Your Emirates Skywards Miles Might Soon Expire

If you have Emirates Skywards miles that have been sitting in your account during the pandemic, you may need to act fast to prevent them from expiring and losing all their value!

Like many airlines, Emirates has been extending the validity of Skywards miles that would have been due to expire during the COVID-19 pandemic while travel options were limited. Emirates has been doing this since April 2020.

However, Emirates will stop extending the validity of miles that would have otherwise expired during the pandemic from next week! From 1 September 2022, Emirates will resume its normal policy of Skywards miles expiring after 3 years.

Emirate Skywards uses a “time-stamping” policy, whereby miles are normally valid for 3 years after they are earned – regardless of your account activity. Specifically, Emirates Skywards miles expire at the end of the member’s birthday month on the third year after the miles have been earned.

According to the Emirates website, there will continue to be “special consideration for our members who live in countries with continued travel restrictions”. Australia is not one of those countries, so if you have Skywards miles that would have already expired under the normal program rules, you will need to use them by 31 August 2022 or risk losing them!

Emirates says that it emails Skywards members two months before their miles are due to expire.

What can you redeem Skywards miles for?

If you’re at risk of forfeiting your unused Skywards miles, now would be a good time to consider redeeming them for something of value!

Emirates Skywards miles can be redeemed for Classic Reward flights on Emirates, as well as the airline’s partners which include Qantas, Jetstar, Korean Air, Air Mauritius, Japan Airlines, jetBlue and TAP Air Portugal.

Skywards redemptions on Qantas flights start at 8,000 miles (plus taxes) for one-way Economy flights up to 250 miles. Short routes in this category include Sydney-Canberra, Brisbane-Hervey Bay, Sydney-Dubbo, Sydney-Port Macquarie and Melbourne-Burnie.

You can also redeem Skywards miles for Emirates flight upgrades (subject to availability) and with partners for hotel bookings, car rentals, retail rewards or by donating to the Emirates Airline Foundation charity.

See our Overview of Emirates Skywards Redemptions or the Emirates website for more information on spending miles.

How to extend your Emirates Skywards miles

It is possible to extend the validity of Emirates Skywards miles once, for a period of 12 months, for a fee of USD20 (~AU$29) per thousand. That’s quite expensive, so we wouldn’t recommend doing this if you can help it!

You can pay to extend your miles up to 90 days before they are due to expire, and you can pay to extend a maximum of 50,000 Skywards miles per year only.

Rather than paying to extend your miles, you can use them to book travel up to 11 months in advance on Emirates and its partner airlines. If you think you’ll be able to travel in the next 11 months, this is probably a better option.

What to do if your Emirates Skywards miles have already expired

If your Skywards miles have recently expired, you can pay USD20 per 1,000 miles to reinstate them for up to a year. However, this is only possible if your miles expired within the last 180 days (six months) and, again, you may only reinstate or extend up to 50,000 miles per year.

This would be quite an expensive way to get your miles back. So if possible, it’s best to try to use your Skywards miles before they have expired!

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Skywards miles will resume expiring on 1 September 2022

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.