In news that should surprise no one, Capital One and Citi have both paused points transfers to Emirates Skywards accounts.
The reason that this isn’t surprising is that it seems like Emirates is updating its systems at the moment. Transfer pauses had already been announced by Chase and American Express initially, then by Bilt more recently. At some point Citi put up a notice on their site advising that points transfers to Emirates were temporarily unavailable; I feel like it’s been there a few days, but I only just realized we’d not shared that.
Capital One meanwhile has also put up a notice that transfers to Emirates Skywards accounts are “down for maintenance”. On there, it says to check back after 1pm ET on June 12, 2025 which seems very specific, especially considering the wide range of dates given across the various transferable points currencies. Here’s a list of each currency’s current stance:
- Bilt – paused from May 27 through June 19
- American Express – paused from May 28, but with no specified end date
- Chase – paused from May 29 through June 30 (tentatively)
- Citi – paused from an unknown date through an unspecified date
- Capital One – paused from June 1 through June 12 at 1pm ET (although it says to check back, rather than guaranteeing it’ll be back).
It’s a good job that Greg had already transferred points to Emirates as that enabled him to upgrade from Emirates Business Class to First Class on his recent flight.
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