Book Emirates A380 First Class for 24,000 Qantas Points
The airline's new Dubai to Muscat service is tempting for frequent flyers.
Last week, Emirates announced that it would be using its A380 for services from its home base Dubai to Muscat, Oman's capital city. That flight only lasts for 1 hour and 15 minutes, making it the shortest A380 route operating anywhere in the world.
What's particularly interesting about this is that the Emirates aircraft includes 76 flat-bed Business Class seats, and 14 First Class Private Suites. You can book the former for 16,000 Qantas Points one way, or the latter for 24,000 Qantas Points.
I'll admit it, I'm very tempted by the thought of sampling a First Class suite at that price, even if it is only for an hour. Emirates First Class service is very highly regarded, but reward seats are generally really scarce. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case on the Dubai-Muscat route, with seats available on several dates I checked for later in this year.
You can choose from two paired services up until October (when the timetable will be tweaked for winter). EK852 departs Dubai at 8:25am, arriving at 9:40am, with the returning EK863 leaving at 11:15am and landing in Dubai at 12:25pm. EK864 leaves Dubai at 4:10pm and lands at 5:25pm, with EK865 leaving Muscat at 7:05pm and landed at 8:15pm.
Of these two options, the afternoon EK864 service pairs neatly with the incoming EK415 service from Sydney, which departs at 6am in the morning. That said, I'm contemplating it as a diversion on a return leg from Europe, which puts both flights in play.
At 24,000 points, this seems like a possibility I can explore without losing track of my key 2019 goal of saving 240,000 points this year. I'm already booked for one of the current shortest A380 flights, Emirates' Sydney to Christchurch service, a little later this year. Unfortunately, that one's in economy. Can't win 'em all!
Angus Kidman's Findings column looks at new developments and research that help you save money, make wise decisions and enjoy your life more. It appears regularly on Finder.
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Picture: Emirates
