Use your Emirates Skywards miles for UK train tickets

Emirates launches Skywards Rail

Just when you think you’ve seen all the innovative ways to use your points, Emirates launches a website that allows you to swap points for trains across Europe. More importantly, it works in the UK and it’s easy to use.

What is Skywards Rail?

It’s a new microsite launched by Emirates that allows you to use your Skywards points for UK train tickets. It appears to be usable on most UK train operators, including Avanti West Coast, Lumo and Great Western. You can use Skywards Rail to book tickets on the Heathrow Express. Skywards Rail has an outdated list of train operators on it’s landing page that includes Virgin Trains East Coast.

It covers both local and long-distance trains. I’ve seen hyper-local fares available for less than 1,000 miles.

You can choose to pay part-cash, part miles. This means that even if you only have a few hundred Skywards points, you can use them to get a discount on a ticket. Or you can utilise more points to get the ticket for free. There are no surcharges or fees levied.

How many points do you need for a train ticket?

• A one-way Economy ticket from Manchester to London Euston, off-peak in August, costs 8,191 Skywards points
  • Upgrade to Standard Premium (which Emirates calls Comfort), and it costs 24,026 points
• Newcastle to London at peak times in August costs 9,775 Skywards points.
• London to Bristol at peak costs 18,313 Skywards points.

These prices are marginally higher than the cost of buying the tickets direct, perhaps 5 – 10% higher. If you are looking to pay cash, then of course you would go to the train operators’ website, or Trainline, and book it cheaper.

How easy is the booking process?

It’s surprisingly easy to find and book train tickets. The homepage of Skywards Rail has a simple search box where you can enter your departure station, destination, date/time and the number of passengers. There is no option to add or use a railcard.

The search page shows you a maximum of three train options, prioritising direct trains. It does show you the train operator logo, and gives you the departure and arrival times.

When you select a train, you’re given all the available ticket options. Helpfully, the flexibility of the tickets is shown in the bottom left of the block, which highlights whether you can travel on alternative trains.

Any bookings you make will be visible in the My Bookings section of the website (but not the main Emirates website) as well as any trips you have taken in the past.

Is it worth using Skywards Rail?

If you have a few thousand points sat in your Emirates account, and you’re not going to use them on a flight, then this is a useful way to get value from those points.

Emirates helpfully shows a cash alternative for all fares. All of the fares I looked at convert at a rate of 0.6p, however you may be able to pick up tickets for less than what Emirates quotes. Having said that, they did appear to be on par with booking via Trainline, or with the operators’ direct.

As you can transfer Amex Membership Rewards points into Emirates, this gives you a way to get value from those points. It won’t be the best value (utilising the points for flights is much better), but it could be that saving money on regular train tickets is a more useful reward than a flight.

If you are looking to buy a ticket for cash then it makes no sense to use Skywards Rail. Just go to Trainline and get the ticket cheaper. You do not earn Skywards miles on purchases; otherwise, it may have been worth it.

If you are part of a train loyalty scheme, such as Club Avanti, then remember that these purchases will not be counted towards your targets.