Towards the end of April, Citi announced that from July 27, 2025, they’d be reducing the transfer ratio to Emirates Skywards from 1,000:1,000 to 1,000:800.
Since then, Emirates’s relationship with transferable currencies has been in flux. They’re a transfer partner of Amex, Chase, Citi, Capital One and Bilt and one-by-one, each of those transferable currencies announced that transfers to Emirates would be paused. Some gave a specific timeline for when transfers to Emirates would return, while others were vague. Transfers returned a couple of weeks ago, but now the latest shoe has dropped – Amex will also be reducing the transfer ratio to Emirates.
Similar to Citi, Amex’s currently transfers to Emirates is on a 1,000:1,000 basis. However, per a notice when logging in to your Amex account in the points transfer section, also similar to Citi that’ll be changing in a couple of months:
Effective September 16, 2025, the ratio for transferring Membership Rewards points to Emirates Skywards Miles will be changed from: “1 Membership Rewards point = 1 Skywards mile” to “5 Membership Rewards points = 4 Skywards miles”.
Yep, Amex will also be reducing its transfer ratio from 1,000:800. It therefore seems likely that Emirates has increased the price at which it charges transferable points currencies and, rather than losing Emirates as a transfer partner, both Citi and Amex have opted to reduce the transfer ratio instead.
There’s currently no news as to what all this means for transfers from Chase, Capital One and Bilt. Given how Citi and Amex have led the way, it wouldn’t surprise me if one, two or all three of those other transferable currencies announce in due course that they too will reduce their transfer ratio to Emirates. That said, it could also depend on when their respective contracts were last negotiated with Emirates and how long they have their existing pricing locked in for. Hopefully we don’t see any further changes with those other transferable currencies, but I wouldn’t count on it. At least Citi and Amex have both given cardholders 2+ months notice of this upcoming change rather than simply adjusting the transfer ratio overnight.
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Isn’t JetBlue 5:4 on Amex but others 1:1 ?
Maybe will be just Amex
JetBlue is 1,000:600 with Capital One
Citi will be 0.8 at the end of July. The other banks will follow. It’s called price leadership in economics.
Some other airlines may look at that and decide to follow EK’s example.
Glad I got to enjoy it while it lasted.
This news, combined with Emirates egregious taxes, makes this airline a non-starter for me.
yea as much as I love EK J, the steady increase in fees and now this makes it impossible to fly.