Earlier, I published a quick deal — Crazy promo: RT First Class on Emirates, Korean or others for $800 or less . Well, it turns out it is not as great as it seemed. Unfortunately, the resource I used to look up mileage rates appears to have been completely inaccurate. Not only can you not fly first class for the rates quoted, I’m not even sure you can fly in first class on many partners.
I have updated that earlier post with what appear to be more accurate award redemption rates. For example, the site we used quoted award to the Middle East at the following inaccurate prices:
I later discovered that actual availability (potentially) could be searched at www.smiles.br — however, I couldn’t find first class availability at all on Emirates, though I did show business class availability in the update to the previous quick deal — and it didn’t match what I saw on Alaska Airlines’ site (Gol showed more availability, which seemed unlikely to me). Here are the actual rates for one-way business and first class flights on Etihad:
As you can see, that’s 250,000 miles one-way in business class or 310,000 miles one-way in first class. That’s a far cry from the rates shown above.
Furthermore, it’s only for Brazilian residents
Stuck in the terms (which I had open in Portuguese), I also missed the fact that is says you must be a Brazilian citizen living in Brazil to take advantage of the hotel promotion. I’m not sure whether or not that will be enforced. If it isn’t, the number of miles being awarded on some stays could be well worth it (a reader commented earlier about having found a $1,000 hotel stay that awarded 300,000 miles). However, there is a lot of risk involved. This one just isn’t worth the risk to me.
Apologies
My apologies for this one — I certainly didn’t intend to lead you astray. In my hurry to get the deal out to you, I missed a key term and the Smiles website for looking up mileage rates. Some may still take the risk on this one, but I’ll personally be cancelling the reservation I made. Sorry, guys!
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It’s not only for Brazilian residents. That’s been confirmed by Rocketmiles in consultation with Smiles.
@Gary Leff – You seem to be going to a lot of sites to defend this. Is this based on anything other than the one poster Rocketbart, who is a consultant and not from Rocketmiles or Gol? Even if he is speaking from his best information is there no chance that can change? I really do hope you’re right, as you are putting it out there so definitively.
My apologies. I missed the “just” in your post “The commenter isn’t just ‘from’ Rocketmiles but a top executive whose staff consulted with Gol Smiles.”
Hopefully nobody reneges, if you could call it that since the practice seems to be different than the T&C.
You actually getting paid for this garbage?
I don’t think you owe your readers and apology. I’d rather you put things out there and let us decide if we want to book it rather than withhold things because there might be some risk. Personally I passed on this promotion because I’m always very wary of things that look too good to be true.
Agreed. I don’t think the apology is necessary but the edits and updates are definitely necessary and appreciated. Especially when other blogs reporting on this “deal” are leaving out the risks and gotchas.