How To Spend Emirates Skywards Miles (2024)

Skywards is the mileage program of Emirates. As you would expect, the main way to earn and spend miles is on Emirates flights – but there are plenty of other options. Emirates offers the opportunity to spend miles with several partner airlines and on other travel and retail options.

Spend miles on Emirates flights

Using miles for Emirates flights is understandably the main choice. After all, its business and first class cabins are about the best on offer, with excellent service, onboard lounges, and showers. Saving miles for this experience is a good strategy.

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Redemption prices are based on fixed rates per route (so not tied to the ticket price), but Emirates does not publish pricing charts anymore. Instead, you need to use the ‘miles calculator’ tool to check for each route and cabin. Any route is available as one-way or as a return but is usually better value when booked as a return. In some cabins, higher prices ‘Flex’ awards are offered. These may have better availability and are also upgradable in advance.

As an example, the following are the lowest rates for a return flight between Dubai and New York flights:

• 2,500 miles in economy class (higher flex ticket available at 125,000 miles)
• 156,000 miles in premium economy class
• 174,000 miles in business class (higher flex ticket available at 276,000 miles)
• 327,000 miles in first class

Image: Emirates

Be aware that Emirates adds cash surcharges (as well as government taxes and fees) to its award tickets. These have increased in recent years, and can be very high in premium cabins (between the US and Dubai, the charges can be over $800 one-way).

Use miles to upgrade cabins

Skywards miles can be used to upgrade cash fares. This can be excellent value compared to cash prices of premium tickets. As with spending miles, there are different rates for each route, and these can be checked using the calculator.

Photo: Emirates

For example, to upgrade an economy ticket to business costs (for a return):

• 266,000 miles for an economy saver ticket
• 182,520 miles for an economy flex ticket
• 140,400 miles for an economy flex plus ticket

Read more about the different business cabins on Emirates' aircraft

Spend miles on partner airlines

Although Emirates is not a member of any of the three main airline alliances, it still offers a number of partnerships for both earning and spending miles. There is a fixed rate award table for most partner airlines. There are two exceptions to this. Flights with flydubai prices separately by route (using the same system as Emirates flights). easyJet flights are available (this is an unusual partnership), and rates are based on the cash price.

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The fixed-rate awards for all other airlines are simple to understand. This is simply based on the total flight distance. Rates start at 8,000 miles in economy for flights up to 8,000 miles and go up to 60,000 miles for the longest flights over 7,000 miles. Each award is issued one way (or return for twice the miles) and limited to just one airline. Business class is always twice the rate of economy, and premium economy is not offered.

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This fixed rate system applies to the following airlines:

• Air Canada
• Air Mauritius
• Bangkok Airways
• condor
• Copa Airlines
• GOL
• Japan Airlines
• Jetstar
• Korean Air
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• South African Airways
• TAP Air Portugal
• United Airlines

Spend miles on hotels and retail

Like most loyalty programs, Emirates Skywards also has options to spend miles in areas other than flying. These are generally not as good value, but can make sense for some people. Miles can be spent through the Emirates Skywards Hotels program, with rates starting at 5,000 miles per night. Miles can also be spent through the Emirates Official Store and at Dubai Duty Free (4,500 Skywards Miles for AED 75). For frequent London travelers, there is also an option to exchange 6,000 miles for 2,000 Heathrow Rewards Points.

Do you regularly use Emirates Skywards? Feel free to discuss the different redeeming options and the value you can get in the comments section below.