Whereas Emirates’ blingy first-class cabins and onboard bar and bathe have caught the attention of just about each factors and miles fanatic, the provider’s Skywards frequent flyer program has traditionally been an afterthought. Merely put, there have been cheaper methods to e book Emirates award flights with miles that you could possibly earn extra simply.
Sadly, many of those different reserving choices have elevated in value, so Emirates Skywards now provides some interesting choices.
Plus, most of the greatest rewards bank cards companion with Emirates, which lets you switch factors on to your Skywards account.
Right here is every little thing you’ll want to find out about Emirates’ loyalty program.
Associated: We fly the Emirates A380 in all 4 cabins, together with the brand new premium financial system
Learn how to earn miles with Emirates Skywards
There are a selection of the way to earn Emirates miles — not simply by flying, but additionally by means of the provider’s varied companions.
Earn miles by way of bank cards
As with most airways, the quickest method to earn a significant variety of miles is to leverage the fitting bank card welcome bonus and switch choices.
Skywards miles are among the many best to earn, as Emirates is among the solely airways to companion with all the main transferable factors currencies at a 1:1 fee, aside from Wells Fargo Rewards.
Starting July 27, the switch fee from Citi ThankYou Rewards will lower by 20%, which signifies that for each 1,000 ThankYou Rewards factors you switch to Emirates, you may obtain 800 miles. On this identical date, Chase and American Categorical will “quickly droop” transfers to Skywards.
Each day Publication
Reward your inbox with the TPG Each day publication
Be part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s specialists
The next playing cards all at present supply robust welcome bonuses that you could possibly simply convert to Skywards miles:
- Chase Sapphire Most popular® Card (see charges and costs): Final likelihood: Earn 100,000 bonus factors after spending $5,000 within the first three months from account opening. This supply ends Could 15 at 9 a.m. EDT.
- The Enterprise Platinum Card® from American Categorical: Earn 150,000 bonus factors after you spend $20,000 on eligible purchases with the cardboard within the first three months of card membership. Plus, earn a $500 assertion credit score after spending $2,500 on qualifying flights booked instantly with airways or by means of American Categorical Journey within the first three months of card membership. You may earn one or each of those provides; provides finish June 30.
- The Platinum Card® from American Categorical: Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards factors after you spend $8,000 on purchases inside the first six months of card membership.
- American Categorical® Gold Card: Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards factors after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases along with your card within the first six months of card membership.
- Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases inside the first three months from account opening.
- Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card: Earn 75,000 bonus miles when you spend $4,000 on purchases inside the first three months from account opening.
- Ink Enterprise Most popular® Credit score Card (see charges and costs): Earn 90,000 bonus factors after spending $8,000 on purchases within the first three months from account opening.
Nonetheless, as transfers are irreversible, make certain that transferring your rewards to Emirates makes essentially the most sense earlier than doing so.
Earn miles by flying Emirates
Should you’re a frequent worldwide traveler, you could possibly additionally earn miles by crediting flights on Emirates or certainly one of its companion airways to your Skywards account. Emirates awards miles primarily based on the gap flown, the cabin, the fare class and whether or not you maintain elite standing with Skywards.
Emirates has 4 cabins to select from: financial system, premium financial system, enterprise class and top quality. These cabins are then divided into fare lessons.
- Economic system: Particular, Saver, Flex and Flex Plus
- Premium financial system: Flex Plus
- Enterprise class: Particular, Saver, Flex and Flex Plus
- Top quality: Flex and Flex Plus
There isn’t any earnings chart revealed anyplace, so you may should depend on Emirates’ miles calculator to see how a lot you may earn. For instance, should you e book a round-trip financial system class (Particular) ticket from John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) to Dubai Worldwide Airport (DXB) and haven’t any elite standing, you’d earn 1,800 miles.
Earn miles on companion flights
Emirates companions with the next airways, permitting you to earn Skywards miles whenever you credit score flights on these companions to your Emirates account:
- Aegean Airways
- Air Canada
- Air Mauritius
- Azul
- Bangkok Airways
- Condor
- Copa Airways
- EasyJet (spend companion solely)
- FlyDubai
- Garuda Indonesia
- Gol Airways
- Japan Airways
- Jetstar
- Korean Air
- Malaysia Airways
- Olympic Airways
- Qantas
- South African Airways
- TAP Air Portugal
- United Airways
With all companions, your earn fee relies in your flight distance and the fare class you e book. Sadly, Emirates’ companion accrual charts aren’t particularly beneficiant, with all companions capped at 1 and a couple of miles earned per mile flown, even for premium cabins.
Earn miles with rental automotive and resort companions
There are a number of methods to earn Emirates miles past flights and bank cards, beginning with the airline’s quite a few rental automotive companions. Emirates companions with many of the main automotive rental corporations around the globe, permitting you to earn both a hard and fast bonus per eligible rental or bonuses of as much as 6 miles per greenback spent.
Usually, you are higher off reserving motels on to be sure you earn resort factors and have your elite advantages honored. However should you journey much less often, you would possibly resolve that reserving with a 3rd celebration and incomes airline miles is healthier. Emirates companions with a number of main reserving platforms and particular person resort chains, together with (however not restricted to) Hyatt, InterContinental, Hilton and Atlantis, The Palm.
Associated: 9 issues to think about when selecting to e book by way of a portal vs. reserving instantly
Earn miles with retail and life-style companions
You may increase your Skywards stability by procuring on-line on the Skywards Miles Mall, which provides as much as 120 miles for each $10 spent. You can even earn miles by means of choose retailers, together with GetYourGuide, Arabian Adventures, The Bicester Assortment, the Skywards On a regular basis app and extra. (Incomes charges differ from retailer to retailer, so examine the charges right here.)
Pool miles
As a substitute of transferring miles between accounts, Emirates’ My Household program helps you to and as much as seven members of the family (together with youngsters) create a joint My Household account to mix miles. Each time you fly with Emirates, you may choose what number of miles to credit score to your My Household account, with the rest going into your Skywards account.
This may be an effective way for {couples} and households to mix their efforts and save up miles for awards quicker.
Associated: Household factors pooling: Learn how to switch and maximize your rewards
Emirates Skywards elite standing
Emirates provides 4 elite standing tiers in its Skywards loyalty program, ranging from Blue (common members) up by means of top-tier Platinum. You may qualify both by incomes a set variety of tier miles or taking a sure variety of flights annually:
- Blue: Entry-level member
- Silver: 25,000 tier miles or 25 flights
- Gold: 50,000 tier miles or 50 flights
- Platinum: 150,000 tier miles and take at the least one qualifying flight in enterprise or top quality
All elite members (i.e., Silver and above) obtain complimentary lounge entry in Dubai and precedence check-in. In the meantime, Gold and Platinum members obtain perks like assured seats on full flights and precedence baggage supply. Platinum standing additionally gives worldwide first-class lounge entry. Every tier comes with a mileage bonus, too: Silver members earn 30% bonus miles, Gold members earn 75% bonus miles and Platinum members earn 100% bonus miles.
Associated: Learn how to get airline elite standing
Learn how to redeem Emirates miles
Redeem miles for Emirates flights
Provided that Emirates just isn’t a member of one of many three main airline alliances, your dream Skywards redemptions could also be for Emirates-operated flights.
Emirates flies from its hub in Dubai to a whole lot of locations worldwide and has loved unbelievable success serving as a connecting hub for passengers flying between Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America.
Since Emirates would not publish an award chart, you may have to examine the airline’s Miles Calculator to look costs for every route you wish to journey. Word that this calculator claims to point the variety of miles you may earn on Emirates flights, nevertheless it additionally shows the redemption charges whenever you click on “Spend” on the prime.
For instance, you could possibly fly from JFK to DXB on a one-way Economic system Saver fare for 30,000 miles or choose to e book the Economic system Flex Plus fare for 50,000 miles.
Emirates at present operates two fifth-freedom flights from the U.S, flying an Airbus A380 every day between JFK and Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) and a Boeing 777-300ER every day between Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport (EWR) and Athens Worldwide Airport (ATH). This generally is a enjoyable method to get to Europe should you do not want to fly to Dubai.
You may e book one-way awards on both route on the following charges:
- Economic system Saver: 17,500 miles
- Enterprise Saver: 87,000 miles
- First Flex Plus: 102,000 miles
Skywards members might solely redeem miles for Emirates first-class flights in the event that they maintain Platinum, Gold and Silver standing. Anybody can nonetheless e book Emirates first-class awards with Qantas factors with none elite standing.
Skywards at present doesn’t supply premium financial system awards regardless of working a premium financial system cabin on many flights.
Sadly, gas surcharges on most Emirates flights booked by means of Skywards are fairly excessive. A round-trip flight from the U.S. to Dubai usually consists of roughly $450 in taxes and costs for financial system, whereas business- and first-class award tickets will value over $1,700 in surcharges.
Fortunately, the European routes detailed above are nonetheless affordable, solely including just a few hundred {dollars} in taxes and costs.
Redeem Emirates Skywards miles for companion awards
You may redeem Skywards miles on all the airline companions described. Thankfully, Emirates does publish a easy, distance-based award chart for all companions. Listed here are the prices one-way, per individual.
These costs are largely according to different loyalty applications. For instance, United prices from 27,200 miles in financial system or 80,000 miles in enterprise class to fly from the U.S. East Coast to the U.Okay. If you’re round-trip flights to Europe, you then’ll be charged much less for the Emirates-operated fifth-freedom flights listed above.
You may e book Qantas first-class flights with Skywards. To view mileage pricing, you may entry the companion award chart right here.
Associated: How must you fly to Dubai: Emirates or United?
Backside line
Emirates top quality stays one of the aspirational bucket listing objects for a lot of award vacationers. That hasn’t modified in recent times. These premium awards are typically best to e book with the provider’s Skywards program, particularly with many U.S. bank card switch companions to choose from.
That mentioned, these flights require many miles and have hefty gas surcharges, so make sure you examine the full prices on your desired dates earlier than going all-in with Emirates Skywards.
