10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Emirates, one of the largest airlines in the world by several metrics, is headquartered in Dubai and operates a large route network throughout the Middle East and even several routes to major U.S. cities. The airline also operates its own frequent flyer program, known as Emirates Skywards, which is a program worth paying attention to even if you don’t live in the Middle East.
First of all, the Emirates Skywards program is a transfer partner of nearly all of the major credit card rewards programs, including American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Brex, Capital One Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards. The only notable exclusion from that list is Wells Fargo Rewards. This means that earning Skywards miles is very easy even if you’ve never flown on Emirates or one of its airline partners.
And, when it comes time to redeem those Skywards miles, you can often find great value for your miles due to the fact that nearly all partner award flights available through the Skywards program are priced using a fixed, distance-based award chart (with the exceptions of flydubai and EasyJet). So, if you can find flights with high cash prices and relatively low award prices, you can get great value through the Emirates Skywards program.
Unfortunately, this program doesn’t publish an award chart for its own award flights. However, it’s clear that an unpublished award chart is used to price Emirates award flights. So, while it’s possible to find outsized value redemptions on Emirates, it’s much more difficult to identify these sweet spots because you can’t view the award chart.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at how the pricing works for Emirates-operated award flights, and we’re going to include all of the award charts for Emirates’ airline partners.
Award Pricing for Flights on Emirates
As mentioned above, the Emirates Skywards program uses an unpublished award chart to price all award flights operated by Emirates. If you wish to know the price of an Emirates award flight on a particular route, you can use the Miles Calculator tool on the Emirates website.
This tool can be used to calculate how many miles you can earn on certain routes as well as how many miles you’ll have to spend on certain routes. If you wish to know the price of an Emirates award flight, you can set this calculator to “Spend” and select Emirates as your airline.
Then, you’ll need to enter your fare class as well as your origin and destination. Once you’ve done that, the calculator will display the award prices. For example, we searched for the award prices for an economy Emirates flight from Dubai (DXB) to Los Angeles (LAX).
As you can see, the return price for a flight on this route would cost 65,000 miles in Economy Saver class and 115,000 miles in Economy Flex Plus class.
Note that this Miles Calculator doesn’t display availability. If you want to find an Emirates award flight that you can book, you’ll have to click the “Search flights” button underneath your desired fare.
The Miles Calculator is also the only way to view award prices for flights operated by flydubai, a government-owned, low-cost carrier headquartered in Dubai.
Award Charts for Flights on Partner Airlines
The Emirates Skywards program uses fixed, distance-based award charts to price award flights operated by its airline partners. All partner airlines use the same award chart, which you can view by clicking on nearly any partner on the Our Partners page of the Emirates website. Here’s the list of partner airlines to which this award chart applies:
| Air Canada | Air Mauritius | Azul |
| Bangkok Airways | Jetstar | South African Airways |
| Condor | Korean Air | TAP Air Portugal |
| Copa Airlines | Malaysia Airlines | United Airlines |
| GOL | Qantas | |
| Japan Airlines |
The following award chart displays the prices for award flights operated by almost all partner airlines (except flydubai and EasyJet) purchased through the Emirates Skywards program:
| Zone | One-way flight distance (in miles) | Economy | Business | First* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0–250 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 24,000 |
| 2 | 251–500 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 30,000 |
| 3 | 501–1,000 | 14,000 | 28,000 | 42,000 |
| 4 | 1,001–2,000 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 60,000 |
| 5 | 2,001–3,000 | 26,000 | 52,000 | 78,000 |
| 6 | 3,001–4,000 | 32,000 | 64,000 | 96,000 |
| 7 | 4,001–5,000 | 38,000 | 76,000 | 114,000 |
| 8 | 5,001–6,000 | 44,000 | 88,000 | 132,000 |
| 9 | 6,001–7,000 | 52,000 | 104,000 | 150,000 |
| 10 | 7,001–15,000 | 60,000 | 120,000 | 180,000 |
*First-class award flights are only available on Qantas. Economy- and business-class award flights are available on all partner airlines.
The rates listed above are for one-way flights. If you wish to know the award price of a round-trip flight, you’ll need to calculate the price of each direction separately.
For example, if you wanted to know the price of a round-trip Air Canada flight between Toronto (YYZ) and New York (JFK), the distance of which is about 360 miles each way, you’d need to consider each direction separately. Thus, the price would be 20,000 Skywards miles in economy class and 40,000 Skywards miles in business class.
EasyJet
Oddly, unlike other partner airlines, award flights operated by EasyJet are priced according to a dynamic pricing model through the Emirates Skywards program. That means that the price of an EasyJet award flight is tied to the cash price of that flight. Thus, you typically won’t be able to get more than 1 cent per mile when booking EasyJet flights with Skywards miles.
Award Pricing for Upgrades on Emirates
In addition to using Skywards miles to book awards flights on Emirates as well as partner airlines, you can also redeem Skywards miles for upgrades on Emirates flights that you’re already booked on. You can use Skywards miles to upgrade from economy to business class and from business to first class (and this is actually one of the best ways to book Emirates’ famous first class).
The number of miles required for a cabin class upgrade will depend on the original fare class that you’re booked in as well as the cabin class that you’re trying to upgrade to. And, unlike the prices of Emirates award flights, the prices of Emirates upgrade awards are determined by a dynamic pricing model. This means that it’s going to be difficult to find outsized value by redeeming Skywards miles for upgrade awards.
If you want to know the price of an upgrade award on a particular Emirates flight, you can use the Miles Calculator tool. Simply enter your origin, destination, booking class and enter “Emirates” as your airline. Then, you can view the rates for upgrades from each fare to the next higher class.
As you can see above, the cost of an upgrade award will depend on whether you originally booked in Special, Saver, Flex or Flex Plus.
The Bottom Line
Emirates Skywards is a fairly good frequent flyer program that is definitely worth keeping on your radar even if you never fly on Emirates. It’s easy to earn Emirates Skywards miles as the program is a transfer partner of nearly every major credit card rewards program (with the lone exception of Wells Fargo Rewards). That means that you can rack up a balance of Skywards miles without ever stepping on an airplane.
Plus, the Emirates Skywards program has some excellent airline partners with which you can book award flights, including Air Canada, Copa Airlines, Japan Airlines, Korean Air and United Airlines. Almost all partner award flights are priced using the same fixed, distance-based award chart, which means that you can definitely find outsized-value redemptions on partner award flights.
Finally, even though upgrade awards on Emirates flights are priced using a dynamic pricing model, purchasing upgrade awards is one of the best ways to experience Emirates’ world-famous first class product.
Note: As of May 12, 2025, Emirates First Class award redemptions are now limited to Skywards Silver, Gold and Platinum members. This new policy applies to award tickets that are booked directly for first class on Emirates, however you can still upgrade to first class using miles without this restriction.
New to the world of points and miles? The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the best card to start with.
With a bonus of 60,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. , 5x points on travel booked through Chase Travel℠ and 3x points on restaurants, streaming services, and online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), this card truly cannot be beat for getting started!
Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
10xTravel is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more.
Editors Note: Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
bonus cash back
after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
miles
once you spend $4,000 on purchases within 3 months from account opening, equal to $750 in travel.
bonus points
after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Membership Rewards® Points
after you spend $6,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership.
