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?