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Emirates holds a lot of prestige in the aviation world. When travelers think of Emirates, they think of pure luxury: gold-finished cabins, onboard showers, Dom Perignon champagne, caviar, and VIP treatment. They also think of sky-high prices.
One thing people typically don’t think about, though, is Emirates' loyalty program: Skywards Miles. That isn't surprising, as Skywards doesn't offer overly generous value. It's a prime option for booking luxurious Emirates flights — and the only reliable way to book Emirates first class using miles — but you'll pay a lot of miles and some hefty surcharges.
That being said, we think this program may have more to offer than most people realize, and there are options beyond Emirates flights to consider. In this article, we’ll show you the best uses of Emirates Skywards miles.
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Redeeming Skywards for Emirates Flights
Emirates has waffled back and forth with the surcharges tacked onto award tickets over the years. In years past, the carrier charged incredibly steep fees for premium-class awards on its own aircraft. It wasn't uncommon to see fuel surcharges well over $1,000 round-trip. Surprisingly, Emirates spontaneously cut surcharges by up to 90% in 2020. This move made Emirates awards far more attractive.
But it was not to last. Emirates fuel surcharges skyrocketed in the middle of 2022, which was followed later that year by a program devaluation. Overnight, some routes experienced a 20% increase in their award cost. This one-two punch took Emirates Skywards from a generally good program for booking Emirates flights to one where you should carefully consider which awards you want to book.
But the problem is this: If you want to book that bucket-list trip in Emirates First Class, you need to use Skywards.
Best Emirates First Class redemption options
Currently, Emirates' own Skywards program is the simplest option for Emirates fabled First Class. There used to be other options, including JAL and Alaska Airlines, but these ended over the years. It seems Emirates wants to force us to use its own program to make these bookings — though unreliable award availability can be found via Qantas, and unattractive rates are available through Aeroplan if you're even lucky enough to find one.
Related: How To Book Emirates First Class Award Travel
An aspirational trip in Emirates' First Class suite is one of the best uses of Emirates Skywards — simply for the luxury experience. But it's costly. Emirates uses a distance-based award chart for all its flights. Here are a few round-trip routes to consider flying First Class:
- New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) for 204,000 miles and ~$250 round-trip
- Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) for 204,000 miles and ~$250 round-trip
- Dubai (DXB) to Cape Town (CPT) for 216,000 miles and ~$830 round-trip
- Seoul (ICN) to Dubai (DXB) for 237,000 miles and ~$870 round-trip
The last two routes get a mention due to the flight length compared to the total award cost. Routes out of the U.S. to Dubai all cost at least 327,000 miles round-trip for First class, and award space can be hard to find. You'll also pay over $1,500 in taxes, fees, and surcharges. Ouch.
But if First Class is on your radar, you can also access the gold-finished cabins by using Skywards miles to upgrade. The availability you'll find when upgrading is generally friendlier than the availability you'll find (or struggle to find) when booking a First Class award outright. Even better, the prices to upgrade are more than palatable.
Redeeming for Emirates business class
These same routes offer some the best deals for business class using Skywards:
- New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP) for 108,000 miles and ~$250 round-trip
- Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) for 108,000 miles and ~$250 round-trip
- Dubai (DXB) to Cape Town (CPT) for 114,000 miles and ~$830 round-trip
- Seoul (ICN) to Dubai (DXB) for 126,000 miles and ~$870 round-trip
The difficulty with business class is that the Business Saver pricing is hard to come by on many routes. I found some seats on a couple of these, but they are rare. Business-class space at the Business Flex Plus level is easy to find, but you pay a lot more miles (e.g., 174,000 miles round-trip for either JFK-MXP or EWR-ATH).
Take advantage of Emirates' fifth freedom Routes
Fifth freedom routes are passenger flights operated by an airline between two countries where neither country is the airline's home country. We've highlighted some of these routes above. A perfect example is Emirates' flight between New York and Milan. Neither of these cities is located in the United Arab Emirates — the home country of Emirates. Instead, this route is part of a longer route between New York and Dubai. The aircraft ultimately flies DXB-MXP-JFK and then returns.
These fifth freedom routes are noteworthy because they operate in highly competitive markets — typically resulting in lower prices and increased award availability. They present some of the best value for redeeming Skywards Miles.
As of this writing, Emirates operates the following fifth freedom routes at various times throughout the year:
- New York City (JFK) to/from Milan (MXP)
- Newark (EWR) to/from Athens (ATH)
- Mexico City (MEX) to/from Barcelona (BCN)
- Hong Kong (HKG) to/from Bangkok (BKK)
- Harare (HRE) to/from Lusaka (LUN)
- Dakar (DSS) to/from Conakry (CKY)
- Accra (ACC) to/from Abidjan (ABJ)
- Sydney (SYD) to/from Christchurch (CHC)
- Singapore (SIN) to/from Melbourne (MEL)
- Rio de Janeiro (GIG) to/from Buenos Aires (EZE)
- Colombo (CMB) t0/from Malé (MLE)
However, even a short route like Hong Kong to Bangkok costs 90,000 Skywards miles round-trip. A flight of just over three hours — Christchurch to Sydney — will set you back 164,400 miles round-trip. If you want to simply say you've flown Emirates First Class, this is the cheapest way to do so. But I'll argue that a four-hour flight is short of the full experience.
Some key points on Skywards rewards on Emirates flights
There are a few things you need to be aware of:
- The mileage difference between “Saver,” “Flex,” and “Flex Plus” fares is significant. This is important to note, as Emirates doesn't offer any of the cheaper fare categories for one-way trips on North American fifth-freedom routes. This means you'll likely get the best value by booking a round-trip ticket.
- Emirates operates some of its fifth freedom routes with a Boeing 777 of some variant, including the routes to EWR and JFK. In general, the premium product offerings on these aircraft are far inferior to those offered on Emirates' Airbus A380, unless you get lucky with the new B777 cabin.
Redeeming on Partner Airlines
Emirates isn't part of any major airline alliance, but it does have several individual airline partnerships. The carrier used to have unique award charts for each partner, but these were scrapped in favor of a common distance-based chart for all partners. There's far less value to be found with the new system. Here is the Emirates Skywards partner award chart for reference:
| One-way distance (miles) | Economy class | Business class | First class (Qantas only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0–250 | 8,000 | 17,500 | 27,500 |
| 251–500 | 10,000 | 25,000 | 35,000 |
| 501–1,000 | 14,000 | 35,000 | 50,000 |
| 1,001–2,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 | 72,500 |
| 2,001–3,000 | 26,000 | 65,000 | 95,000 |
| 3,001–4,000 | 32,000 | 77,500 | 115,000 |
| 4,001–5,000 | 38,000 | 92,500 | 135,000 |
| 5,001–6,000 | 44,000 | 105,000 | 160,000 |
| 6,001–7,000 | 52,000 | 125,000 | 190,000 |
| 7,001–15,000 | 60,000 | 145,000 | 220,000 |
For all partners except Qantas, you can redeem Skywards miles for economy- and business-class tickets. Qantas is the one partner where first-class bookings are allowed, but space can be difficult to find.
Emirates teased a partner award chart devaluation in October 2023, and the changes took effect on January 10, 2024. While not all is lost with the adjusted charts, the changes didn't create any new sweet spots.
At present, here are some of the best uses of Emirates Skywards for partner flights:
- Newark and Washington Dulles to various destinations in western Europe: 77,500 Skywards miles in business class
- Japan to Hawaii on Japan Airlines: 77,500 Skywards miles in business class
- Vancouver to Tokyo on Air Canada: 92,500 Skywards miles in business class
- U.S. West Coast to Tokyo: 105,000 Skywards miles in business class
- North America West Coast to Seoul on Korean Airlines: 105,000 Skywards miles in business class
- U.S. East Coast to Lisbon on TAP Portugal: 77,500 Skywards miles in business class
- Montreal to Dublin on Air Canada: 65,000 Skywards miles in business class
- Hong Kong to Mauritius on Air Mauritius: 92,500 Skywards miles in business class
- Kuala Lumpur to Sydney on Malaysia Airlines: 9,500 Skywards miles in business class
- Sydney to Singapore on Qantas: 115,000 Skywards miles in first class
The pricing isn't as friendly as it was before the January 10, 2024, devaluation, but it's still compelling when looking broadly at Emirates' new partner chart.
Searching and Booking Award Space
Booking Emirates flights
If you're looking for an Emirates-operated flight, you can use the Emirates award search tool. The Emirates website isn't the worst search experience out there, but you are limited to searching for awards in a single cabin, and Emirates will only display seven days of award availability at a time.
One annoying “feature” is that Emirates will return results for business class if you search for first class and there's no availability. Maybe this is helpful for some. It's not to me.
Booking partner flights
To book partner flights, head to the advanced search page. Unfortunately, Emirates' award search engine doesn't display all partner award availability. Thus, searching and booking partner awards takes a little creativity. Some partner awards can be booked online, including Air Canada, Condor, JAL, Qantas, and United Airlines. The website is often glitchy, however. I find it doesn't always let you enter the necessary airport codes when searching for partner award space.
For others, you'll either need to call Emirates (800-777-3999) or initiate a chat with Emirates customer service reps to search for availability. I'd recommend searching with other sites first, though. Since most partners typically have access to the same partner award space, it's safe to assume Emirates' inventory will match.
Here are some suggestions for finding award space with partner sites:
- When searching for JAL partner award availability, use American Airlines' site.
- To find Korean Air or Air Mauritius partner award availability, search on Air France's site.
- For South African partner award availability, search for South African award flights on United's website.
Make sure you confirm the availability with the phone agent before you transfer any points to your Skywards account!
Earning Emirates Skywards Miles
With any loyalty program, the first hurdle is always earning enough points or miles to do anything. Thankfully, this happens to be a strong point for Emirates Skywards. There are a lot of ways to accumulate Skywards miles, making it easy to earn enough for the redemption you want.
Earn with an Emirates credit card
Barclays issues two Emirates co-branded credit cards in the U.S.:
- Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard®
- Earn 40,000 bonus Skywards Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.
- $99 annual fee.
- Emirates Skywards Silver status during your first year as a cardholder.
- Earn 3X on Emirates purchases, 2X on travel, and 1X on other purchases.
- Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard®
- Earn 70,000 bonus Skywards miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.
- $499 annual fee.
- Emirates Skywards Gold status during your first year as a cardholder.
- Earn 3X on Emirates purchases, 2X on travel, and 1X on other purchases.
- 10,000 bonus miles on each cardholder anniversary.
Related: When Does It Make Sense To Buy Emirates Skywards Miles?
Transfer flexible rewards to Emirates Skywards
The fastest and most flexible way to accumulate Skywards miles is to transfer them from any of Emirates' transfer partners. Points can be transferred from the following:
Emirates has become one of the few airlines to partner with every major transferable award currency. This is one of the main reasons why you should not neglect the Skywards program. Even if award prices are slightly higher on some routes, the ease with which you can accumulate Emirates miles can more than account for the difference in award price.
Before transferring your points, you should consider three things:
- Ratio: How many Skywards miles will you receive for every point transferred?
- Transfer times: How long will it take for the points to arrive in your Skywards account?
- Bonuses: Are there any current transfer bonuses that can give you even more value?
With a favorable 1:1 ratio and immediate transfers, all options aside from Marriott Bonvoy are good choices.
With a popular card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card that earns 2X on every purchase, you can effectively earn 2X Emirates miles on every dollar spent.
Related: How To Consolidate Transferable Points for an Award Ticket
Earn miles by flying Emirates or partner airlines
The other obvious way to accumulate Emirates miles is to purchase a ticket and fly on Emirates or one of its many partners. You'll earn miles based on the distance flown and the fare class booked. You can calculate your exact earnings by using Emirates' miles calculator.
Emirates has made it even easier to accumulate miles by giving members the ability to pool miles with family members.
Final Thoughts
The Skywards program has undergone many changes over the past few years. After rolling back fuel surcharges to attractive levels, the carrier pushed them sky-high once again. Expect to pay $400 to $800 in surcharges each way on many routes. Notable exceptions to this are the JFK–MXP and EWR–ATH routes, which still have reasonable fuel surcharges.
There is still value to be found in Emirates Skywards, though. A few of the best uses of Emirates Skywards are really attractive, including some of the airline's fifth freedom routes that can let you experience Emirates' amazing A380 and Boeing 777 First Class for a reasonable cost.
Flying Emirates’ First Class is a bucket-list endeavor for many travelers, without a doubt. But even if your goals are simply to spend the least amount of miles possible to get from A to B, the Skywards program should have a place on your radar.
Have you ever redeemed Emirates Skywards miles or found any exceptional sweet spots that I've missed? Let us know in the comments.
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