Bad news for Skywards point accumulators, goodbye to a popular shortcut
In recent days a reader wrote to me to ask for clarification regarding a change in the T&Cs of Skywards, [...]
Emirates
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In recent days, a reader wrote to me to ask for clarification regarding a change in Skywards T&Cs, the Emirates loyalty program. And I must say that I haven't read anything on other international sites/forums either.
The anticipated news
In mid-December all Emirates frequent flyer members received an email.
In the newsletter, reference was made to Two changes that will become effective tomorrow, January 31, 2024:
- Family points can be used by all members, not just the head of the family
- The percentage of points that individual accounts can pay into the family program can no longer be chosen by the user, but set to 0% or 100%.
Until now, when creating a "family" group, it was possible to decide which % of points to move to the shared account, and which to keep on your personal account. From now you will only be able to choose whether or not to share points.
The novelty "hidden" between the lines
TFC reader, however, discovered, on his own skin, an important change that was not announced and is hidden between the lines of the program regulations.
As of January 22, the ability to combine points obtained from point transfers disappeared.
Taking a classic example, if husband and wife until January 21 could transfer points from their credit cards and then make a single reservation, now they will each have to do so according to their own availability.
It is clear that with this change to the Emirates T&Cs. puts a damper on the many users who have played with this possibility. By doing so, false family groups can no longer be created just to take advantage of point transfers
As seen in the email above, our reader transferred the points on January 27 and discovered the news. Very kind, however, the CC team who opened to a possible "waiver".
In conclusion
There are not many programs that allow you to merge accounts among family and friends, Emirates frequent flyer is one of them. With these changes on the one hand it improves the possibility of using the accumulated points, but surely more people will be disappointed than happy with these new program rules.
The changes are often the daughters of users who have taken advantage of the system, As in the case of some error do. In 2021 a reader wrote to me to tell me that. EK had "seized" more than 1M points in its family group. The motivation was precisely unusual activity within the group. So many users, who had never flown with the Dubai-based company, were combining points that were the result of Amex transfers. The points were then being systematically used by only one person (the complaining reader).
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