Emirates Skywards: The Ultimate Guide

Emirates Airlines began back in 1984 at the behest of Emirati Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. From the beginning, the airline grew rapidly, and within a year was flying to international destinations within the Middle East.

By 1989, the airline had expanded to include flights to Europe, and by 1990, Emirates was serving flights across the globe. Today, the airline operates out of its hub in Dubai and serves over 130 destinations worldwide.

Emirates Skywards is the airline’s frequent flyer program, and the miles you accumulate are known as Skywards miles.

To begin earning miles, you’ll need to sign up for a free Emirates Skywards account. Only some basic information is required, like your name, date of birth, country of residence and email address.

Flying Emirates

Once enrolled in Emirates Skywards, you can begin to earn Skywards miles. There are many ways to do so, but the most straightforward way is through flying.

Emirates uses four criteria to determine how many Skywards miles you will earn on eligible flights.

• Route. This is the flight you take and does not include stopovers.
• Cabin. Emirates operates four cabins: Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First Class.
• Fares. Each cabin has its own fares. These fares determine how many Skywards miles you will earn for that ticket.
• Elite Status. Holding elite status with Emirates can help you earn more Skywards miles. We will delve into this more next.

Emirates’ four cabins are subdivided into fare classes.

• Economy: Special, Saver, Flex or Flex Plus
• Premium Economy: Flex Plus
• Business: Special, Saver, Flex or Flex Plus
• First: Flex or Flex Plus

Rather than figuring out how many miles you’ll earn when flying Emirates, the program offers a handy calculator that does the math for you.

The image below shows the number of Skywards miles you can earn when flying from Dubai (DBX) to Milan (MXP). As a basic Blue Skywards member, a flight in economy class on a Saver fare would earn 900 Skywards miles.

Status Miles

Skywards elite status holders earn more miles with each flight.

There are three levels of elite status plus an entry-level membership. The higher the status, the more Skywards miles earned.

Elite status with Emirates comes with additional benefits, as well. A full list of benefits can be found on Emirates’ website.

Earning Status

To earn status with Emirates, you’ll need to accumulate “Tier Miles.” You can earn Tier Miles for each qualifying flight, including flights with Emirates, Flydubai or codeshare flights operated by another airline but marketed by Emirates.

These are the tiers and requirements to achieve each level:

Tier Miles are calculated and earned the same way Skywards miles are earned, although you cannot earn Tier Miles on partner flights—more on this below. However, codeshare flights marketed by Emirates do qualify, as these are different from partner flights.

You can easily calculate how many Tier Miles you will earn by using Emirates’ calculator tool.

Tier Miles expire about one year from the month you earn them—which could be anywhere from 12 to 13 months. Once you qualify for status, the clock resets, and you’ll have up to an additional 13 months to meet the requirements to maintain or achieve higher status.

Flights on Partners

Emirates is one of the only major airlines in the world that is not a part of an alliance. Instead, it has over a dozen partner airlines, many of which you can earn Skywards miles with.

Each partner airline has its own earning rate and requirements:

Partner Airline	Earning Rate
Air Canada	Up to 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown, depending on fare class
Air Mauritius	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy, 1.5 Skywards miles in business, 2 Skywards miles in first class
Bangkok Airways	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, 1.1 Skywards miles in premium economy and 1.25 Skywards miles in Blue Ribbon class.
Condor	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class. Up to 1.25 Skywards miles per mile flown in premium economy. Up to 2.15 Skywards miles per mile flown in business class.
Copa Airlines	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class and up to 1.5 Skywards miles in business class.
EasyJet	No miles earned with easyJet
Flydubai	Skywards miles earned on Flydubai flights will depend on destination, fare type, cabin class and status tier.
GOL Airlines	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class and up to 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown in GOL Premium Class
Japan Airlines	International flights: earn up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, up to 1 Skywards mile in premium economy, up to 1.25 Skywards miles in business class and up to 1.5 Skywards miles first class Domestic flights: up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, up to 1.1 Skywards miles in Class J and up to 1.5 Skywards miles in first class
Jetstar	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class and up to 1.25 Skywards miles per mile flown in business class
Korean Air	1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, up to 1.35 Skywards miles in Prestige Class and up to 2 miles in first class
Malaysia Airlines	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, 1.25 Skywards miles in business class and 1.5 Skywards miles in business suite class
Qantas Airways	Up to 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown, depending on fare class
South African Airways	Up to 1 Skywards mile per mile flown in economy class, up to 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown in business class and 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown in first class
TAP Air Portugal	Up to 1.5 SkyMiles per mile flown, depending on fare class
United Airlines	Up to 1.5 Skywards miles per mile flown, depending on fare class

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Some fares are not eligible to earn Skywards miles. For example, Copa Airlines does not award Skywards miles for bookings in classes N, X, I, G, Z and P. Make sure to double-check the website before booking.

Credit Card Spending

Barclays offers two Emirates co-branded credit cards—a premium option and a basic option.

Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard®*:

• Earn 70,000 bonus Skywards Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days of account opening
• Annual fee: $499
• Get 3 Skywards Miles per dollar on eligible Emirates purchases, 2 Skywards Miles per dollar on eligible travel purchases and 1 Skywards Mile per dollar on all other purchases

Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard®*:

• Earn 60,000 bonus Skywards Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days
• Annual fee: $99
• Get 3 Skywards Miles per dollar on emirates.com or at the Emirates Sales office, 2 Skywards Miles per dollar on eligible travel purchases and 1 Skywards Mile per dollar on all other purchases

Transfer Partners

Emirates partners with more than just other airlines—it also partners with banks, hotels, car rental agencies and more. The following options allow you to convert your points from various programs to Emirates Skywards miles.

Credit Cards

There are several banks offering transferable points that can be sent to travel partners, and Emirates is partnered with all of the major ones.

Hotel Transfer Partners

Aside from Marriott, a handful of hotels also allow you to convert their loyalty program points into Skywards miles. This doesn’t always result in the best value, though. Nevertheless, if you find yourself short on Skywards miles and have points from a hotel program you won’t be using, this option could make sense.

Other Ways to Earn Skywards Miles

Hotels Stays

Earning Skywards miles isn’t exclusive to flying. You can earn Skywards miles every time you spend money at partner hotels, for example. The following companies allow you to earn Skywards miles for every dollar spent at participating properties. This is in addition to any points, miles or cash-back rewards you will earn by paying with a travel rewards credit card.

Car Rentals

Emirates Skywards miles cannot be converted from any car rental company loyalty program— however, you can earn miles when renting a car.

When you rent a car from the following agencies, you can earn Skywards miles. The amount of Skywards miles you earn will depend on your elite status with Emirates as well as which agency you are renting from. You’ll also need to make sure to use the designated link to rent a car in order to be eligible to earn Skywards miles.

Shopping Portals

Using shopping portals is a way to stack offers and earn extra rewards. The Skywards miles mall allows you to earn Skywards miles on your online purchases at participating retailers.

To earn miles with the Skywards miles mall, visit the website and log in with your Emirates Skywards miles information. You can use the search feature to find the store you are interested in. Then, use the provided link, which will direct you to the store. When shopping through the website, you can earn up to 120 Skywards miles for every $10 spent.

Skywards miles can take from 45 days all the way up to 120 days to post to your account.

You can also earn extra miles when shopping in-store. Just link your credit card to your Skywards shopping account and use it to pay at participating retailers.

The merchants shown above are just a handful of the partners you can earn Skywards miles with when shopping in-store.

Buying Miles

Members have the option to purchase Skywards miles. Skywards miles are sold in increments of 1,000. The cost is $30 per 1,000 miles. All members can purchase up to 100,000 miles per year. Those with elite status can purchase up to 200,000 Skywards miles per year.

Points.com processes the transactions for purchasing Skywards miles. This means that you won’t earn any credit card airline spending bonuses.

Buying Skywards miles, especially at the full price cost of $30 per 1,000 is a poor value and should be a last resort. Generally, buying miles is only recommended if you’re short a few points and need some to top off your balance for a specific redemption.

On Emirates Flights

Emirates doesn’t publish an award chart, so you’ll need to use its calculator to determine how many Skywards miles a flight will cost.

To search for award flights, visit the Emirates website. First, make sure to log in to your account. Then, fill in the flight information and make sure to tick the small box that says “Classic rewards.” From there, the process is easy to follow, and you should find your options after submitting the search request.

As an example of what Emirates Skywards miles can be redeemed for, here’s a first-class flight from New York City (JFK) to Dubai (DBX) for 163,500 miles. While this isn’t necessarily the best redemption for an Emirates first-class flight, it gives you an idea of how many Skywards miles you might need for a premium-class international flight.

On Flights With Partners

To book partner flights, you’ll need to use the advanced search feature on the Emirates website and select the “Search partner flights only” option.

Not all partners are searchable or bookable through the Emirates website. For partners that do not show award availability, you can use other airlines’ search engines. For example, to search Star Alliance partners, you can use united.com.

You can also redeem your Emirates Skywards miles to fly on any of Emirates’ partner airlines. Each airline has its own award chart with redemptions beginning at 8,000 miles.

Here is an example of partner Copa’s award chart when redeeming Skywards miles:

You can see that the chart is based on the distance flown. Note that economy tickets are less than half the mileage cost as compared to business-class tickets.

Unfortunately, Emirates does not show all partner award availability online, which means you may have to call Emirates to book.

Fees

Emirates normally charges fees for changes and cancellations on tickets. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Emirates updated its policies to allow for more flexibility. You’ll need to check with Emirates to see what the policy is for your ticket. When making changes through the “Manage Your Booking” feature on the Emirates website, you can see the fees for fare differences, taxes or penalties that will apply.

Sweet Spots

Sweet spots with Emirates miles are few and far between, but there are some good options for using these miles.

Using your Skywards miles to redeem flights with partner airline United can result in solid value, especially when you book United business class.

A flight from Newark, NJ (EWR) to St. Thomas (STT) is 1,634 miles and therefore in Zone 4. This means that you could fly this route in United business class for 50,000 Skywards miles. Make sure to check the price of the exact flight against the Skywards miles you would need to book to verify you are getting the best value.

Quirks

Expiration

Skywards miles have a lifespan of three years, mostly. Emirates makes figuring out the exact date complicated, and depending on your birthday, it can actually be more than three years.

Specifically, in the year that your Skywards miles are set to expire, they will be invalid on the last day of the month you were born. For instance, if your Skywards miles are earned on September 3, 2024, and you were born in the month of October, your miles will expire in October of 2027.

But if you were born in April and flew in September of 2024, your Skywards miles actually wouldn’t expire until April of 2028, giving you an extra seven months of validity.

Also, note that there is no way to extend the life of your miles other than to pay to have them extended before they expire or to have them reinstated after expiration.

Once your miles expire, Emirates will let you reinstate them—if your Skywards miles expired within the last six months, that is. Additionally, there is a hefty fee of $20 per 1,000 Skywards miles when you reinstate them. You can reclaim up to 50,000 Skywards miles per year. Extended Skywards miles will expire after 12 months from the date of purchase.

However, Emirates does allow you to redeem an award ticket that’s valid for up to 12 months, meaning that if your miles are about to expire, you can use them to book future travel.

If you maintain Platinum elite status, your Skywards miles will not expire.

Infant Fees

Children under 2 years of age are eligible to fly as a lap infant with Emirates. The cost will vary by route, but it will be a discounted rate from the adult ticket price. This includes both domestic and international flights. You’ll have to contact Emirates to get the exact cost.

Family Pooling

My Family is Emirates’ program for pooling family accounts. You can add up to seven additional family members—and members can contribute all the Skywards miles they earn to the shared account or just a percentage.

Only immediate family members are eligible for the My Family program. Emirates considers the following relationships immediate family: husband, wife, domestic partner, son, step-son, daughter, step-daughter, mother, mother-in-law, step-mother, father, father-in-law, step-father, brother, sister, granddaughter, grandson and domestic helper.

Emirates Airlines continues to be one of the most luxurious in the world and an aspirational experience for many. And while its redemptions may not be the lowest priced on the market, the ease of earning miles—thanks to a plethora of transfer partners—can help offset the higher redemption rates.