Emirates Skywards Bonuses - New Boston-Dubai Route and Friend Referral

Feb. 13, 2014

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4 min read

Emirates Skywards Bonuses - New Boston-Dubai Route and Friend Referral

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Emirates announced that it would begin new non-stop service between Boston and Dubai starting March 10, 2014, and in anticipation of next month's launch, the airline is offering up to 36,000 bonus Skywards miles to members who book the flight. The earlier you book and the higher your fare class, the more miles you earn. Here are the details:

You must register here and book a return ticket by February 22, 2014 for flights between March 10-June 30 inclusive. You must book today, February 13, to earn the full bonuses on any class of service, otherwise the bonuses start going down. You can refer to the infographic above, but here are 3 sample dates and how much you'd earn by booking which class of ticket on each one.

February 13 (begin date)
First Class: 36,000 bonus miles
Business Class Flex: 30,000 bonus miles
Business Class Saver: 22,000 miles
Economy Flex: 20,000 bonus miles
Economy Saver: 10,000 bonus miles

February 17
First Class: 16,000 miles
Business Class Flex: 12,000 miles
Business Class Saver: 10,000 miles
Economy Flex: 8,000 miles
Economy Saver: 4,000 miles

February 22 (end date)
First Class: 4,000 miles
Business Class Flex: 3,000 miles
Business Class Saver: 2,000 miles
Economy Flex: 1,000 miles
Economy Saver: 500 miles

Per the terms and conditions, to qualify for the promotion, the journey must be between Boston and any Emirates destination worldwide, and these bonus figures are for roundtrip travel. One-ways will only earn half. Bonuses apply as per the original ticketed class, excluding any subsequent reward or complimentary upgrades, or other changes. The bonus will be applied within one month after ticketed travel terminates. Any tickets ineligible for normal Skywards Miles accrual are also excluded from earning bonus Miles.

While this isn't the most lucrative promo, and I'd like to see them offer the bonus numbers throughout the promo period rather than putting a time pressure factor in, if you have plans to fly out of Boston, you might as well take advantage. Emirates currently flies non-stop from Dubai to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Dallas, Houston, New York and Washington DC in the US, and Toronto in Canada. Boston will be the airline’s ninth US gateway. So if you're coming from the east coast anyway and don't mind taking the shuttle up to Boston, you might consider booking your travel through there instead in order to get this bonus as well.

Friend Referral Bonus

Skywards is also offering members who refer their friends to the program. It's not just a straight-up referral bonus, though. Here's how it breaks down.

You can refer up to 10 family members, friends or colleagues who are not already Emirates Skywards or Family Bonus members.
Nominees must be over the age of 16.
For you to receive the promotion offer, your nominees must join Emirates Skywards within the eligible promotion period and take their first flight within six months of becoming a member.
Applications received after 24:00 hours on the last day of a promotion cannot be considered for that promotion.
On the general promotion, you earn 1,500 Skywards Miles if your nominee joins Emirates Skywards and flies in Economy Class, 2,500 Skywards Miles if they fly Business Class and 4,000 Skywards Miles if they fly First Class.

So really, you can only earn the full 40,000 bonus miles if you refer 10 friends and each of them takes a First Class flight, so unless you're hanging out with some serious high rollers, that might not be likely. You can only have 10 active referrals at once, so be sure you refer people you think are going to actually join and fly.

To refer your friends, go to the link above, log in with your Skywards number and then all you have to do is enter their name and email address. Click Submit and you'll be taken to a page with all your pending referral invitations and can even choose to notify people again if they haven't done anything yet.

All in all, not the most lucrative bonuses, but still worth noting if you travel on Emirates a lot and can maximize the new route and friend referral bonuses. That still won't get you very far, but it might get you an upgrade on a long-haul route (upgrading from JFK-DXB from Economy Saver to Business or Business Saver to First costs 57,500 miles each way or 45,000 miles from Economy Flex to Business or Business Flex to First Class), but you'd really have to max out these promos.