NEW: Use small expiring amounts of Emirates Skywards miles for gift cards

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

• Jonathan says:

  27 Feb27 February 06:56

  If you’re worried about losing your points, don’t bother with EK SkyWards, and use the likes of AeroPlan, no hard expiry, part of Star Alliance (a lot of programs in this group are known for their use of hard expiry), and you can also earn and redeem via Etihad as well, just to name a couple of benefits.
  For those who fly Emirates often enough, it shouldn’t be too difficult to spend your points before they expire, even it means using them in Economy, not great but it’s better than nothing.
  What’s rather weird is not many programs offer ways of getting credit in return for points, (Lufthansa has got that long ongoing legal battle against someone who wants a large cash cheque for their balance of M&M points), I think Emirates is one of the very few that allow redemptions to go and watch sports match events – limited availability !

  • Maggie says:

    27 Feb27 February 11:40

    Can I transfer my EK SkyWards point to AeroPlan? Thank you.

    • Rob says:

      27 Feb27 February 11:54

      No, but you can redeem for Air Canada flights via Emirates.

      • Maggie says:

        27 Feb27 February 16:36

        Thanks for answering ^^

• mike anthony says:

  27 Feb27 February 06:59

  Thanks for this – is there anything that can be done with Emirates Family miles? I have a chunk of those expiring this year and can’t find anything to do with them!
  Thanks
  Mike

  • Joe says:

    27 Feb27 February 07:33

    Oh can you not use them for gift cards? I have 22k from a family trip to dubai that I’d like to cash out if possible

• The real Swiss Tony says:

  27 Feb27 February 08:24

  Probably worth adding that you can pick how many miles you spend. You’re not limited to 2k increments, (which is good since I have 7.5k….)

• Sam says:

  27 Feb27 February 09:13

  Unless you are a very frequent flyer with Emirates, this is completely pointless airline reward scheme.
  Outside of this, no one is going to build up enough points for meaningful upgrade /redemption within the 3-year expiry.

  • blenz101 says:

    27 Feb27 February 10:32

    It’s a UAE based airline so where those living in their home market have plenty of opportunity to earn miles.

    I guess so many people pass through the UAE and may have an account that they are happy to just wipe the balance and focus on UAE residents and genuine frequent fliers from international markets.

  • Jonathan says:

    27 Feb27 February 11:39

    You say this, but the UK is the country with the most number of SkyWards accounts

    How many of these accounts have never lost any points is anyone’s guess, probably all !
    – Rob has mentioned before that he’s had to take a redemption and got poor value for money or lost low amounts due to hard expiry

    • Rob says:

      27 Feb27 February 11:54

      I did, ended up with Heathrow credit.

      People may also EXPECT to earn more but don’t. Perhaps they start working on a project in Dubai which gets cancelled, or they do regular holidays but for some reason stop, or various other reasons. No-one can plan with certainty that they will do a certain number of future flights to earn enough to redeem – it’s always a gamble.

      No different to me assuming I will hit 35 Marriott nights this year to renew my Platinum. I expect to do it but I have no idea at the moment where at least 10 of those nights will come from. If things change I have unnecessarily given Marriott business that could have gone elsewhere.

      • Jonathan says:

        27 Feb27 February 13:24

        When I mentioned that you’ve had to take poor value redemption(s), you had to do with some of your M&M points, and you lost something like 1000 KrisFlyer points, both due to hard expiry, you mentioned these occasions in the relevant articles – none were not at all recent though

    • Blenz101 says:

      27 Feb27 February 15:23

      My point was that those resident in the airlines home market (a much smaller market) have the opportunity to earn and burn easily within the expiry. Credit cards and mall spend earn substantial points.

      Enough to upgrade the free return flight to the home country from your employer or happily spent on a Maldives / Seychelles redemption for a long weekend away.

      Emirates want residents flying and thurs earning and burning with them rather than the residents home airline which likely flies to Dubai anyway into T1.

      • Julia says:

        27 Feb27 February 16:08

        Have to agree with Blenz101 that if you’re in the area then it’s easier to use the points. We always transfer our TAP points into EK miles which is a handy side line..

        Looking forward it may be a different game with the Red Sea closed to cruise ships and those that cruise between countries will then have to fly. The release of the Emirates credit card would become handy then.

• Nathan says:

  27 Feb27 February 12:17

  Thanks for the article and email, very timely and I now have an £8 credit on the Uber app that would have otherwise gone to waste given my very small skywards balance!

• scholar wong says:

  27 Feb27 February 12:37

  Thanks Rob, just cashed in points I would never be able to make good use of for £94 of Deliveroo credit!

• David says:

  27 Feb27 February 12:54

  Thanx.got 11 pound for primark.better than nothing.

• The real Swiss Tony says:

  27 Feb27 February 13:27

  Thing is, if you add this to the Marriott points and the fact that once you have a qualifying flight on EK you get free messaging via the wifi, it does add up.

  Bundle the three together and I must have got around £100 of value from an £2600 air ticket. Not transformative, but it starts to register.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.