NEW: convert Emirates Skywards miles INTO Heathrow Rewards (or vice versa)

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Here is an odd one I didn’t see coming – but which could be very handy for a lot of Head for Points readers.

The first bit of news is not hugely surprising.

Emirates Skywards has joined Heathrow Rewards as a transfer partner – see here. As British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa and Etihad are already transfer partners, it is not a surprising addition.

The transfer rate is the same as the other airline partners. 250 Heathrow Rewards points gets you 250 miles.

You earn 1 Heathrow Rewards point for every £1 you spend in the shops at Heathrow, in the official car parks or on the Heathrow Express website, plus 1 point for every £10 of currency you exchange in the airport.

The second bit of news IS surprising.

You can transfer Emirates Skywards miles INTO Heathrow Rewards. The details are here.

Here are the rules:

The minimum Emirates transfer into Heathrow Rewards is 6,000 miles

The conversion rate is 3:1 so 6,000 miles gets you 2,000 Heathrow Rewards points

The maximum conversion per transaction is 54,000 Emirates Skywards miles

As 2,000 Heathrow Rewards points gets you a £20 shopping voucher, you are getting 0.33p per mile

You CANNOT convert Heathrow Rewards points gained via Emirates into airline miles

I wasn’t sure that Heathrow Rewards would have the IT to impose that final rule, so I took one for the team and tried it out.

My first surprise is that the transfer was INSTANT. I logged out of my Heathrow Rewards account, logged back in and the 2,000 points were there.

Next to your points total online is a little question mark. Click on this and a box pops up which says:

Heathrow points: xxx

Emirates converted points: xxx

I went over to the Avios conversion page. I got a message “You do not have enough points to redeem for this reward” – which was true, excluding the Emirates miles.

I then went to the shopping vouchers page and WAS able to redeem for £20 of shopping vouchers without any problems.

Find out more on the Emirates website here.

Emirates A380

Conclusion

This IS an excellent way of using up some spare Emirates Skywards miles (minimum 6,000) especially if they are about to expire.

Don’t forget the other two ways of using up small amounts though – Arsenal football tickets and redeeming for easyJet flights.

You CANNOT use this as a method of converting Skywards miles into Avios by laundering them through Heathrow Rewards – the IT works and those redemptions are blocked off.

How to earn Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Emirates Skywards does not have a UK credit card. However, you can earn Emirates Skywards miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards. These are:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 20,000 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Emirates Skywards miles

American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 5,000 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:1 into Emirates Skywards miles which is an attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 1 Emirates Skywards mile. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it.