Complete guide to the Emirates Skywards loyalty program

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While Emirates’ blingy first-class cabins and onboard bar and shower have caught the eye of almost every award traveler, the carrier’s Skywards frequent flyer program has historically been an afterthought. Simply put, there have been cheaper ways to book Emirates awards with miles you could earn more easily.

Unfortunately, many of these have changed significantly, and even Emirates Skywards underwent some notable devaluations over the last couple of years. That said, the program still offers some appealing options. TPG values Emirates Skywards miles at 1.2 cents each, and many of the best credit cards partner with Emirates to allow transfers directly to your Skywards account.

Here is everything you need to know about Emirates Skywards loyalty program.

How to earn miles with Emirates Skywards

There are a number of ways to earn Emirates miles — not just by flying but also through the carrier’s various partners.

Earn miles via credit cards

As with most airlines, the fastest way to earn a meaningful amount of miles is by leveraging the right credit card welcome bonus and transfer options.

Emirates does offer a pair of cobranded credit cards in the United States, but even if you don’t have one of them, Skywards miles are among the easiest to earn, as Emirates is one of the only airlines to partner with all the major transferable points currencies. This means that no matter what points program you’ve built your credit card strategy around, you should have an easy way to transfer miles to Emirates.

The following cards all currently offer strong welcome bonuses that you could easily convert to Skywards miles:

However, be sure that transferring your rewards to Emirates makes the most sense before doing so, as transfers are irreversible.

Read more: Why transferable points are worth more than other rewards

Earn miles by flying Emirates

If you’re a frequent international traveler, you could also earn miles by crediting flights on Emirates or one of its partner airlines to your Skywards account. Emirates awards miles based on the distance flown and fare class, not the cost of your ticket, like U.S. airlines do.

There’s no earnings chart published anywhere, so you’ll have to rely on Emirates’ miles calculator to see how much you’ll earn. Just as an example, if you book the cheapest fare available in each cabin, here’s how many miles you’d earn on a round-trip flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Dubai International Airport (DXB):

Earn miles on partner flights

Emirates partners with the following airlines, allowing you to earn Skywards miles when you credit flights on those partners to your Emirates account:

With all partners, your earn rate is based on a combination of your flight distance and the fare class you book. Unfortunately, Emirates’ partner accrual charts aren’t especially generous, with all partners capped at between 1 and 2 miles earned per mile flown – even for premium cabins.

Earn miles with rental car partners and hotel partners

There are several ways to earn Emirates miles beyond flights and credit cards, starting with the airline’s numerous rental car partners. Emirates partners with most of the major car rental companies around the world, allowing you to earn either a fixed bonus of up to 10,000 miles per eligible rental (which TPG values at $120) or bonuses of up to 6 miles per $1 spent. This works out to a 7.2% return based on TPG’s valuations.

Normally, you’re best off booking hotels directly to make sure you earn hotel points and have your elite benefits honored. But if you travel less frequently, you might decide that booking with a third party and earning airline miles is better. Emirates partners with several major booking platforms and individual hotel chains like Hyatt, Intercontinental, Atlantis The Palm and The Luxury Collection.

Related: 9 things to consider when choosing to book via a portal vs. booking directly

Pool points

Instead of transferring points between accounts, Emirates’ “My Family” program lets you and up to seven family members (including children) create a joint “My Family” account to combine miles. Every time you fly with Emirates, you can select how many miles to credit to your My Family account, with the remainder going into your Skywards account.

This can be a great way for couples and families to combine their efforts and save up miles for awards faster.

Related: Ultimate guide to points pooling and sharing

Emirates Skywards Elite status

Emirates offers four elite status tiers in its Skywards loyalty program, starting from Blue (general members) up through top-tier Platinum. You can qualify either by earning a set number of tier miles or taking a certain number of flights each year:

All elite members (i.e., Silver and above) receive complimentary lounge access and priority check-in. Meanwhile, Gold and Platinum members receive perks like guaranteed seats on full flights and priority baggage delivery. Platinum status also provides first-class lounge access. Each tier also comes with a mileage bonus, with Silver members earning 25% bonus miles, Gold earning 50% and Platinum earning up to 75%.

Related: Just enough bling: A review of Emirates’ new premium economy on the A380 from Dubai to London

How to redeem Emirates miles

Redeem miles for Emirates flights

Given that Emirates is not a member of one of the three major airline alliances, your dream Skywards redemptions may be for Emirates-operated flights.

Emirates flies from its hub in Dubai (DXB) to hundreds of destinations worldwide and has enjoyed incredible success serving as a connecting hub for passengers flying between Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and even North America.

Unfortunately, the Skywards program underwent a slew of devaluations in 2022 — raising award rates and fuel surcharges in February, increasing fuel surcharges again in March and June, and finally raising award prices yet again in December.

Since Emirates doesn’t publish an award chart, you’ll need to check the airline’s mileage calculator to search prices for each route you want to travel. Note that this calculator claims to indicate the number of miles you’ll earn on Emirates flights, but it also displays the redemption rates.

While most programs that allow one-way awards will price these at 50% of the cost of a round trip, Emirates prices most one-ways above 50%.

Here is the cost of some of the most popular North American routes (one-way and round trip):

Emirates currently operates two fifth-freedom flights from the U.S, flying an A380 daily between New York-JFK and Milan Malpensa Airport (MXP) and a 777-300ER daily between Newark Liberty Airport (EWR) and Athens International Airport (ATH). This can be a fun way to get to Europe if you don’t wish to fly all the way to Dubai.

Unfortunately, these flights jumped in price in early 2023, but they can still provide some decent value. You can book one-way/round-trip awards on either route at the following rates:

Unfortunately, with last year’s changes, fuel surcharges on most Emirates flights booked through Skywards are quite high. A round-trip flight from the U.S. to Dubai will typically include roughly $450 in taxes and fees for economy — though business- and first-class award tickets will tack on over $1,700 in addition to the required mileage.

Thankfully, the European routes detailed above are still reasonable, only adding a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees.

Related: Emirates first class still wows: Fully enclosed suites and unlimited caviar

Redeem Emirates Skywards miles for partner awards

You can redeem Skywards miles on all of the airline partners described. Fortunately, Emirates does publish a simple distance-based award chart for all partners. Here are the costs one-way, per person.

These prices are largely in line with other loyalty programs. For example, United often charges 26,000 miles in economy or 64,000 miles in business class to fly from the East Coast to the United Kingdom. If you are looking at round-trip flights to Europe, then you’ll be charged less for the Emirates-operated fifth freedom flights listed above.

Related: How should you fly to Dubai: Emirates or United?

Bottom line

Emirates first class remains one of the most aspirational bucket list items for many award travelers. That hasn’t changed in recent years, but after several devaluations from partners like Alaska and JAL, Emirates first-class awards are generally easiest to book with the carrier’s own Skywards program — especially with many U.S. transfer partners to pick from.

That said, these flights do require a large number of miles and have hefty fuel surcharges, so be sure to check total costs for your desired dates before going all-in with Emirates Skywards.

Additional reporting by Ethan Steinberg