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Emirates, based out of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, is known for its premium cabin offerings, Dubai layovers/stopovers, and exceptional customer experiences. The airline’s loyalty program, Emirates Skywards, gives Canadians (and all others) the ability to earn Miles and elite status, and then use these for perks like award flights, upgrades, hotels, and more.
Although Emirates is not part of any of the 3 major airline alliances, it does partner with 20+ airlines, letting you redeem your Skywards Miles across these valuable global networks. That said, unfortunately, it can be quite difficult for Canadians to actually obtain a substantial number of Miles since there are no Skywards credit cards and transfer partners are limited.
To help you navigate these limitations and to help you decide whether this program is worth your time, we’ve put together the guide below, which covers earning and redeeming Skywards Miles, gaining elite status, award flight sweet spots, and more.
You can earn Emirates Skywards Miles the following ways:
The most valuable loyalty program transfer partner in Canada is Marriott Bonvoy.
From your Marriott Bonvoy account, you can transfer points to Skywards Miles at a ratio of 3:1. You also get a bonus of 5,000 Miles for every 60,000 Bonvoy points you convert. With this bonus, it means that you can get 25,000 Skywards Miles for 60,000 Bonvoy points.
When transferring between these two programs, be aware of the following:
Unfortunately for Canadians, this transfer rate is not a particularly good use of your Bonvoy points, and we generally don’t recommend it as you can typically get better value from booking hotel stays.
Additionally, if you’ve accumulated your Bonvoy points by transferring from the American Express Membership Rewards (MR) program, then the valu you’re getting from this transfer becomes even poorer. Since American Express MR points generally transfer to Marriott Bonvoy at a ratio of 1:1.2, this means you’d have to transfer 50,000 MR points to end up with 25,000 Emirates Skywards (50,000 MR points x 1.2 = 60,000 Bonvoy points at 3:1 + 5,000 bonus points = 25,000 Skywards Miles).
Given that Skywards Miles and Amex MR points are both valued around 1.7 cents each, you’re essentially cutting your value in half by making this exchange. Even just the Marriott to Skywards transfer offers an undesirably low value exchange since Bonvoy points are valued around 0.9 cents each. When accounting for the 5,000 bonus points, you’re left with a trade of around $540 in value with Marriott Bonvoy to around $425 in value with Skywards.
Now, in the end, each of us has our own sense of what is most valuable, and we each like to use our points in different ways. That said, we would only recommend transferring points to Emirates Skywards to top up your balance when you have a specific redemption in mind.
In Canada, you can also transfer rewards from a number of other hotel loyalty programs, but the transfer ratios are not favourable. Additionally, since there are no co-branded credit cards in Canada for any hotel program other than Marriott Bonvoy, these hotel loyalty rewards tend to be already be fairly difficult to earn.
That said, if you have some loyalty points that won’t be used on a hotel stay, you can consider transferring them to your Emirates Skywards account. Some of the more notable transfer partners are:
Since there are no Emirates Skywards co-branded credit cards available to Canadians, the best way to earn Miles is by flying with Emirates, flydubai, and partnered airlines.
With both Emirates and flydubai, there is no published earning chart, and instead you earn Miles based on your paid flight’s fare class, cabin, and distance. You will also earn bonus Miles at an increasing rate based on your elite status, as follows:
With Emirates, flydubai, and eligible Emirates codeshare flights, you also earn Tier Miles, which are used toward qualifying for the three elite status levels mentioned just above.
Additionally, to help travellers gain insight into the number of Miles they’ll earn on an upcoming trip, Emirates Skywards provides a mileage calculator where you can input your flight’s details.
As an example, if you were to take a round-trip flight between Montreal (YUL) and Dubai (DXB) in economy on Emirates, and you don’t have any elite status, you would earn between 1,800 and 8,400 Miles depending on which fare class you selected.
Conveniently, the miles calculator also lets you know if your fare is eligible for upgrades, and at what point in the process. Plus, conveniently, you can use the same calculator to determine how many Miles you need for a redemption or for an upgrade.
Emirates isn’t part of any of the three major airline alliances (SkyTeam, Oneworld, and Star Alliance), but nonetheless it still has a number of partnered airlines. With these 20+ partners, you can earn between 1.25 and 2 Skywards Miles per mile flown when you add your Skywards membership number to an eligible booking.
Emirate Skywards is partnered with the following airlines for earning and redeeming Miles:
The most important thing to keep in mind when it comes to earning Skywards Miles with the above airlines is that you can only earn with one loyalty program at a time. For example, if you were to fly with Air Canada, you’re giving up the opportunity to earn Aeroplan points if you choose to earn with Skywards.
Another way for Canadians to build up their Skywards account balance is to purchase Skywards Miles directly at a cost of $30 USD for 1,000 Miles. However, at this price, we don’t recommend buying Miles unless you only need to top up a small amount.
At a cost of 3 cents per mile, it’s difficult to turn this purchase into a decent (or even equivalent) value redemption, so it’s rarely a good idea to purchase Miles directly at the standard price. That said, buying Miles during one of Emirates Skywards occasional promotions (like the recent offer for a 50% bonus) can potentially be worthwhile if you’ve got your eyes on an available high-value award flight.
However, since those high-value award flights are quite difficult to come by, make sure you’ve found availability and have your plan ready to go if you’re going to pursue this route.
Important things to keep in mind when buying Skywards Miles:
Canadian travellers with children can take advantage of the Skywards Skysurfers program to earn Miles faster. Skysurfers lets children aged 2 to 17 earn Miles and elite status the exact same way as their parents.
To enroll your child in the program, simply log in to your Skywards account, navigate to the Skysurfers section, and add their details. Your child’s account will then remain linked to yours until they turn 18 — all redemptions and account management must be done by the registered parent or guardian.
Notably, Miles earned in a Skysurfer account do not expire as long as the child remains a member of the program and is under 18. Once they turn 18, they can choose to transition their account to a regular member account under their own control. At this point, any earned Miles will expire on the last day of the month in which they turn 21 years old.
Another accessible way for Canadians to earn Skywards Miles is by adding your membership number when you rent a car with one of the participating companies.
Emirates Skywards has partnered with the following:
As an additional way to enjoy some rewards on your travels, we also recommend paying for your car rental with a credit card like the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card or the National Bank World Elite Mastercard that provide car rental collision/damage coverage. Given that car rental companies often charge around $25/day for their insurance coverage, using the right credit card for next rental could potentially save you a considerable amount.
Canadians can also earn Skywards Miles on a range of travel-related expenses like hotel bookings, guided tours, and some shopping.
By attaching your Skywards membership number, you can earn Miles with the following partners:
There’s also Skywards Everyday, which lets you earn Miles on shopping, dining, and more while you travel around Dubai. You can find the complete list of travel partners for earning and converting points on the Emirates Skywards partners website.
There are no Emirates Skywards credit cards in Canada, so earning Miles this way is unfortunately not an option. In the US, there are two co-branded credits cards, the Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard and the Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard, which earn up to 3 Skywards Miles per $1 USD spent.
Additionally, there are a number of other co-branded Emirates Skywards credit cards based in other countries around the world.
Canadians who are interested in booking an award flight with Emirates may find the easiest route to be earning Air Canada’s Aeroplan points with a credit card like the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card or the American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card. Thanks to the partnership between Air Canada and Emirates, many of Emirates awards flights are available via the Aeroplan program.
After you’ve built up your Skywards account balance a bit, you can then redeem your stash a few different ways:
Using your accumulated Skywards Miles for an award flight is easily one of the most valuable redemption options. This is especially true if you’re able to snag one of Emirates’ highly sought-after first class suites. Just keep in mind that you need to have at least Silver elite status to book a first class award flight.
Since Emirates doesn’t publish an awards chart, there are no fixed mileage costs. The only way to find out how many Miles you need for a given redemption is to either search for a flight to see its cost or to use the Skywards mileage calculator.
The number of Miles you need for a redemption will vary, with the pricing being based on your choice of route, cabin, and award type. The Saver award flights cost the fewest number of Miles but are only offered in a limited quantity. Comparatively, the Flex and Flex Plus awards are notably more expensive, but they do allow for better options when it comes to changes and cancellations.
It’s also important to be aware that Emirates adds some notable surcharges to their award flights. For example, a one-way business class award flight from Montreal (YUL) to Dubai (DXB) will cost between 130,000–159,000 Miles + $1,200+ in taxes/fees/surcharges.
To give you an idea of how many Miles you may need to enjoy an award flight with Emirates or flydubai, let’s look at some examples:
Even if you don’t have enough Miles for an award flight, you can still use your account balance to lower the cost of a cash fare.
Using the Cash+Miles option, you can pay for your next Emirates or flydubai trip with a combination of cash and Skywards Miles. To access this payment option, start by booking your ticket like normal, and then on the payment page, you’ll have the opportunity to select Cash+Miles. At this point, you’ll be shown the exact conversion rate that you’ll get for your Miles.
The conversion rate is not set, and it may vary based on your route, the date of travel, your elite status, and a number of other factors. Although this is not the most valuable way to use your Miles, it is nice to be able to use however many Miles you do have to save some money on your flight.
Another great way to redeem your Miles is for flights on partner airlines. For these redemptions, Emirates uses separate distance-based award charts for each individual airline.
To give you an example, here is the chart for award flights redemptions on Air Canada:
Also note that most partner award flights can still be booked online through Emirates website; however, some bookings may require that you call customer service instead.
You can also use your Skywards account balance to upgrade your cabin class for as few as 7,020 Miles. Eligible upgrade options are from economy class to premium economy, economy class to business class, premium economy to business class, and business class to first class.
Depending on your fare class, you may be able to upgrade immediately after booking your flight, or you may have to wait to upgrade at check-in or the gate if there’s still room available. Additionally, some fares (like Economy Special) aren’t eligible to be upgraded.
If you’ve got some Skywards Miles in your account and have no plans to fly, you can also use them for free or discounted nights in hotels around the world. Through the Emirates Skywards Hotels booking portal, you can reserve nights in popular hotel brands and then redeem your points to cover the cost.
With this redemption option, you can choose to pay entirely with Miles, or you can opt to pay with a combination of Miles and cash. Based on our research, with the Cash+Miles option, Miles seem to be redeemed at a value of around 0.8 cents USD each.
Another way to use your Miles if you’re not interested in flying is to spend them on exclusive experiences like concerts and sports events through Skywards Experiences. You can explore all available entertainment opportunities (which take place around the world) on the Skywards Experience website.Alternatively, you could choose to exchange your Miles for items at the Dubai Duty Free or while shopping at participating partners in Dubai through Skywards Everyday. This option can net you a value of between 500 Miles = 10 AED with Skywards Everyday and 2,000 Miles = 60 AED at Duty Free. While neither of these options represents a particularly good value, it’s not a terrible option if you have no plans to ever redeem another way.
The Miles you earn with Emirates Skywards will expire approximately 3 years from the date you earn them. Specifically, Skywards Miles expire at the end of your birth month in that third year.
If your Miles are expiring within the next 3 months, you can pay $20 USD per 1,000 Miles to extend their expiration date for 12 months from the original date. You can also pay the same to reinstate Miles that expired within the past 6 months. In both cases, the minimum number of Miles is 1,000 and the maximum is 50,000 Miles per calendar year.
However, if you’re a Platinum elite member or the holder of an eligible co-branded credit card in good standing, your Miles don’t expire.
Emirates Skywards gives members the chance to earn their way up four elite tiers: Blue (the base member level), Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Status is achieved by earning Tier Miles and is calculated at the end of each month based on a rolling 12-month window.
To earn each elite status level, you need the following number of Tier Miles:
Tier Miles are only earned by flying revenue flights with Emirates and flydubai, and by spending with one of the two US-based co-branded credit cards, making it fairly difficult for Canadians to achieve any of the status levels.
Once you’ve reached an elite tier, you can enjoy the associated benefits for 12 months.
By becoming an elite member of Emirates Skywards, you can enjoy an increasing roster of valuable benefits as you move up the tiers. The full list of elite status perks can be found on the Skywards Membership Benefits website, but below we’ve listed a few of the most notable offerings to give you a sense of what you can expect.
At the Silver level, you can take advantage of the baseline benefits from above, as well as:
Once you move up to the Gold level, you get all the benefits from the Silver and Blue tiers, plus the following:
At the Platinum tier, you’ll get everything from the previous levels, plus some truly luxurious benefits, such as:
Emirates Skywards is definitely not the most sweet spot-friendly program out there. With Miles that are difficult to earn, partner airlines award prices that tend to be higher than if you booked with the partner airline directly, and status limits on who can book the ultra-luxurious first class cabin, most of the sweet spots will only be attainable by the most dedicated rewards collectors.
With that said, there are still interesting options for Canadians on the hunt for a good deal:
Despite the fact that Emirates offers Canadians the chance to earn and redeem Miles with multiple airlines and provides an avenue to enjoy their exceptional premium cabins and service, the lack of co-branded credit cards and almost no worthwhile transfer partners makes the Skywards program a secondary loyalty option, at best.
Rather than focusing much energy on Emirates Skywards, Canadians can instead look toward more accessible programs like Aeroplan since it offers considerably more ways to earn points quickly and it’s partnered with Emirates. Canadian travellers in search of award flights, can earn points with Aeroplan credit cards or through Amex Membership Rewards credit cards, which transfer to Aeroplan 1:1, and then redeem these for Emirates’ premium cabins and experiences.
Consider also exploring other ways to earn valuable travel rewards through our guides to the best travel credit cards in Canada and the best overall credit cards in Canada.
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