Emirates ‘one day flight deal’ from Spain – and it is launching Barcelona to Mexico City

Emirates has announced a new daily service from Barcelona to Mexico City from 9th December.

This will be a ‘fifth freedom’ tag to the Dubai to Barcelona service.  It is, apparently, not possible to reach Mexico City from Dubai directly due to the high altitude of the airport, which means a fully fuelled aircraft would be too heavy to take off for the return leg.

As part of the launch promotion it is selling Madrid or Barcelona to The Maldives for €1,999 in Business Class today only.  Whilst not a massive bargain, there are tougher things in life than combining Madrid or Barcelona with The Maldives, and the fare is good for travel until 19th December.

If you don’t have a credit card with 0% foreign exchange fees, your best option for paying is American Express Preferred Rewards Gold which offers triple points – 3 per £1 – when you book flight tickets in a foreign currency.  This is because the transaction triggers the ‘double points for airline spend’ and the ‘double points for foreign spend’ bonuses.

Details are on the Emirates Spain 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.