if I remember rightly you only get the skywards points after you have flown - its so you can't use the points on the flight you were awarded the points for. Does that make sense ?

Hi greenshoes,
I understand what you are looking for, I think.
You are not interested in your Emirates Skywards miles at this time, you just want to choose your seats.

My experience with Emirates (booking through Hayes and Jarvis (TUI) a couple of times and also Mercury Direct) is that you do not tend to get the Emirates “locator code” until ticketing time with them. Which is often just a few weeks before you fly. I’ve just booked Sri Lanka thro Kuoni – again with Emirates – and it seems the same situation.

However a couple of months back I booked Hong Kong through Last Minute.com and was given the locator code immediately on booking (9 weeks before departure) – but obviously payment with them is in full when booking.
So my guess is that locator codes don’t get released with Emirates until you have paid in full and that it also depends upon your TourOp.
As soon as you have paid the full balance I would chase up First Choice to get the locator code ASAP.
Seat allocations on Emirates seem to go quite quickly so if you want a particular seat – be quick.

As denny points out – you will not get given your Emirates Skywards Miles until after you have flown. So they can only be used on future trips.

Thanks both. It was so I could book my seats. Skywards keep asking for the locator code which we don't have yet but I assumed we would get it once final payment had been made. We are booked through H&J also by the FC shop.

I,ve found that when booked online with the likes of dialaflight.co, and you pay the full ammount of the fare rightaway, you get the code immediatley,if its part of a "package" you wont receive it until the full ammount has been payed
Unless you are a very frequent flyer the airmiles are'nt much use to you, they get you flights, but all the taxes and add ons that make up the major part of the fare still have to be paid on top. We once got up to silver level with Emirates, but failed to make the required ammount of flights in the next year, so were downgraded back to blue level. Another thing they do is dock your miles after a set time, I've at present got about 35,000 miles but if I dont spend them by the end of June I'll loose 17,500 of them. I've looked in the Emirates online shop, and the first three things I selected were all out of stock. Even if you do find something you want the next surprise is you've postage to pay from Dubai, and to cap it all, you'll also be charged custom duty on your purchase.
So all in all it's great for picking your seat, but unless you are a very frequent flyer, it's not the bargain it appears
Alan