ve never flown Emirates before because they weren’t going anywhere I wanted to go. But my wife and I have been thinking about a trip to the Maldives or Christchurch. This would be one way to get there. Heck, the Maldives are so far from Seattle it really doesn’t matter which direction we travel. And for each $4,000 ticket we could earn over 60,000 award miles on Alaska Airlines (plus an elite bonus).
It’s just that I’m really skeptical of paying that much for a flight when I could choose instead to redeem miles for an award ticket. As my wife pointed out, you could take the extra money and book a really nice hotel with a much bigger shower, probably one that lets you sit under the hot water for as long as you want. I’d also have to get us over to Toronto in the first place.
If I wanted to go to the Maldives, a first class award on Cathay Pacific from Vancouver via Hong Kong seems simpler.
So what’s your take? Is it worth spending so much on a first class ticket? Even though it’s a discount and would earn some miles, it’s still much more than we’d spend if we redeemed miles. And it will detract from other experiences we could spend good money on at our destination.
