Taking the family on a trip with Emirates and keen to pool all those Skywards Miles you’ll earn?
Or perhaps you’ve got multiple family members earning miles ‘on the ground’ with Emirates’ commercial partners and you want to consolidate them.
By pooling all those miles into one account, you can potentially enjoy rewards faster.
The way to do this is via Emirates’ My Family program, which allows eligible family members to pool miles earned by:
- flying with Emirates, flydubai and airline partners
- spending with Emirates’ bank, hotel, car rental, retail and lifestyle partners
- transfers from conversion partners.
Emirates Skywards has a global membership of over 27 million and all members are eligible to join ‘My Family’, including children.
Each account can have up to 8 family members including a nominated Family Head.
Immediate family members are eligible to join a pool, which includes the following:
- Husband / Wife / Domestic Partner
- Son / Step-Son
- Daughter / Step-Daughter
- Mother / Step-Mother
- Mother-in-Law
- Father / Step-Father
- Father-in-Law
- Brother / Sister
- Granddaughter / Grandson
- Domestic Helper (!)
The Family Head is responsible for creating the My Family account, adding members, removing members, making travel bookings, redeeming Skywards Miles and all other day-to-day account management.
Any member aged 18 or above can register as the Family Head.
A member can pool up to 100% of their miles earned and the nominated contribution of miles from each member can be adjusted at any time.
You can only pool future miles earned. Any miles you already have when you join a family pool will remain in your individual account.
Similar to individual Skywards Miles, the pooled miles will be valid in the My Family account for three years.
Tier Miles (for earning status) will continue to be credited to your individual account and cannot be contributed to My Family.
You can spend the Skywards Miles pooled in your My Family account on Classic Reward Flights and flights purchased using Cash+Miles. You can also use them for Upgrade Rewards at check‑in if you’re travelling with the Family Head.
In addition, you can donate miles to support good causes, or spend them with retail and lifestyle partners and Skywards Exclusives events.
Finally, you should also consider if you’re better off crediting miles earned with Emirates to a partner loyalty program.
For example, if you’re a Qantas Frequent Flyer member, you can opt to earn Qantas Points when flying with Emirates, whether that’s an EK flight number or a codeshare flight with a QF flight number (you’ll earn more with the latter – check with Qantas’ calculator).
Qantas doesn’t permit family pooling but you can transfer points between family members for free.
To get tips like this delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter: