See Queen’s Club tennis with your Emirates Skywards miles

Emirates Skywards is offering tickets for the Queen’s Club tennis tournament in London for the 2nd year running.  This is the traditional mens event which runs immediately before Wimbledon.

It runs from Monday 17th June.  Standard tickets are priced from 7,500 Skywards miles to 10,500 Skywards miles per person.  VIP hospitality packages (for sale for cash by Keith Prowse for £1,200 inc VAT for two) are available at 30,000 to 40,000 miles per person.

My wife and I went last year on a VIP package. I can’t remember what we paid in terms of miles.  However, the value is questionable at 30,000 Skywards miles each, which I’d value at £300, given that you can redeem for the tickets on their own for 75% fewer miles.

My biggest gripe was the Emirates group itself.  There were probably 16 of us, of whom two were Emirates hosts and 12 were travel agents on a jolly, invited for free by the airline.  My wife and I were sidelined during the lunch, which was on one large table.  In contrast, if you go to an Arsenal game using miles, virtually all of the guests in the Emirates Box are Skywards members on redemptions – and virtually all of them are HfP readers.

If you were moving points, transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Emirates Skywards are usually instantaneous.  However, your accounts must already be linked for this to happen.  Unfortunately you cannot see availability without having the necessary miles in your account so I wouldn’t risk making a speculative transfer from Amex.

Full details are on the Skywards website here.

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.