SCB X Card offering 100% bonus on Emirates Skywards transfers- is it worth it?

Although the SCB X Card doesn’t have the best earn rates, perks or even a sign up bonus anymore, it does have a wide variety of transfer partners. In addition to KrisFlyer, your 360° Rewards Points can be transferred to nine other FFPs and two hotel loyalty programs.

Unfortunately, most of the other FFPs don’t have very favorable transfer ratios. While transfers to KrisFlyer, EVA Air, FlyingBlue, and Qantas use a rate of 2,500 points: 1,000 miles, other programs have a much worse ratio of 3,000/3,500 points: 1,000 miles.

SCB is offering a 100% transfer bonus for Emirates Skywards

The good news is that’s set to change for Emirates Skywards, albeit temporarily. From 24 Feb to 8 Mar 2020, SCB is offering a 100% transfer bonus for Emirates Skywards conversions.

Instead of the usual 3,500 points: 1,000 miles, you’ll receive double the miles (i.e 3,500 points: 2,000 miles), with no cap. 

All transfers must be made by 11.59 p.m SGT on 8 Mar 2020 to be eligible for the bonus.

As a reminder, the SCB X Card’s usual local/overseas earn rate of 1.2/2.0 mpd assumes you’re transferring to KrisFlyer. If you’re transferring to Emirates Skywards with this 100% bonus, your equivalent local/overseas earn rate becomes 1.7/2.9 mpd. 

If you’re still holding on to your 360° Rewards Points from the original “100,000 miles” sign up bonus, that stash is now worth about ~153,000 Skywards miles – none too shabby.

Is it targeted?

Here’s where it’s a bit confusing. The T&C has wording which suggests this is a targeted offer:

I didn’t receive the email, and when I go to the rewards portal, I see the usual 3,500: 1,000 rate.

However, I know of other people who did receive the email, and they still see the usual 3,500: 1,000 rate too. The following line in the T&C leads me to believe the portal won’t show the bonus by default.

tl;dr: If you received the email, you’re safe. If you didn’t, you’d best check with customer service before transferring anything over.

A primer on Emirates Skywards

I take it that Emirates Skywards is unchartered territory for most of you. That’s fine, it’s fairly new to me too.

Let’s do a quick primer on the program, its rules, partners, and some sample award costs that can help you decide whether it’s worth transferring points over.

Award Types

Emirates Skywards has three levels of awards- Saver, Flex, and Flex Plus. Saver awards are the cheapest, but with the least availability and most restrictive rules. Flex Plus awards are the most expensive, but have more availability and more flexible rules.

What’s confusing is that Flex awards are only available for First Class travel, while Saver awards are only for Business and Economy. There are also restrictions on one-way awards; these can only be booked in the most expensive Flex Plus bucket. Hence, one-way Emirates awards will always be more than 50% of the miles required for a round-trip. 

Validity

Emirates says that Skywards miles are valid for three years from the date they’re earned.

In reality though, the validity can be up to 4 years, thanks to a very strange expiry policy: In the calendar year that Skywards miles are set to expire, they expire at the end of the month in which you were born.

Wait, what? What does the month of my birth have to do with the validity of my miles? Everything, apparently. If your miles were earned in June 2016 and your birthday is in August, your miles will expire on 31 August 2019.

By that same token, if your miles were earned on 1 January 2016 and your birthday is in December, your miles expire on 31 December 2019, giving you almost 4 years of validity. If your miles were earned on 31 December 2016 and your birthday is in January, your miles expire on 31 January 2020 (I’d have thought it’d be 31 January 2019 since the calendar year of expiry should be 2019, but that’s not what other people are saying online- someone enlighten me if you know better!)

It’s a strange system, but it’s right there in black and white in the FAQs.

Award searching & booking

You can search for awards even if your Skywards balance is zero.

However, one quirk I’ve noticed about Emirates Skywards is that the online system doesn’t let you redeem a given award if you have just enough miles. For example, if you have a 100,000 miles balance and try to redeem an award costing 100,000 miles, you’ll get an error message saying your balance is insufficient.

In this case, you’ll either have to transfer a bit more than you need, or call up customer service to get the redemption done.

Sample Emirates award costs

Emirates does not publish an award chart; you’ll have to use its Miles Calculator feature to price specific routes.

Emirates also imposes hefty fuel surcharges on redemptions, which is confusing because it’s a well-known fact that water coolers in the UAE dispense free crude oil (source: Wikipedia). On the other hand, I suppose it takes a lot of fuel to lug around that shower in the sky.

These fuel surcharges tend to detract from the value of the program. Here’s some sample award prices out of Singapore:

Remember that you can’t compare these directly to KrisFlyer redemption rates unless you divide the mileage amounts by 1.43, and even then you’ll want to take note of the difference in cash outlays.

If you’re hoping to redeem Emirates First Class, you definitely want to get the A380 because this is the only aircraft with the onboard shower. The A380 is operated on the SIN-DXB route, as well as numerous routes out of DXB such as New York JFK, Frankfurt, and Zurich.

I’d say that Singapore to Dubai in one-way First Class for 98,750 Skywards miles (~69,000 KrisFlyer miles equivalent) + S$346 might be worth a look if taking a shower in the sky is on your bucket list. Be careful what flight you book, as not all the SIN-DXB flights are on the A380.

If you want the chance to take two showers (because why not), then Singapore to New York via Dubai is also another possibility at 178,750 Skywards miles (~125,000 KrisFlyer miles equivalent) + S$830. This will also let you experience the Emirates First Class lounge in Dubai, which by all accounts is absolutely massive.

As an Emirates First Class passenger departing Singapore, you’ll also have access to the amazing Qantas First Class lounge in Terminal 1. Just be sure to note your departure timing, as the Qantas lounge only opens from 2.30 p.m to midnight.

Alternatively, if you’re really lucky you might be able to snag an award seat on Emirates’ new B77W, which features floor to ceiling doors, a “zero-gravity” seat, and virtual windows for the centre suites. Award space on the new First Class only appears 48-72 hours before departure, so you’ll need to be able to travel on short notice.

This cabin product is only available on selected flights to:

Other redemption partners

Emirates Skywards miles can also be redeemed on:

• Air Mauritius
• Alaska Airlines
• Bangkok Airways
• Copa Airlines
• easyjet
• GOL
• Japan Airlines
• JetBlue
• Jetstar
• Korean Air
• Malaysia Airlines
• Qantas
• S7 Airlines
• South African Airways
• TAP Portugal

Note that only selected partner airlines (namely Qantas and easyjet) can be booked online. For all other partners, you’ll need to call up customer service or fill in an online form.

Here’s a few potential routings that may interest you:

• Singapore to Melbourne/Sydney on Qantas for 60,000/90,000 miles in one-way Business/First Class
• Domestic USA flights on JetBlue from 7,500 miles in one-way Economy (connecting flights price as two separate awards, so look for non-stops)
• Domestic Brazil flights on GOL from 4,500 miles in one-way Economy
• Singapore to North America on JAL for 125,000/185,000 miles in round-trip Business/First Class

It’s highly recommended you look for award space before calling up Skywards or sending in the form. Refer to this guide for how to search for award space on oneworld/Star Alliance, or learn how to use the KVS Tool.

Conclusion

The main pain point with Emirates Skywards is the fuel surcharge you’ll pay on awards. Assuming you’re willing to look past that for the chance to get naked (legally) at 30,000 feet, then this transfer bonus may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. The transfer bonus also makes some of Emirates’ partner redemptions look comparatively good value, even if you’re looking at short haul Economy.

I’d give this one serious thought, considering the only other Emirates Skywards transfer partner in Singapore is American Express, and the earn/burn rate through that program is very poor.