WOW: Emirates Restricts First Class Awards To Skywards Elite Members

Emirates Skywards is adding major restrictions to its first class award tickets…

Emirates blocks first class awards for non-elite members

Emirates Skywards has announced that as of Monday, May 12, 2025, the airline will limit award tickets in first class to elite members. Specifically, this will be a tier benefit for Platinum, Gold, and Silver members. That’s a major policy change, and there’s not a lot of advance notice.

Emirates Skywards first class awards are generally quite expensive, requiring not just a lot of miles, but also the payment of significant carrier imposed surcharges.

Emirates has definitely been tightening up on first class awards over the years. For example, the airline mostly restricts first class awards to members of its Skywards program, and restricts these awards through most partner programs. Up until now, Emirates has at least partnered with most major transferable points currencies, so the rewards have been easy to accrue, though at least with Citi ThankYou, the ratio is being devalued.

What’s the best Emirates first class strategy going forward?

For those who value being able to fly Emirates first class using miles, what’s the best strategy going forward? Best I can tell, this new restriction only applies if redeeming miles directly for first class, and there are no new restrictions on upgrading to first class.

As I’ve covered before, Emirates has a great upgrade program, whereby even business class awards can be upgraded to first class on the day of departure using miles, assuming there are open seats. So for some people, that could be the best strategy going forward, unless that’s being restricted as well, and I just missed it.

The other play is to just earn Emirates Skywards elite status. Emirates has two co-branded Barclays credit cards in the United States:

• The most basic $99 annual fee card offers Silver status the first year, and Silver status in subsequent years if you spend at least $20,000
• The more premium $499 annual fee card offers Gold status the first year, and Gold status in subsequent years if you spend at least $40,000

So I guess the easiest workaround would be to earn elite status with one of those two cards. That’s obviously not ideal for most people, but at least it’s not impossible to earn Emirates status.

Bottom line

As of May 12, 2025, Emirates Skywards is limiting first class award tickets to elite members, with Platinum, Gold, or Silver status. This is a major policy change, since historically the airline has had no elite status requirements.

If you still value being able to fly Emirates first class without paying cash, the two best workarounds are either to upgrade a business class award to first class (either in advance or at the airport), or to get Emirates Skywards elite status through a co-branded credit card. I do love flying Emirates first class, so I think this is probably the push I needed to pick up the carrier’s credit card.

What do you make of Emirates’ new first class award restriction?