AMEX points transfer to Emirates Skywards is being devalued

You'll now get fewer Skywards points when you transfer in

If you're looking to transfer your Membership Rewards Points to Emirates then do it quickly. The changes below take place from the 19th August 2024

What's changing?

American Express announced today (17th July) that they're making some changes to their Membership Rewards Programme. There were three announcements, but one really stood out.

1. Firstly you can transfer Membership Reward points to Qatar Avios, It must have passed me by if this wasn't already the case. It's a moot change because you could transfer to other Avios partners, and you can then transfer from those to Qatar. There's a 500-point minimum for each transfer.
2. You can now use your Membership Reward points to pay at Checkout via Paypal. I have never used points to pay for a purchase at checkout - for others, this may be useful.
3. Finally the big one. Previously you could transfer one Membership Rewards point into the Emirates Skywards programme for one mile. This will be changing on the 19th of August so that four Membership Rewards points will become three Skywards miles. So effectively 1 MR point is now worth 0.75 Skywards miles. A devaluation of 25%. The minimum transfer of 1,000 points is unaffected.

Why is Amex making this change?

This will be conjecture. I'm going to assume that this change has been instigated by Emirates. They determine the financials, and so they have chosen to put the cost per point up. There could be a number of reasons behind this - financial, or they want to migrate away from redemptions via non-flyers (or at least focus on individuals who get their points via Emirates).

I've only ever done one trip with Emirates using points, and that was a UK to Dubai trip just after COVID-19, with one flight in First and one in Business. It was an amazing experience, but even in a very off-peak period, it wasn't the most efficient use of my miles. I regularly scan their availability as I do travel to the Middle East a lot and the miles required are often extortionate. In some cases, it's worth the equivalent of 3x trips on BA/Qatar.

What exactly have Amex said?

Here's a quote from the email they shared:

From 19 August 2024 the points transfer ratio for the Emirates Skywards loyalty programme will be changed from: “1 Membership Rewards® point = 1 Skywards mile” to “4 Membership Rewards points = 3 Skywards miles”. As continued, a minimum of 1,000 Membership Rewards points is required to transfer, increasing in increments of 500 points. A maximum limit of 999,000 points applies to each transfer to Skywards Miles. Your Membership Rewards points will continue to be transferred to your Emirates Skywards account within 48 hours upon your request. Please visit here for more information.