Skywards (Emirates Airlines FFP)

Skywards is Emirates & Sri Lanken Airlines Frequent Flyer Program (FFP). The current program has been around for about the last three years, and has been offering passengers of the two airlines various benefits and bonuses for frequently flying on their networks.

Skywards generally works on the same principles of most FFP, you register with the program and give your Frequent Flyer details at check in, and you earn airmiles for each ...
...how do you earn these Skywards Airmiles?

For every literal mile you fly (with Emirates, Sri Lanken or one of their partners airlines), you gain 1 airmile. For example a flight from Manchester, UK to Dubai (with Emirates) is a distance of 3512 miles, so you would earn 3512 airmiles. You can increase this amount depending on your cabin class and tier status. You recieve an extra 50% for flying in Business or an extra 100% for flying ... more

Skywards is Emirates & Sri Lanken Airlines Frequent Flyer Program (FFP). The current program has been around for about the last three years, and has been offering passengers of the two airlines various benefits and bonuses for frequently flying on their networks.

Skywards generally works on the same principles of most FFP, you register with the program and give your Frequent Flyer details at check in, and you earn airmiles for each flight you take with them, or any of their partner airlines (you also gain miles from other institutions, but I will touch on that in a minute). You can then use these airmiles in exchange for various things, including free flights, upgrades, hotel stays and various leisure activities. So how do you earn these Skywards Airmiles?

For every literal mile you fly (with Emirates, Sri Lanken or one of their partners airlines), you gain 1 airmile. For example a flight from Manchester, UK to Dubai (with Emirates) is a distance of 3512 miles, so you would earn 3512 airmiles. You can increase this amount depending on your cabin class and tier status. You recieve an extra 50% for flying in Business or an extra 100% for flying in First. So your Business flight would earn you 5268 airmiles and in First you'd get 7024 airmiles (hyperthetically, as currently the direct Emirates flight from Manchester to Dubai only has Economy and Business cabins). Generally you get the idea, that the more loyal you are to the program, the more you get back. If you're paying for higher cabin classes, you'll receive more miles and loyalty from the airline. You receive this extra loyalty also through their tier system. Each time you earn an Airmile, you also earn 1 tier mile. These are seperate, and are what you use to rise up the tier levels (Blue, Silver and Gold). 25000 gains you silver status, while 50000 gains you gold. Obvisouly only the serious FF gain Gold level. Each level has its own benefits, with Gold obvisouly having more than Silver or Blue. These range from extra miles bonuses (25% extra for silver and 50% for gold members. Silver members get Business lounge access in Dubai while Gold members get lounge access across the Emirates and Sri Lanken network.

You can also gain miles through stays at Skywards' partner hotels, leisure facilities, financial partners and car rental partners. So what do i think of Skywards?

I have been a member for little under a year. I am only 20, and it does seem crazy that i am a member of a FFP already. Ever since joiing i have been throughly impressed with the service i have received. I got a bonus of 2500 airmiles for my first qualifying flight with Emirates (which could have been upto 5000 miles had i flown in First class). The have been running on offer, which states that if you book online (the Emirates website) you receive double miles, so in the little time i have been a member, i have managed to accumalte over 60000 miles with them. It also hasnt taken me long to reach Silver level, and have definitely enjoyed the perks: i can use the Business Class check in (even though i flew economy) i get a bigger baggage allowance), priority waitlist options, shoudl the flight be overbooked, and access to the Business lounge in Dubai. Saying this, i think this is the only imt that Skywards faults where other FFP exceed. At level 2 of their program (Silver) you only get access to the lounge in Dubai and only when Flying Emirates, whereas, for example, as a Silver level (level 2) of the BA executive club, not only do i get BA terrace access worldwide when flying BA, but also access to all the relevant lounges associated with the One World Alliance members (when flying on a One World Airline). My other gripe with Skywards is that is limits its financial partners to Middle Eastern organisations, therefore limiting my scope for earning miles (as you need to be a national or resident to use the UAE or Qatar banks). In hindsight, it does seem appropriate as it is a Middle Eastern Airline.

Even though you can get a lot of miles in a short space of time (especially now, even though you dont get double miles for booking online, you do get 75% extra for Economy bookings, 175% for Business and 250% bonus for booking in First using their website) if you wanted to make a redemption (get a free flight) from London to Morocco, you would have to use miles to fly you to Dubai, then to Morocco, as Emirates or Sri Lanken dont fly UK Morocco direct. But with the new extra bonuses, you'd earn more miles sooner, and can treat yourself to a holiday in Dubai instead.

My final moan about the program is that your Skywards miles only last for 3 years, and if you dont use them within that 3 year period then you lose them. Obvisouly not brilliant for those you dont fly more than a couple of times a year.

On the up side, it has Service Centres in the UK too, so i can call a UK number to speak to Skywards, and only have to send boarding passes etc for flight credit to their UK address, which obvisouly saves a lot of time and money.

Their website is staright forward to use, and you can make redemtions (ie. use your miles for free flights, upgrades etc) online, making Skywards not only a very easy to use and effective program, but with their numerous offers (check out the website for more up to date offers) and quality of service, I am very impressed with the last 9 months of membership (9 months and i have over 60000 Skywards miles and have gained Silver tier Status - not bad really) and hope the next 9 months and following years are just as impressive. A very big thumbs up to Skywards. 

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