Chase Ultimate Rewards is dropping Emirates as a transfer partner. October 15th is the last day to transfer from Chase to Emirates Skywards.
Citi and Amex announced devaluations of their transfers from 1:1 down to 5:4 (1:0.8). Chase isn’t playing that game, keeping all of their partners at a base rate of 1:1.
They’re giving us a couple of months’ notice. And I honestly do not care about losing Emirates as a transfer partner, though I do wish Chase would pick up more transfer partners.
- Emirates miles aren’t very valuable outside of upgrades from business to first class.
- They charge a lot of points and huge surcharges. They restrict first class awards, but Qantas Frequent Flyer can still book those and often at a better rate.
Roughly speaking, Emirates is indifferent to their loyalty program except as a tool for marketing to high value flyers. The change leaves the following transfer partners:
- Star Alliance: United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air Canada Aeroplan
- oneworld: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Aer Lingus AerClub
- Hotels: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards
Hyatt is their best transfer partner and given Chase’s co-brand relationship none of the other bank programs have Hyatt as a partner. Aeroplan and Air France KLM Flying Blue give you the best of Star Alliance and SkyTeam. I wish they’d have either American AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, but they cannot do to other deals those programs have n place.
It would be easy to add Finnair and Qantas from oneworld; Etihad (though it’s a terrible program); Accor – or even get creative and transfer to GHA Discovery and JSX. Chase United cards have JSX benefits (United is part-owner of JSX), and JSX has a new loyalty program.
The only thing I do worry about in dropping the Emirates Skywards transfer option is if this means we’ll lose 2 cent per point premium cabin redemptions on Emirates from PointsBoost.
(HT: u/prateek07)
“Aeroplan and Air France KLM Flying Blue give you the best of Star Alliance and oneworld.”
AF-KLM is in SkyTeam.
Also, why don’t want Finnair? You can transfer from BA (a Chase transfer partner) to Finnair.
I flew Emirates F this year from Asia, but I have no reason to fly to or through Dubai anytime soon.
@Daniel – i meant to say ‘easy’ not ‘nice’
With Chase’s The Edit program, why do you even need Hyatt for luxury stays? Hyatt has become obsolete for me.
Yeah, I prefer using Chase (and BILT) for Hyatt, United; and Amex to Emirates (no excise fees for foreign carriers, thankfully), but it’s getting worse across the board, as these transfer rates devalue (see Amex to jetBlue).
@Daniel — Finnair is unreliable; and, if you get stuck in Helsinki, it’s… HEL.
@Kirk — I flew First and Business with EK via DXB in June, around the time of all the craziness, I think I was only able to get the last-minute 70K/35K upgrades from J to F because of that chaos. I enjoyed my shower on the a380. If you aren’t a fan, that’s on you. More fun for the rest of us!
Emirates is just OK. It’s a fun experience, once, albeit a tacky one and DXB can be unpleasant airport to connect through.
@shoeguy — Even in economy, it’s better than most airlines. While parts of DXB are showing their age, it, too, is better than most airports, unless your gate is literally C1 (super-long walk). Can you be more specific with your criticisms?
Its also valuable for upgrades from Economy to Business. My travel insurance would only buy an economy ticket, but I was able to upgrade it to business using points
Good. EK Skywards is a Meh program anyway. Better Chase drop them than to go along with the devaluation. If Chase had went along with it, you can be sure other airlines would start to challenge the 1:1 ratio. They still might, but maybe Amex and Citi will show more backbone next time.