How to Maximize the Emirates Skywards Program

The Emirates Skywards program is a rewards program operated by one of the world's largest airlines. Members earn Miles for flights, hotel stays, car rentals, and more, and can redeem Miles in various ways or gift them to family members.

Below, you'll find a comprehensive review of the Emirates Skywards program, including what the Miles are worth, the perks of its various tiers, and much more.

What is Emirates Skywards?

Skywards is a loyalty program operated by Emirates, one of the world's largest international airlines. Travellers earn perks like instant upgrades and waitlist priority just by signing up for a free membership.

Every qualifying flight you take with Emirates or flydubai earns reward Miles you can put toward future travel or upgrades. Reward Miles expire after 3 years, but you have plenty of ways to use them and avoid losing them.

Overview

Currency: Miles

Redemption options: Flights, flight upgrades, hotels and vacations, experiences, retail purchases, gift Miles

Pros:

• 4 status tiers that let you earn perks
• Miles are worth an average 4.23 cents per mile for flights
• Partners with over a dozen airlines to offer rewards
• One of the largest international airlines, serving 140+ destinations
• Variety of redemption options
• Miles are valid for 3 years
• Partners with flydubai and Qantas
• Pool Miles with up to 7 other family members

Emirates Skywards cons:

• No flat base rate for earning Miles
• No co-branded credit card available for Canadians
• Tier status doesn't carry over each year
• Miles are worth as little as 0.94 cents each when redeemed for hotels

Emirates Skywards status tiers

When you fly with Emirates, you'll earn tier status Miles in addition to your Emirates Skywards rewards Miles. These count toward tier increases that earn you better rewards and travel perks.

Emirates Skywards calculates tier Miles by route, fare, and class.

Joining the Skywards program automatically places you in the Blue tier, which comes with basic benefits like instant upgrades at check-in and personalized preferences.

Here are just some of the benefits that tier members enjoy:

What are Skywards Miles worth?

Since Emirates Skywards offers a variety of redemption options, you'll want to know how much they're worth before cashing in your hard-earned Miles. To help you decide, we use a helpful formula to calculate the value of each Mile:

Value of reward in CAD / cost of reward in Miles x 100 = value in cents per mile (CPM)

Your best redemption option is flights with Emirates. After that, the mileage value drops significantly.

How to earn Emirates Skywards Miles

Flying is a quick way to earn Emirates Skywards Miles, but it's not your only option. You can earn Miles with:

• Flights with Emirates and flydubai
• Flights with partners
• Hotel stays
• Car rentals
• Merchandise
• Buying Miles

Flights with Emirates and flydubai

Since Emirates partners with flydubai, you'll earn Emirates Skywards Miles on qualifying flights with both airlines. Just book through emirates.com with a connecting flydubai flight or book directly with flydubai.com.

Emirates doesn't provide a flat base rate for earning Miles with flights, so you'll need to use the site's Miles Calculator to see how many Miles you'll earn for a trip. Emirates awards Miles based on:

• Fare class
• Travel class
• Destination
• Your membership tier

Partner flights

Emirates offers an extensive destination network thanks to partnerships with other airlines, including Air Canada. When you fly with these partners and provide your Emirates Skywards membership number, you'll earn Miles – although the earn rate varies:

• Aegean: Up to 1.25 Miles for every mile flown
• Air Canada: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Air Mauritius: Up to 2 Miles for every mile flown
• Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Bangkok Airways: Up to 1.25 Miles for every mile flown
• Condor: Up to 1.25 Miles for every mile flown
• Copa Airlines: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Garuda Indonesia: Up to 2 Miles for every mile flown
• GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Japan Airlines: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Jetstar: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Korean Air: Up to 1.65 Miles for every mile flown
• Malaysia Airlines: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• Olympic Air: Up to 1.25 Miles for every mile flown
• Qantas: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• South African Airways: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• TAP Air Portugal: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown
• United Airlines: Up to 1.5 Miles for every mile flown

Hotel stays

Start planning your next trip by booking a hotel through the Emirates Skywards hotel platform. For each qualifying stay, you'll get up to 10,000 Miles per night.

If you don't often stay at Emirates Skywards Hotels, don't worry – you can still earn rewards by booking at dozens of hotels like Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton, and Hyatt.

You can also transfer other hotel reward points to Skywards Miles:

Car rentals

As long as you book through the Emirates website, you can earn Skywards Miles on rental car expenses. These are the rental car companies you can use:

• CarTrawler: Up to 1 Mile per $1 USD spent
• Avis: Up to 6 Miles per $1 USD spent
• Budget: Up to 6 Miles per $1 USD spent
• Europcar: Up to 1,200 Miles per rental
• Hertz: Up to 5 Miles per $1 USD spent
• Sixt: Up to 1,200 Miles per rental

Retail and lifestyle purchases

If you don't travel often but still want to take advantage of the Skywards program, you can earn points for shopping.

Download the Skywards Everyday app and link up to 5 credit cards in your account. When you make purchases with a partner retailer, you'll earn 1 Mile for every 3 UAE Dirham (AED) (about $1.12 CAD) you spend.

Check out the current list of Emirates Skywards shopping partners, but be aware that not all offers apply to Canadians.

Buy Skywards Miles

If you're trying to accumulate Miles for a big trip, Emirates lets you do that too: Silver and Blue members can purchase up to 100,000 Miles per year, while Platinum and Gold members can buy up to 200,000.

Just bear in mind that Miles must be purchased in multiples of 1,000, with a minimum of 2,000.

Log in to your account and select how many Miles you want to buy – they'll cost you $30 USD per 1,000 Miles, giving you a fairly substantial cost of 3 cents per mile.

If you want to buy Miles to extend your expiring ones and maintain your current status, you'll be eligible for a discounted rate. Log in to your account to purchase Miles that won't expire for another 12 months.

How to redeem Emirates Skywards Miles

Travel is usually your best bet for redeeming Miles at a high value, but Emirates gives other options for putting your Miles to good use:

• Flights
• Skywards Rail
• Hotels
• Flight upgrades
• Emirates experiences
• Retail purchases
• Transfer/gift Miles

Flights: 4.23 CPM

Once you earn 5,000 Miles, you can redeem them for flights with Emirates. Choose one-way or round-trip flights, book any fare class, and pay with all Miles or a combination of Miles and cash.

Don't forget to log in to your Skywards account before you start searching for flights, since you might get member-only offers and discounts.

Skywards Rail: 1.12 CPM

If your travels take you to Europe, take advantage of the high-speed rail system that you can book through Emirates Skywards Rail. You can book using cash or Miles for travel to over 12,000 destinations.

Just be aware that you can't earn Miles for booking train trips.

Hotels: 1.09 CPM

You have fewer hotel redemption options than earning ones, but you can redeem Miles if you book through the Emirates Hotels platform. Enter your travel details to see over 400,000 hotel and vacation locations in over 900 destinations worldwide.

Once you earn at least 5,000 Miles, you can put them towards free or discounted stays. If you don't have enough Miles to cover the cost of your whole trip, you can use a combination of Miles and cash.

Flight upgrades

If you don't have enough Miles for an entire flight or simply want to enjoy a more luxurious fare experience, you can upgrade these fares:

• Economy Class to Premium Economy
• Economy Class to Business Class
• Premium Economy to Business Class
• Business Class to First Class

You can pay for the upgrade with Miles during check-in, but ask about availability – some fare upgrades (like Premium Economy Classic rewards) might not be available.

Emirates experiences – value varies

Whether you're hoping to catch a memorable concert, performance, or sporting event, you can purchase tickets or bid on them with your Skywards Miles.

Here are just a few of the current experiences you can buy or bid on:

• Football games in Europe
• Concerts in the U.K.
• Golf at the BMW PGA Championship
• Cricket in the U.K.
• Champagne tours in France

Retail purchases

Once you reach 2,000 Miles, you can treat yourself to a little retail therapy. Shop the Emirates Official Store for Emirates merchandise like toy planes, hats, headphones, and more.

Unfortunately, Canadians can't shop with the Skywards Miles Mall, so your options for redeeming Miles for merchandise are limited.

Transfer or Gift Miles

If you want to share the wealth, Emirates allows you to transfer Miles to a fellow member. You'll pay $15 USD per 1,000 Miles you transfer, and you can send up to 50,000 Miles every year.

You can choose to gift brand new Miles too. You'll pay $30 USD for every 1,000 Miles gifted. You can give up to 100,000 or 200,000 Miles per year, depending on your recipient's membership tier.

While Emirates lists a donation option on its website, it isn't clear which charities you can donate your Miles to.

Is Emirates Skywards worth it?

While we usually check popular online forums to see what members have to say about individual rewards programs, Emirates Skywards isn't a terribly popular program in North America.

When we checked Reddit, we mainly found people discussing whether the paid Emirates Skywards+ membership program was worth it – and most said it was not.

Ultimately, whether Emirates Skywards is worth it depends on which airlines you prefer to fly.

FAQ

What is Emirates Skywards?

Emirates Skywards is an airline rewards program operated by Emirates. As members complete flights and book qualifying travel, they earn reward Miles and tier Miles. Tier Miles gain them status within the program. Members can also redeem Miles for future travel, upgrades, merchandise, and more.

How do I get an Emirates loyalty card?

Emirates no longer issues physical loyalty cards. Instead, new Emirates Skywards members immediately have access to a digital card. You can add this membership number to your mobile wallet, share it when booking travel, and/or print a paper copy if you want a physical version of the card.

How much are 50,000 Emirates Miles worth?

To maximize your 50,000 Emirates Skywards Miles, redeem them for flights where they're worth an average of 4.23 cents each. This way, your 50,000 Miles are worth about $2,115, compared to just $545 when redeemed for hotels.

How much is 1,000 Emirates Skywards Miles worth?

If you're redeeming 1,000 Emirates Skywards Miles for reward flights, we estimate an average value of 4.23 cents per Mile. That means 1,000 Miles would be worth roughly $42. However, if you put the points toward hotels, they're worth only around $11.

How do I get free WiFi on Emirates?

You can avoid paying for Wi-Fi by becoming an Emirates Skywards member and booking a First Class or Business class flight. If you're a Platinum member, you can enjoy free Wi-Fi on any flight, not just with First Class and Business fares.

Is there an Emirates credit card I can use to earn Miles on flights?

Emirates offers a few World Elite Mastercard products issued by Barclays, but they're not available to Canadians. Instead, we recommend using one of the best airline credit cards, such as the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, to book your next flight.