Have you seen those photos of ridiculously blinged-out airline seats? You know the ones: They often include flashy big-screen TVs, pop-up minibars, digital windows and seats so big you could melt right into them.

These luxurious cabins belong to Emirates, an international airline based in the United Arab Emirates. While the airline will happily sell you a ticket to fly in these seats, we’ve got another way.

(Photo by Brad Walters)

In this guide to the airline’s loyalty program, Emirates Skywards, we'll show you how to gain elite status, earn miles and redeem them for those super-fancy seats — without even traveling to the Middle East.

About Emirates

Emirates isn’t all gold-hued seats and private cabins. It has all the regular cabins you’d expect from an airline, including economy class seating. Yet even Emirates economy class sets the bar high in terms of quality. Emirates was the first airline to introduce individual television screens in economy class (that was way back in 1992), and it continues to innovate with above-average ergonomic features and high-quality food and entertainment.

What the airline is really known for, however, is its ultra-exclusive first class products, which offer perks such as onboard showers, standing bars for business and first class travelers, and state-of-the-art, faux digital windows (in case you get a middle suite). The first class bathroom on the Emirates A380 aircraft even has heated floors.

Fare types

Emirates operates four different cabins of service: economy, premium economy, business class and first class. Though, you won’t find each class of service on every flight since planes are configured differently. That's especially true of Emirates premium economy, which was only just announced in 2021 on a small set of routes, but has been rapidly expanding.

Emirates Premium Economy. (Photo by Sally French)

Main U.S. routes on Emirates

Emirates operates flights between its Dubai hub and the following U.S. cities:

Boston.

Chicago-O’Hare.

Dallas.

Houston-Intercontinental.

Los Angeles.

Miami.

Newark.

New York-John F. Kennedy.

Orlando.

San Francisco.

Seattle.

Washington-Dulles.

The airline also flies between Newark and Athens, Greece, and between New York-John F. Kennedy and Milan. Historically these so-called “fifth freedom” routes have been an easy way to fly the airline for a relatively low number of miles compared with flying all the way to Dubai.

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Emirates Skywards frequent flyer sign-up

To sign up for the Skywards program, go to this page and complete the form. You’ll be given the option to receive promotional emails, which can be helpful to keep up with fare sales, new routes and the like.

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How much Emirates miles are worth

NerdWallet values Emirates miles at 0.6 cent per point, as of our most recent analysis. In January 2023 the program increased its award pricing across the board for premium cabins, so you’ll want to make sure these miles still represent a good value to you.

To help you understand how much your Emirates Skywards miles are worth, we compared cash prices and reward redemptions for economy round-trip routes across several destinations and dates. We divided the cost of the cash ticket by the cost of the reward ticket to determine a “cent per mile” value for each flight, then averaged this value across several flights and dates.

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Emirates Skywards elite status tiers

Emirates has four elite tiers: Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Here’s what’s required to earn each status at a glance, along with some notable perks:

Let’s dive deeper into each tier’s benefits:

Emirates Blue status benefits

Special member-only offers and travel packages by tier.

Ability to nominate a personal “travel coordinator” for your account.

Priority waitlist for fully-booked flights.

Buy upgrades using your miles at the airport.

Paid Business Class lounge access in Dubai and other select airports.

Free Wi-Fi when traveling in first class.

Emirates Silver status benefits

Special member-only offers and travel packages by tier.

Ability to nominate a personal “travel coordinator” for your account.

Priority waitlist for fully-booked flights.

Buy upgrades using your miles at the airport.

Complimentary access to any Emirates Business Class lounge in Dubai.

Additional lounge access for a fee.

Free Wi-Fi when traveling in business or first class.

Complimentary seat selection when flying economy (regular seats only).

Extra baggage allowance up to 26 pounds (12 kilograms).

A 30% bonus on earned miles when flying Emirates.

Priority check-in and boarding.

Emirates Gold status benefits

Special member-only offers and travel packages by tier.

Ability to nominate a personal “travel coordinator” for your account.

Priority waitlist for fully-booked flights.

Buy upgrades using your miles at the airport.

Complimentary lounge access for yourself and one adult guest at any Emirates Business Class lounge in Dubai and at lounges throughout the Emirates network.

Additional lounge access for a fee.

Free Wi-Fi when traveling in business or first class.

Access to preferred seats in economy.

Extra baggage allowance up to 35 pounds (16 kilograms).

A 50% bonus on earned miles when flying Emirates.

Priority check-in and boarding.

Gold-level priority service when calling the call center.

Priority baggage tagging upon arrival, where available.

Emirates Platinum status benefits

Special member-only offers and travel packages by tier.

Ability to nominate a personal “travel coordinator” for your account.

Priority waitlist for fully-booked flights.

Buy upgrades using your miles at the airport.

Complimentary lounge access for yourself, one adult guest and two guests under 17 at any Emirates Business Class lounge in Dubai and at lounges throughout the Emirates network.

Additional guest lounge access for a fee.

Free Wi-Fi when traveling in any cabin.

Access to preferred seats in economy, including Extra Legroom seats.

Extra baggage allowance up to 44 pounds (20 kilograms).

A 100% bonus on earned miles when flying Emirates.

Priority check-in and boarding.

Platinum-level priority service when calling the call center.

Priority first-class baggage tagging, when available.

Access to Last Seat Classic Flex Plus reward tickets.

Ability to gift Gold status to one other person.

No expiration of Skywards miles.

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The Emirates lounge at San Francisco International Airport. (Photo by Sally French)

How to earn Emirates miles

There are multiple ways to earn Emirates Skyward miles, from flying on Emirates and its partner airlines to using a transferable currency or holding an Emirates co-branded credit card. Here are all the ways you can increase your balance of Skyward miles.

Earning when you fly Emirates

Unlike most U.S. airlines, Emirates calculates earned miles based on distance flown and fare class, rather than the ticket cost. On top of that, as noted above, Silver members earn 30% bonus miles per flight, Gold members earn 75% and Platinum members earn 100%.

As a Blue member, here’s what you’d earn on a one-way flight between Miami and Dubai, for example:

Economy (saver level): 3,600 miles.

Business (saver level): 15,000 miles.

First: 30,000 miles.

Earning when you fly other airlines

Emirates lists more than a dozen airline partners through which you can earn miles through flying, including Air Canada (but no U.S. airlines at this time). You’ll earn up to 2 Skywards miles per mile flown on these partner airlines, as long as you choose to credit your flights to Emirates.

Earning Emirates miles with a credit card

Emirates launched two credit cards for U.S. travelers a few years ago, both issued through Barclays. The bonuses on these cards alone are enough to get you well on your way to an award flight.

The Emirates Skywards Premium World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card charges a $499 annual fee and comes with the following:

Bonus offer: Earn 40,000 bonus Skywards Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.

Earnings rate: 3 miles per dollar spent with Emirates, 2 miles per dollar spent on qualifying travel purchases and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.

Perks: Instant Gold status for a year, no foreign transaction fees, Priority Pass Select lounge access, fee waiver for Global Entry or TSA Precheck application and 10,000 anniversary miles.

Meanwhile, for a $99 annual fee, the Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard® Credit Card includes:

Bonus offer: Earn 30,000 bonus Skywards Miles after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days.

Earnings rate: 3 miles per dollar spent with Emirates, 2 miles per dollar spent on qualifying travel purchases and 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.

Perks: Instant Silver status for a year and no foreign transaction fees.

Transferable currencies to Emirates

Even if you don’t fly Emirates often or use its credit cards, their miles are relatively easy to rack up via transfer from major reward programs. Miles can be transferred on a 1:1 basis to Emirates from American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards®, and Citi ThankYou rewards. You can also transfer on a 3:1 basis from Marriott Bonvoy, and at varying other rates from hotel partners, car rentals or Brex rewards.

Earning Emirates miles through partners

Rental cars: Earn 1 mile per dollar spent when booking a rental car through Emirates’ website via their partner CarTrawler.

Hotel stays: Earn up to 10,000 Skywards miles per night booking hotels through Emirates, and tack on 2,500 miles if you use a co-branded Emirates credit card to do so. There can be additional bonus offers available too. You can also earn miles staying at a variety of hotel chains.

Shopping portals: Earn miles with every dollar spent at over 1,000 stores through the Emirates Skywards mall.

Other partners: Emirates has a number of other partnerships with which you can earn miles, including cabs, a rideshare service and the Dubai Mall.

Pooling Emirates miles

Emirates allows you to create a family account of up to eight members, including yourself. You can credit 100% of reward miles earned by family members to this account.

Buying, gifting or transferring Emirates miles

Emirates lets you buy or gift miles, to the tune of $30 per 1,000 miles up to a maximum of 100,000 to 200,000 miles per year, based on your elite tier level. You can also transfer miles for $15 per 1,000 miles, up to 50,000 miles per year.

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How to redeem Emirates miles

Emirates doesn’t publish an award chart for its own flights, but the airline makes it pretty easy to figure out how many miles a flight will cost. Use the airline’s mileage calculator to select your city pairs, then click “calculate.” On the results page, select the “spend” tab to see how many miles the itinerary costs.

Beware that Emirates will also levy surcharges on its own flights — sometimes hundreds of dollars.

When booking flights, you’ll have the option to pay with a combination of cash and miles. This can significantly knock down the cash price of a flight, so it’s worth checking out if you have a specific itinerary in mind and don’t have enough miles for a reward ticket.

Good Emirates redemption options

Award flights to Europe: The most competitive use of Emirates miles for most American travelers is on the airline’s flights between the U.S. and Europe. Here’s what you’ll pay to fly between New York-John F. Kennedy and Milan in one direction in the airline’s premium cabins:

Similar rates typically apply to the airline’s other U.S.-to-Europe route, between Newark and Athens.

These are solid rates compared with other rewards programs, especially considering you’re paying for an experience you won’t get on most other airlines flying between the U.S. and Europe. Flights on the A380 like the one above, for example, feature an on-board lounge for first class and business class passengers and private showers for those in first class.

Just make sure to factor in the added costs of any connecting flight you’d have to take.