While airline and hotel loyalty programs devalue their points all the time, we rarely see the same from bank programs. Sometimes they lose partners. For instance, when Korean Air did an exclusive deal with their co-brand credit card partner U.S. Bank, Chase lost the ability to transfer to Korean.
However we don’t see bank programs frequently break their 1:1 points transfer ratios. Some transfers get introduced at less than 1:1. Capital One launched points transfers at less than 1:1 and then improved most of those. That was huge!
Yet Citibank shared that starting July 27, transfers to Emirates will no longer be 1:1. They’re moving to 1 Citi ThankYou point to just 0.8 Emirates Skywards points.
- In a way that’s strange, because Emirates points just aren’t very valuable outside of upgrades from business class to first class.
- But Emirates is chintzy with its points, especially to non-elite premium class flyers. That’s by design.
- So I presumed they’re asking more money, and Citi made the economics work by passing along this change to customers.
Emirates A380 First Class Suite
Now we see a couple more dominos in a pattern. Both American Express and Chase say that transfers will be unavailable for about a month.
My American Express account shows,
Beginning May 28th, the ability to transfer Membership Rewards® points to Emirates Skywards® Miles will be temporarily unavailable. Please visit Emirates.com for more information. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Emirates A380 First Class Shower
And on the Chase Ultimate Rewards website a similar message:
Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards® points online or over the phone to Emirates Skywards will be unavailable between 12:00 AM ET 5/29/25 and tentatively 6/30/25. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Yquem in New Emirates First
Emirates is expensive to deal with! That’s why Air Canada Aeroplan introduced a separate award chart just for Emirates redemptions when first launching that partnership.
On the other hand, their first class product is excellent (their business class offering is mid at best, and on 777s worse than that). And pricing isn’t horrible for shorter flights like New York JFK – Milan where availability can also be quite good (it has been very good recently).
‘New’ Emirates Business Class, Credit: Emirates
Seeing Emirates transfers disappear for a time from both Chase and American Express, following the announcement of a devalued transfer ratio from Citi, suggests a move by Emirates rather than by any one bank. Remember when Emirates demanded Alaska stop offering awards through their old partnership so cheap – overnight – and Alaska found themselves making a no-notice devaluation and refunding points purchases?
(HT: Doctor of Credit)