Family Program
May 31, 2018 | 6:32 am
#17
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: CPT SA
Programs: EK Plat
Posts: 196
it states that any existing miles cannot be transferred in. So, for me, and I suspect most people, its a waste of time. You just end up with another account that has more orphan miles, as others have stated. Frankly, its a waste of time and of no benefit. Very disappointed.
May 31, 2018 | 10:09 am
#18
Join Date: May 2000
Location: HH Gold, Marriott Gold, PC Plat, Emirates Silver
Posts: 2,729
I was thinking of future transfers. What if I transfer in 50,000 membership reward points to my account and a family membet also transfers in 50,000 to their account? Would the family have 100,000.
May 31, 2018 | 8:21 pm
#19
Join Date: May 2018
Posts: 14
Jun 1, 2018 | 5:21 pm
#20
Join Date: May 2000
Location: HH Gold, Marriott Gold, PC Plat, Emirates Silver
Posts: 2,729
This is from View from the Wing which links to Australian Business Traveler. I would assume this applies to transferring AMEX points. I may do a test in the next week.
nor can you share Skywards Miles earned from other sources such as credit cards.
nor can you share Skywards Miles earned from other sources such as credit cards.
Jun 3, 2018 | 5:47 am
#24
Join Date: Oct 2017
Location: In transit
Programs: AF/KL BA GF EK EY LH QR
Posts: 588
Jun 4, 2018 | 9:33 am
#26
Join Date: May 2014
Location: Great Britain
Programs: Air: QR Silver. BA Silver Emirates, Hotels: CC Gold, IHG Spire AMB, Hilton Diamond.
Posts: 1,536
So the program appears to be up and running in a "soft launch" mode with no official announcement.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
If you are just getting going with Skywards or are adding new family members with no Skywards history, it could be interesting (although online upgrades still not available from an IT perspetive).
However, since the account starts at zero and miles can't be freely transferred, this is not useful if you have existing accounts with material amounts of miles in them. You'd need to drain the accounts first (which is hard without losing some miles) to make it useful, otherwise it's like just having another account to manage on top of the existing ones. Even my two kids have ~30-50k miles each in their accounts that are not worth losing. So if add them to the Family Plan, i'd have the Family Plan with a low balance and their existing accounts with limited use for their miles as redemptions must come from only one account. Maybe add family members who fly EK infrequently, assuming they dont mind but still probably have to lose (or use at low value) any existing miles.
Bottom line: I won't be accruing any miles into it for now.
FFS :-( So I can't pool the miles from each member of my family into one ?
That would be the main benefit I would want.
- And need at the moment !!
Jun 5, 2018 | 2:30 am
#27
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: DXB
Programs: EK, CX, AA, DL, UA, MAR, HGP, Amex
Posts: 1,211
Possible doesn't always mean Available with EK. For example, you can't use a skysurfer's miles (even if Silver/Gold) on board, nor can you even use them at check in.
Aug 26, 2020 | 11:07 am
#29
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: India
Programs: DL Diamond, Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, ALL Platinum, IHG Platinum
Posts: 30,690
don't fly emirates much & likely won't be flying them anytime soon....i have around 83k miles in my family account from a trip my family took last year....
i was looking at the various options i had to use the miles & i see one option is to use them for hotel bookings....i tried doing this but it won't give me to option to use my family account....it just shows my account which has zero miles as compared to my family account which has 83k miles....
i guess my question is, can i use the miles from my family account to book hotels????
i was looking at the various options i had to use the miles & i see one option is to use them for hotel bookings....i tried doing this but it won't give me to option to use my family account....it just shows my account which has zero miles as compared to my family account which has 83k miles....
i guess my question is, can i use the miles from my family account to book hotels????
Aug 14, 2021 | 12:57 pm
#30
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: DXB
Programs: AA EXP, A3 *G, LH SEN, SK EBG, Marriott Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, etc. etc....
Posts: 3,352
Skywards family account and miles from credit cards
It does work. But be sure to set the contribution to 100%, before you transfer the points. You can't transfer points from a personal account to a family account, so they have go straight from Amex/Chase to your family account.