Emirates Cracks Down: No Young Kids Allowed in First Class When Booking with Miles—What This Means for Families Flying High

If you’re a parent who’s spent countless nights dreaming of sweeping your little ones into Emirates’ plush first-class cabins using Skywards miles, brace yourself — it looks like those dreams might need a serious makeover. Imagine being told your kids, especially the pint-sized passengers aged eight and under, aren’t allowed to savor that luxurious spread of caviar and endless champagne on award tickets. Emirates, in a move as subtle as a sudden mid-flight turbulence, has slipped in a new policy banning young children from booking first-class seats or upgrades with Skywards miles. This comes on the heels of recent tightening measures that already limit these coveted seats to elite members only — not exactly the welcome mat you’d expect for loyal families aiming to travel in style. Adding insult to injury, earning those precious miles via popular credit card programs is becoming as tricky as finding a needle in a haystack; Chase is cutting ties as a transfer partner soon, with Citi and Amex dialing back their transfer ratios too. So, if you figured that your next family adventure would involve champagne toasts at 35,000 feet, you might want to rethink your contraption — because Emirates is making first-class feel just a bit less like a family affair. Curious about the finer details and what this means for your travel plans? LEARN MORE

If you’re a parent with young children who’s been eyeing a first-class award redemption for your family using Emirates Skywards miles, it’s time to rethink your plans.

Emirates has quietly added a new family-unfriendly policy banning children ages 8 and younger from booking first-class seats with Emirates Skywards miles or using miles to upgrade from business class to first class, as first reported by One Mile at a Time.

With this change, Emirates further tightens access to its first-class award redemptions. In May, Emirates began limiting Skywards bookings of first-class award seats to members with elite status.

Earning Skywards miles via credit card programs has also been getting more difficult. Chase is dropping Emirates as a transfer partner next month, Citi recently reduced the transfer ratio for Emirates and American Express will reduce its transfer ratio soon, too.

Here are the details on the latest Emirates policy update.

Emirates updates its Skywards program rules

The terms and conditions of the Skywards program have been updated to read: “Please note that passengers aged 8 years old and below are ineligible for First Class Emirates Classic Rewards and Upgrade Rewards.” This change was added in mid-August, according to the report from One Mile at a Time.

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As of now, the policy only applies to award redemptions, not paid fare bookings.

It’s also unclear whether the no-young-children policy also applies to partner bookings via Air Canada Aeroplan or Qantas Frequent Flyer, where you can currently still book Emirates first class without status. Keep in mind that Aeroplan has dynamic pricing for Emirates redemptions, and Qantas increased its award rates Aug. 5.

Bottom line

Emirates continues to limit access to first-class award redemptions, first by adding a requirement for elite status and now by restricting children ages 8 and under from booking or upgrading with Skywards miles.

While it’s true that young children can be disruptive or a nuisance to other travelers and that passengers who book first class expect a quieter and more comfortable experience, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to only ban kids from award redemptions. Do the children from families who pay the full cash fare behave better? I think plenty of people would say children will be children, no matter how their flight was booked.

It’s already often hard for families to even find multiple award seats, and this new restriction goes one step further in making award travel even more difficult for families who want to fly in comfort and luxury.

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