- Emirates has recently updated its terms & conditions to restrict certain children from flying first class.
- Passengers aged eight years old and below will now be ineligible for First Class Emirates Classic Rewards and Upgrade Rewards (though full-price fares remain the same).
- The policy was officially implemented on August 15th, 2025.
In a development that’ll likely court controversy, Emirates has quietly unrolled a new hyper-specific restriction for its younger passengers.
Effective from August 15th, 2025, passengers eight years of age and below will no longer be eligible for First Class Emirates Classic Rewards and Upgrade Rewards fares. It is worth noting, however, that first-class tickets booked with cash are still fair game. It’s simply a matter of limiting access to the point end of the plane through miles redemption.
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Currently, the Dubai-based carrier has yet to formally explain its decision. Given the considerable hike in award redemption fees over these past few years, and the reservation of first-class award seats for elite Skywards members, one can only imagine it’s part of a broader strategy to keep its most premium cabin, well… premium.
Scarcity does drive exclusivity, after all.
Emirates’ “soft ban” of kids from first class is also significant in that it represents something of a milestone for airlines across the globe: to our knowledge, no other carrier has ever enforced such a policy for its business or first class products. Though credit where credit’s due – an adults-only, non-premium cabin offering has been piloted by the likes of Corendon Airlines.
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Back in 2023, the lesser-known Turkish operation introduced this on flights between Amsterdam and Curacao. For an extra €45 (standard seat) to €100 (large seat), you were granted access to an “Only Adult” zone located at the front of the route’s Airbus A350-9000, “separated from the rest of the aircraft by means of walls and curtains for a calm and relaxed flight,” according to the official press release.
All up, the child-free part of the cabin includes nine XL seats (with extra legroom) and 93 standard seats. The age limit, however, is 16 and over. Meaning you could still be sharing space with some Zoomer. Although we’d take a snarky teen over an infant with the sustained lung capacity of prime Pavarotti and the legs of Roberto Carlos any day.
Anyone feeling some kind of way about this can forward their concerns to Emirates via the link below.
