Emirates Skywards’ Confusing Classic Reward Rules

When redeeming Emirates Skywards miles to book Emirates Classic Reward flights, there are two categories available – Saver and Flex Plus reward tickets.

Saver rewards cost fewer miles than Flex Plus rewards, but Flex Plus rewards are available on more flights. Seems simple, right? Well, not so fast…

For some reason, Emirates also attaches additional rules to Saver Classic Rewards which are confusing and poorly explained on the Emirates website. The pricing of Emirates Classic Rewards also makes little sense.

Restrictions on Emirates Saver Classic Rewards

There are a range of restrictions on Emirates’ cheaper Saver Classic Rewards. For example, it’s not possible to book one-way Saver Rewards from most destinations.

But until recently, these specific restrictions were not listed anywhere on the Emirates website or even in the Skywards program terms & conditions. In fact, the only mention of Saver Rewards not being available as one-way tickets was buried in an FAQs page on the Emirates website.

After we contacted Emirates, the airline has now added a table to section 12 of the Emirates Skywards programme rules which outlines the fare conditions of Saver and Flex Plus Classic Rewards. This is an improvement, but in our view, Skywards members should not have to read through pages of terms & conditions to find this crucial information.

Here’s a list of restrictions that apply to Emirates Classic Rewards in the Saver category:

• Saver Rewards can only be booked as round-trip awards, except when departing from Australia or New Zealand (one-way Saver Rewards are possible from Australia or New Zealand only)
• When booking a round-trip Saver Reward, there is a maximum stay at the destination of 3 months
• Only one free stopover is permitted on either the outbound or inbound journey (not both)
• Saver Rewards are not available in First Class

Some of these restrictions are now listed in the relevant table in the Emirates Skywards programme rules:

The bizarre rule that you can book a one-way Emirates Saver Reward in Economy or Business Class departing from Australia or New Zealand, but not from anywhere else, is not mentioned in the above table. In fact, it’s not mentioned anywhere on the Emirates website. But an Emirates spokesperson confirmed to Australian Frequent Flyer that this is indeed the case.

“Emirates Skywards Classic Saver Rewards offer members the best value when travelling during low demand period. Members travelling from any point in Australia or New Zealand, can book a one-way flight ticket using Saver Rewards,” an Emirates spokesperson said.

“However, members travelling from any other point in Emirates’ global network, will only be able to book a one-way flight ticket using Flex Plus Rewards, which provides more flexibility and choice on high demand flights.

“With more than 28 million members worldwide, the loyalty programme continues to cater to its diverse membership base by providing personalised and market specific offerings. For more information, visit emirates.com/au.”

For what it’s worth, the only reference we could find on the Emirates website to one-way Saver Rewards only being available from Australia or New Zealand is within the Miles Calculator. On there, if you check the number of miles required on a route departing from Australia or New Zealand, an amount is shown in the Saver column for one-way Economy or Business Class flights:

But if searching on another route, the table says “Not applicable”:

There is some fine print below the table on the Miles Calculator page which says: “You can’t spend your Miles on Special or Flex fares in Economy Class and Business Class, including one-way flights. Special fares are not eligible for upgrades”. But there is no mention here of one-way awards being unavailable from most destinations in the Saver category.

These restrictions only apply when redeeming Skywards miles for Emirates flights. The rules are different when redeeming Skywards miles for flights with other Emirates partner airlines such as Qantas or jetBlue.

Emirates Skywards Classic Reward pricing

When redeeming Skywards miles to fly with partner airlines other than Emirates, the pricing is based on award charts. But Emirates no longer publishes award charts for its own flights. Instead, you need to search for pricing on a route-by-route basis using the Emirates Miles Calculator and the pricing doesn’t always make sense.

Emirates reward flight pricing can vary quite a lot between routes. In fact, the number of miles you’ll need to spend on an Emirates Classic Reward could be different when travelling in opposite directions of the same route!

For example, a round-trip Classic Reward in Emirates Business Class from Sydney to Dubai costs 192,000 Skywards miles in the Saver category or 305,000 miles in the Flex Plus category.

But a round-trip Business Saver Reward from Dubai to Sydney costs 145,000 Skywards miles for a Saver ticket or 230,000 miles for Flex Plus.

In First Class, you’d pay 180,500 Skywards miles for a one-way Flex Plus Classic Reward from Sydney to Dubai. But in the other direction, the cost is only 136,250 Skywards miles for exactly the same thing. That’s almost 25% cheaper.

So, you’ll pay significantly more Skywards miles by starting your trip in Australia. Perhaps that’s the trade-off for being able to book one-way Saver Rewards in Economy & Busines Class?

Frustratingly, Emirates can also change its reward pricing without any notice. In fact, as One Mile at a Time reported, Emirates did exactly this last week without any announcement.

At the time of writing, the cost of a one-way Business Flex Plus Classic Reward from Sydney to Dubai is 152,500 Skywards miles (as shown above). But in January 2022, the same reward would have only cost 132,500 Skywards miles.

In other words, Emirates just increased the cost of a Flex Plus reward flight from Sydney to Dubai in Business Class by 20,000 miles without telling anyone.

To top it off, there’s even a note on the Miles Calculator page that says:

Please note that the Miles shown in the calculator may differ to the Miles quoted at the time of booking, depending upon your itinerary, which will include carrier-imposed charges and government taxes.

So, Emirates doesn’t even have to charge the number of miles shown in its Miles Calculator and can just increase the price whenever it wants.

All of this makes Emirates Skywards a confusing, opaque frequent flyer program that doesn’t always represent great value. But there are a two key things that work in the program’s favour:

1. You can often get Flex Plus availability on Emirates flights when other airlines don’t have any award availability (even if it’s more expensive), and
2. Emirates Skywards miles can be redeemed on some interesting partner airlines that aren’t otherwise accessible to Australians, such as Korean Air and Air Mauritius. This provides more options to Australians with credit card points that can be transferred to Emirates Skywards.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.