Emirates breaking up with some transferable currencies (temporarily?)

Last week, Citi unexpectedly reduced the transfer ratio of Thank You rewards to Emirates Skywards. On last week’s Frequent Miler on the Air podcast, I speculated that this was likely a change coming from the Emirates side and I predicted that it was a matter of time before we saw similar changes in the Emirates partnership with other transferable currencies. Unfortunately, Doctor of Credit reported yesterday that both American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards will be losing transfers to Emirates Skywards at the end of May 2025. Transfers are tentatively scheduled to resume after June 30, 2025. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

Emirates Skywards transfers will be unavailable from two major transferable currencies from the end of May until the end of June

Both American Express Membership Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards programs are showing messaging indicating that transfers to Emirates Skywards are going to become unavailable in about a month.

American Express Membership Rewards messaging:

Beginning May 28th, the ability to transfer Membership Rewards® points to Emirates Skywards® Miles will be temporarily unavailable. Please visit Emirates.com for more information. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Chase Ultimate Rewards messages:

Emirates Skywards will be unavailable Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards® points online or over the phone to Emirates Skywards will be unavailable between 12:00 AM ET 5/29/25 and tentatively 6/30/25. We apologize for the inconvenience.

I don’t yet see similar messaging through Capital One Miles or Bilt Rewards, though I have to wonder whether we’ll see changes there, too.

What is behind these developments?

Nobody knows for sure why Citi devalued transfers to Emirates and why transfers to Emirates will become unavailable (for at least a while?) from Chase and American Express. However, it seems reasonable to guess that Emirates Skywards wants to charge more for their miles. Citi seemingly agreed to pay more and devalued transfers accordingly. It sounds like Chase and Amex are still negotiating (or perhaps Amex is indicating that they are willing to give up their partnership with Emirates?).

I would therefore expect it to be pretty likely that we’ll also see changes from other programs that partner with Emirates for transfers, though we have no confirmation at this point.

Alaska had a partnership with Emirates years ago (long since ended). At one point during the partnership, the cost of Emirates awards doubled overnight. Many of us blamed Alaska for the no-notice devaluation. On last week’s podcast, I made the point that hindsight has me placing less blame on Alaska. Over the ensuing years, Emirates has greatly reduced or eliminated partner access to awards and sharply increased carrier-imposed surcharges. They newly partnered with Air Canada Aeroplan to allow access to business and first class redemptions, but the significantly higher award chart for those redemptions indicates that they wanted far more money than is standard for such redemptions. I have to guess that Emirates simply wants more for its product.

As a traveler who has very much enjoyed Emirates First Class a number of times over the years, I am of course highly disappointed to see even further roadblocks to Emirates award access like those currently coming into focus. At the same time, I understand that they operate a product that people desire. While Emirates doesn’t have the all-out best first class experience in my opinion, there’s no doubt that it is the most glitzy and that award travelers want to experience it. I guess they feel like there is enough demand to put award redemptions further out of reach. Perhaps they are right, but I am nonetheless disappointed — particularly since my wife is stuck with existing Emirates miles that are due to expire next year.

We’ll have to wait and see whether transfers come back later and whether other currencies are effected. For now, if you find an Emirates award that you want to book, keep in mind that transfers from at least two popular currencies will at least temporarily pause at the end of May 2025.

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