How to Use Emirates Skywards Miles for Luxury Baseball and Soccer Tickets
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Emirates Skywards recently became a Chase transfer partner, but the program in general isn't too exciting because of the astronomical fuel surcharges it adds to award tickets. It does make luxury cabins like Emirates first and business class affordable to some. However, there are better programs for booking premium cabins to the Middle East, like using American Airlines miles to book Etihad flights.
Just like any program where there doesn't appear to be significant value on the surface, it's always worth diving into all of the ways to redeem miles listed on the loyalty program website. A couple of years ago I noticed the Culture & Sport tab under redemption options for Emirates Skywards. While redeeming points and miles for experiences can sometimes be good value, often times they fail to gain interest because they're marketed wrong or priced so astronomically high that they are out of reach for most.
Emirates, however, has done a great job with their events. You can get tremendous value out of your Skywards miles when you redeem them for sporting events like Los Angeles Dodgers games, European Football matches or ATP Tour Tennis events.
The available events are updated on a regular basis, and in the spring include Los Angeles Dodgers baseball tickets in the Emirates Lounge at Dodger Stadium — with all-inclusive food and beverages. These tickets cost only 12,500 miles per person for the suite experience, and there are usually multiple series across the season that have tickets available.
But you aren't restricted to American sporting events. At the time of publishing, you can redeem Skywards miles for Arsenal home games at Emirates Stadium in London starting at only 11,000 miles per ticket. For just 22,000 miles, you can score a ticket to the Emirates SkyBox 75 which includes complimentary food and beverages. Here are the starting prices for general admission tickets to home Arsenal matches this fall:
On both the Arsenal and Dodgers websites, there are public prices listed for renting out the entire suite for a game depending on how many people will be attending. If you're looking to buy the suite, they don't come cheap — the Arsenal suites start at $8,745 per game, and the Emirates Lounge for Dodgers games start at $6,000.
Other games and sporting events often listed include additional European soccer matches outside of the English Premiership, as well as US Open tennis tickets. It's worth bookmarking the Emirates redeem miles page and checking back often.
Redeeming so few miles for one of these experiences is an incredible deal. Along with the new partnership with Chase Ultimate Rewards, you can also earn Emirates miles by transferring points from American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio), Capital One (2:1) and Marriott Bonvoy (3:1 with 5,000 bonus miles when you transfer 60,000 points). If you're looking to boost your account balances, consider one of these current offers:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: Earn a welcome bonus of 100,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
- The Platinum Card® from American Express: Earn a welcome bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on the Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Terms Apply.
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card: Earn a welcome bonus of 100,000 bonus miles when you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months from account opening, or still earn 50,000 miles if you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.