Hi all,


Newbie here with regards to Emirates. I see that there is a promotion for buying Skymiles and you get a bonus with what amount you buy. One question is that are the upgrades with sky miles at check in or on board hugely different to what you get with on line check in? If so what is the rough amount one would purchase to keep at hand? I am flying biz already. If its not worth it then I shall hold off from doing so, but would like to know others personal experiences .


Cheers and thanks for your time in reading this!

No, it's always the same cost, you can use the calculator on the website to check, but most routes you'd probably need 50-70k Sky​​​​wards miles

Skywards miles cost $30 per 1000 miles I.e 3 cents per skywards mile

A better option is to buy starpoints when there is a promotion going on.

Normally 3.5 cents per star point but right now there is a 35 % discount and therefore it is around 2.275 cents per star point.

Though star points can be converted to skyward miles at 1:1 , There is a bonus that 20000 star points gets you 25000 skywards .

( you get 5000 bonus for each 20000 you transfer and therefore 40000 starpoints gets you 50000 skywards)

this brings the cost down to 1.82 cents per skywards if you include the bonus.


There are a few catches like your starwooods account has to be 14 days old and that you can buy only 30000 starpoints per year per account.

Also it can take a few days to transfer from starpoints to skywards..

This promotion, if it can be combined with the MBNA credit card discount, should work out about the same. (Check my arithmetic before booking )

Not sure how that would help the OP. If you are thinking of the EK MBNA uk issued card , they closed down new applications last last year and the card will not get any skywards miles after July 20th.

You've been around here a while so I would have thought you knew how forums worked, but in answer to your wise guy comment:

1) I've not seen the inside of his/her wallet so no idea what credit cards are there. If the card is there,or even in a friend or partner's wallet it's a potential reduction in the cost of miles, similar to the one you just highlighted.
2) People other than the OP may read the thread which is titled "Buying Skywards" and might benefit from the information.

That's exactly the card I was thinking of and it will continue to get a discount if used to buy/gift Skywards miles, as discussed on here recently.

Oops. thought this was the BA forum.

I agree with your point that your post might help others looking for information..


But

The OP did say that he/she is new to Emirates. As far as I know , you cannot buy skywards miles onto a new account ( it should have had at least one flight with EK or a partner airline.)

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Thanks all for your input above!! Appreciated the advice!

Cheers