The Best Ways To Fly to Dubai With Points and Miles [Step-by-Step]

Dubai’s history is staggering.

Once you make your way past the skyscrapers, you’ll discover a rich Emirati culture, deep culinary arts scene, and no sign of tourism slowing down. Home to the tallest freestanding building in the world and one of the global business hubs in the Middle East, Dubai is a must-visit for all travelers.

Delivering a record 16 million overnight visitors, Dubai’s tourism economy shows absolutely no signs of slowing down at all. Plus, it’s the home country of the Emirates airline.

To many, Emirates represents an inauguration into the luxury travelers’ club. To others, it’s simply one of the most opulent experiences one can have.

Seeing as how some flights to Dubai are among the longest in the world, it can actually be pretty difficult to find nonstop flights there. In fact, Emirates is the only airline that offers nonstop flights from the U.S. to Dubai. You can also fly to Dubai on Air Canada from Toronto.

To put it simply, Emirates is far and away superior to almost any other airline. It’s important to note, however, that not all seats are the same.

When flying first class, you’d do fantastic to fly either the A380 or 777-300ER. In business class, you’d prefer either the A380 or 777-200ER. Economy’s most spacious cabin is aboard the A380.

In this post, we’ll cover the best programs to use for all cabin classes, including the planes that Emirates uses at each airport. We’ll also share a few ideas to construct an awesome itinerary featuring stopovers/open-jaws with a few additional miles!

This guide will be comprehensive, diving into all the best programs for flying to Dubai. The first programs we will look into are the most attractive, and the later programs will offer some alternatives to those.

Table of contents

Best Programs To Use To Book Flights
Final Thoughts

Table of Contents

Best Programs To Use To Book Flights
Final Thoughts

Best Programs To Use To Book Flights

When flying from North America, you essentially have 2 options if you want to fly directly to Dubai. In fact, the only airline offering direct flights to Dubai from the U.S. is Emirates. In Canada, you can pick either Air Canada or Emirates from Toronto-Pearson International Airport (YYZ).

Booking Emirates is a little more complicated for a couple of reasons.

First, Emirates first class is one of the most luxurious experiences you can have in the sky, and it has a mileage price tag to reflect that.

Second, Emirates operates 3 different planes on flights to North America:

Airbus A380-800
Boeing 777-300ER
Boeing 777-200LR

Until recently, the A380 had the best first class product on Emirates — but with the new and improved First Class Suites on the 777-300ER, we may need to reconsider that.

Emirates’ business class on all 777s used to not even be lie-flat! Fortunately, this is not the case anymore, as Emirates will be retrofitting the new business class seats “soon.”

Even so, the new business class configuration is 2-3-2, meaning that although you’ll be able to enjoy lie-flat seats, you might be stuck between 2 others in a middle seat. Therefore, we would suggest you try to fly on an A380 if you like business class.

Below, you can see which airports fly which aircraft into Dubai.

Airports Flying the Emirates A380 to Dubai
Boston (BOS) sometimes	San Francisco (SFO)
Los Angeles (LAX)	Toronto (YYZ)
New York City (JFK)	Washington, D.C. (IAD)

Airport Flying the New Emirates 777-200LR to Dubai

Fort Lauderdale (FLL)

Orlando (MCO)

Airports Flying the Old Emirates 777-300ER to Dubai
Boston (BOS) sometimes	Dallas (DFW)
Chicago (ORD)	Seattle (SEA)

Another thing to note is that if you fly from Fort Lauderdale or Orlando, it would be best to examine the seat map before booking the flight. This is because not all flights from Fort Lauderdale operate the new Emirates 777-200LR. If you see a 2-2-2 configuration, you’re probably flying the new lie-flat business class seats — the older 2-3-2 configuration uses cramped, angled-flat seats (it may be easiest to do some investigating through ExpertFlyer).

Emirates doesn’t have a regular schedule for releasing award space to its partners. Though it is an exceedingly popular award flight option, the prices for booking awards are now significantly higher than in the past… so it’s not as popular as it used to be.

Still, you’ll still want to be as flexible as you can when booking — building flexibility into your trip to Dubai will make finding award space significantly easier.

Also, remember to take into account the transfer time of your travel rewards card’s points if you are transferring from flexible point programs. It would be a shame to miss an award because you hadn’t transferred your miles yet!

Japan Airlines (JAL) Mileage Bank

Emirates A380 Business Class Aisle Seat — Enjoy a luxurious Emirates business class experience when flying to Dubai aboard the Airbus A380. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

When booking Emirates business class, Japan Airlines Mileage Bank is probably the go-to method for many travelers.

Since Japan Airlines uses a distance-based award chart, the prices of awards will vary. However, the 2 distance brackets we’ll be looking at for one-way travel are the 6,001 to 8,000 and 8,001 to 10,000-mile brackets.

If you’re sitting on lots of Marriott Bonvoy points or JAL miles, now might be the best time to redeem them for Emirates business class.

For one-way flights, you’ll pay rates ranging from 45,000 to 47,000 miles in economy, 80,000 to 85,000 miles in business, and 130,000 to 135,000 miles in first.

For round-trip flights, award prices range from 55,000 to 70,000 miles in economy and 110,000 to 130,000 miles in business, and 165,000 to 190,000 miles in first.

Hot Tip: Japan Airlines’ award routing rules allow up to 7 stopovers! Even with some great value available from Emirates, you can get even better value: take advantage of its distance-based award chart and generous routing rules for multi-segmented routes that can exceed thousands of dollars in value.

The following is a summary of the routing rules on Japan Airlines partners. Award tickets on partner airlines are distance-based according to this chart.

The following rules apply to award tickets on partner flights:

Using Japan Airlines and another partner airline will require the partner award chart, not the Japan Airlines award chart. This is important, as Japan Airlines prices partner flights at a higher price.
You can fly one-way.
For round-trip bookings, your point of origin and returning point may be different as long as they’re in the same country (think flying from Los Angeles and returning to New York City).
You can’t back-track through your point or country of origin to fly to your destination. For example, you can’t fly from New York to Miami and back to New York before going on to Dubai.
When flying mixed cabins in a round-trip itinerary, the higher class mileage cost will apply.
You can have at most 6 sectors and 1 open-jaw, with 3 stopovers maximum. Basically, this means you can visit 3 cities through a maximum of 6 flights.
“1 city” can be included 3 times at maximum for the whole itinerary, however, a stopover at “1 city” is permitted only once in the whole itinerary. This means you can transit a city 3 times, but only stopover once.
A surface sector (open-jaw) is counted as a stopover for booking purposes. This means that it will count against your total sector count.
Open jaws are calculated in the same distance-based method as all other segments.

You can book flights on Japan Airlines online by following the steps below:

Go to the Japan Airlines website
Log into your JAL Mileage Bank account
Select JAL International Award Ticket Reservation
Select round-trip or one-way
Select your desired Area of Departure and Area of Arrival
Select your travel dates, departure and destination airports, and class
Select Designate Date if your travel must be on the specific dates you have selected, or Award Reservation Calendar if you have flexible travel dates
Click Next
If you selected Designate Date, you’ll be taken directly to your flight options
- Make sure the flights you select have seats available and do not require waitlisting
If you selected Award Reservation Calendar, you will see 7 dates for your departure and 7 dates for your return — select the dates and you will be taken to your flight options for those dates
Confirm the Mileage Bank miles and taxes/fees required
Select your desired flights and hit Next (assign seat now) so you can select your seat and complete the booking process

When you select your flights, make sure there is actual availability, since Japan Airlines will also list flights you can be waitlisted for.

Here are some example routes you can book:

Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – Dubai (DXB) non-stop round-trip for 130,000 JAL miles and ~$7 in taxes and fees to fly Emirates’ lie-flat business class on the new 777; one-way costs 80,000 JAL miles
Los Angeles (LAX) – Dubai (DXB) non-stop round-trip for 130,000 JAL miles and ~$7 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class; one-way costs 85,000 JAL miles
Toronto (YYZ) – Dubai (DXB) non-stop round-trip for 110,000 JAL miles and $198 in taxes and fees to fly Emirates business class; one-way costs 80,000 JAL miles

Earning Japan Airlines Miles

Japan Airlines is a transfer partner with Marriott Bonvoy. For every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred to Japan Airlines, you will get 25,000 JAL miles, which is a 5,000-mile bonus to the usual 3:1 ratio.

Recommended Marriott Bonvoy Cards

Hot Tip: Need help booking? See our step-by-step guide for booking Emirates business class. Don’t forget to check out other amazing redemptions with the Japan Airlines Mileage Bank program.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Emirates A380 Business Class Middle Row Companion Seats — Emirates A380 business class. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

Alaska Airlines is the go-to rewards program of choice for many travelers and credit cardholders. It has co-branded credit cards and is a Marriott Bonvoy transfer partner. A new member of the Oneworld alliance, it is also partnered with several luxury airline brands, one of which is Emirates.

One advantage of Alaska Airlines is the ability to add a stopover or open-jaw on one-way flights. Another advantage is that there are no fuel surcharges imposed on Emirates, which can save you a bundle (especially when they can run upwards of $1,700!).

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan charges 82,500 Alaska miles for business one-way and 42,500 Alaska miles for economy one-way with ~$20 to $50 in taxes and fees. Remember, however, that you’ll be saving a bunch of money on fuel surcharges!

These award prices are on par with Japan Airlines’ Mileage Bank program, but your point of origin or destination must be in the U.S.

If you have a ton of Alaska miles sitting around, here’s how you can book an Emirates ticket:

Go to Alaska’s website
Search for your desired route (make sure you select Use Miles)
Select your desired flight and Add To Cart
Log in to your Alaska Mileage Plan account
Pay the necessary taxes/fees and complete your Emirates booking

While Alaska Airlines might not be the go-to program for Emirates awards bookings, Mileage Plan still provides some other amazing redemption options.

Hot Tip: The real value of Alaska miles for Emirates flights is in booking a stopover on one-way award tickets. After you’re finished seeing Dubai, you could work toward somewhere else in the Eastern Hemisphere, like Australia or Asia.

For example, if you wanted to fly to Auckland via Dubai, you’d pay 65,000 miles in economy or 120,000 in business! This is not a bad deal at all, considering you’re only adding 37,500 Alaska miles for business class or 22,500 Alaska miles for economy on one of the world’s longest airline routes!

Another sweet spot is flying to Asia via Dubai. You’d only shell out an additional 10,000 miles in economy or 22,500 miles in business to fly another 7 to 8 hours to Asia!

Regardless of your routing, your out-of-pocket cost will be at an absolute minimum in this case, ranging from $20 to $50.

Here are some great example routes:

New York City (JFK) – Dubai (DXB) – Tokyo-Narita (NRT) one-way for 102,500 Alaska miles and $20 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class
San Francisco (SFO) – Dubai (DXB) – Auckland (AKL) one-way for 120,000 Alaska miles and $20 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class
Washington, D.C. (IAD) – Dubai (DXB) one-way for 82,500 Alaska miles and $20 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class

Earning Alaska Mileage Plan Miles

Alaska miles can be earned by holding one of its co-branded credit cards offered by Bank of America, but the main drawback is the limited transfer partners. You could also transfer hotel points from Marriott Bonvoy.

However, you can also purchase Alaska miles if you have a specific redemption in mind. The limit per transaction/purchase is 60,000 miles; in practice, you can have as many transactions as you want, making Alaska miles purchases “uncapped.”

Alaska Airlines often offers discounts of up to 60% on purchased miles, so be sure to consider buying miles when these large promotions are offered.

Hot Tip: Looking for a place to stay while you’re there? Check out these Dubai boutique hotels.

Korean Air (KAL) SKYPASS

Emirates Inaugural World's Shortest A380 Flight Business Class Seat 23A - Cherag Dubash — Emirates A380 business class seat. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

Korean Air SKYPASS is another valuable program worth looking into.

The Marriott Bonvoy transfer partner offers more competitive fares than Alaska Airlines for round-trip tickets. Korean Air doesn’t allow one-way award bookings on Emirates, so you’ll have to book round-trip. You’ll be on the hook for all fuel surcharges, which means you can pay up to $320 in taxes and fees.

Korean Air is like a combination of Japan Airlines and Alaska Airlines: the redemption rates are between JAL’s and Alaska’s, and 1 stopover is allowed. Business flights are priced at 140,000 miles round-trip and economy flights are 70,000 miles round-trip with ~$198 in taxes and fees.

The 1 stopover allowance wouldn’t be very useful in this case, unless you intended on flying an Emirates fifth freedom route, such as the one from New York City (JFK) to Milan (MXP).

Follow the same steps as in the Alaska Airlines section above to book Emirates via Korean Air SKYPASS. The only exception is you’ll have to call Korean Air to book.

Go to Alaska’s website
Search for your desired route (make sure you select Use Miles)
Note the flight number, date, and time
Join SKYPASS
Call SKYPASS at 800-438-5000
Complete the SKYPASS bonus redemption and family registration forms
Ticket the reservation

Here are some great redemptions:

New York City (JFK) – Dubai (DXB) round-trip for 140,000 SKYPASS miles and ~$198 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class
New York City (JFK) – Milan (MXP) – Dubai (DXB) round-trip for 140,000 SKYPASS miles and ~$198 in taxes and fees to fly in Emirates business class; you are allowed a stop-over in Milan

Earning Korean Air SKYPASS Miles

You can earn Korean Air SKYPASS miles by transferring Marriott Bonvoy points at a 3:1 ratio.

Marriott Bonvoy credit cards are a great way to boost your balance of SKYPASS miles; on top of this, the generous sign-up bonuses that are offered make it a no-brainer.

Emirates Skywards Mileage Program

Emirates New 777-300ER First Class Suites — Emirates new 777-300ER first class suites. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash

The Emirates Skywards Mileage Program used to be discounted as a booking option for many travelers due to its high fuel surcharges. Fortunately, Emirates is no longer passing on these high fuel surcharges, making a booking with Emirates Skywards miles a great option!

Emirates Skywards enjoys the most transfer partnerships of any Emirates booking method (5 partners in Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, and Marriott Bonvoy) and will likely soon be the only miles currency you can use to book first class awards.

Emirates charges the following amounts for flights departing North America to Dubai:

Cabin Class	Emirates Skywards Miles Cost (Round-Trip)	Taxes & Fees
Economy	72,500 to 82,500	~$161
Business	145,000 to 165,000	~$361
First	217,500 to 247,500	~$361

Hot Tip: One-way award flights cost more than half of a round-trip flight. However, these bookings are typically Flex Plus bookings, which allows up to 2 complimentary stopovers, so it might still be worth it to leverage one-way award bookings in lieu of round trips.

Here are some great example routes you can take:

Auckland (AKL) – Dubai (DXB) – Milan (MXP) – New York City (JFK) one-way in Emirates business class for 178,750 miles + $100 in taxes and fees with 2 stopovers in Milan and Dubai
Newark (EWR) – Athens (ATH) – Dubai (DXB) – Male (MLE) one-way in Emirates first class for 160,000 miles + $275 in taxes and fees with 2 stopovers in Athens and Dubai
San Francisco (SFO) – Dubai (DXB) – Johannesburg (JNB) round-trip in Emirates first class for 300,000 miles + $526 in taxes and fees with 1 stopover in Dubai

You can book Emirates awards completely online. Follow these steps to book your Emirates flight:

Go to Emirates’ website
Log into your Emirates Skywards account
On the top banner, click Loyalty and click Spend Miles
Scroll down and press Book Classic Rewards Now
Click Classic Rewards
Select your travel dates, departure and arrival airports, quantity, and class
Run the search and book the flight

Earning Emirates Skywards Miles

Emirates Skywards is a transfer partner with Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy.

Amex has a number of personal and business cards to choose from that earn Membership Rewards points, making it easy to accumulate the points necessary for a booking. Amex points transfer to Emirates at a 1:1 ratio.

Recommended American Express Cards (Personal)

Business owner? See our list of the best Amex business credit cards.

Bottom Line: Because of Emirates’ transfer partner relationships, using Skywards miles is getting more and more attractive. The fuel surcharges are very mild (~$160 one-way), and the ability to add 2 stopovers on one-way Flex Plus flights or 1 stopover on round-trip Flex flights will certainly add value to your redemption.

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club

Air Canada Business Class — Air Canada Signature Class on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Image Credit: Air Canada

If you’ve traveled on Emirates and feel like trying something new to Dubai, look no further than Air Canada.

Seeing as the only other option departing from North America besides Emirates would be Air Canada’s 787 Dreamliner business class, we’ve pretty much exhausted our options here.

Nevertheless, flying this Star Alliance partner is a great alternative option, especially if your home airport is in Canada or you don’t feel like sitting in a middle seat aboard Emirates’ new 777-300ER in business class.

Keep in mind that Air Canada rarely flies this route daily (the usual frequency is 3 to 5 times weekly), so you’ll have to plan for that in advance (and the schedule may vary due to COVID-19).

You can utilize ANA to book some of the best redemptions on Air Canada. Oddly enough, Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program isn’t exactly the best way to redeem in this case. It’ll cost you more miles than ANA, and you’ll need to pay fuel surcharges in excess of $200 to $300!

ANA offers some of the best round-trip redemptions in the business. Keep in mind that ANA only allows round-trip bookings, so one-ways are not an option here.

Hot Tip: ANA offers 1 free stopover or 1 open-jaw on round-trip award bookings. If Dubai isn’t your final destination, you could work in a number of routes using this routing rule.

If you don’t mind flying round-trip, ANA will definitely provide the most bang for your buck.

To fly round-trip to Dubai on Air Canada will cost 65,000 miles in economy and 104,000 miles in business. Even better, ANA does not pass on Air Canada’s fuel surcharges!

The round-trip prices are summarized in the following table:

Cabin Class	ANA Miles Cost (Round-Trip)	Taxes & Fees
Economy	65,000	~$50 to $100
Business (Signature Class)	104,000	~$50 to $100

Book Awards With ANA

You can use United or Air Canada to search for award space here. United is probably the easiest to use, but less accurate than Air Canada. United Airlines can show phantom award space (award seats that aren’t actually bookable), and while Air Canada doesn’t struggle with this, connecting flights can cause it to error out sometimes.

Personally, we’d start by using United and confirm with Air Canada.

Once you’ve found availability on Air Canada or United, go to ANA’s website to confirm availability and book completely online through ANA Mileage Club.

Here’s a route suggestion (the only nonstop route from Canada to Dubai):

Toronto (YYZ) – Dubai (DXB) non-stop round-trip for 104,000 miles and $74 in taxes and fees on Air Canada business class

Earning ANA Miles

ANA partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Membership Rewards points transfer to ANA at a 1:1 ratio.

Amex has a number of personal and business cards to choose from that earn Membership Rewards points, making it easy to accumulate a ton of points.

In addition, you can transfer Marriott Bonvoy points at a 3:1 ratio with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points transferred.

Bottom Line: When booking Air Canada, be sure to give ANA Mileage Club the most consideration — it’s going to cost the fewest miles, and fuel surcharges will not be imposed on you. Be sure to utilize the stopover allowance, even if you’re just headed to Dubai. You can book a positioning flight to Toronto via Star Alliance if nothing else!

Avianca LifeMiles

Air Canada business class seat — Enjoy a fully lie-flat seat en route to Dubai in Air Canada Signature Class. Image Credit: Air Canada

The last method we want to cover in-depth is LifeMiles, the loyalty program of Avianca.

Since Avianca is a Star Alliance partner, you’d be flying on Air Canada with this booking.

Also note that you can earn these miles through transfers from Amex, Capital One, Citi, and Marriott Bonvoy or directly through Avianca’s co-branded credit cards.

Another advantage is that you can purchase LifeMiles! In fact, it’s often easier to just buy the miles and book with them. The reason why is because it often offers huge bonuses on purchased miles, upwards of 125% to 150%.

This method, however, does involve spending more than $1,000 on miles, so we would not suggest it unless you have a specific redemption in mind.

Round-trip awards cost 85,000 LifeMiles in economy and 156,000 LifeMiles in business with ~$75 in fees.

Hot Tip: Like ANA, LifeMiles does not pass on any fuel surcharges for this route!

To book, follow these steps:

Visit the Avianca website
Click on LifeMiles in the bottom right corner of Avianca’s homepage
Once you’re on the LifeMiles page, hover over Use and click on Airlines
Enter your desired destination and travel dates and hit continue; the next screen shows availability and costs for those dates, as well as for 2 days before and after
Select your flight

Earning Avianca LifeMiles

As discussed above, LifeMiles is a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Marriott Bonvoy.

Citi ThankYou is one of the least-discussed transferable points systems, but we should give ThankYou Points some love! Those who have a stockpile of Citi ThankYou Points or spend a lot on ThankYou Points-earning credit cards might want to consider this as a method for flying to Dubai.

Recommended Citi ThankYou Cards

You can also earn LifeMiles by applying for the Banco Popular co-branded cards. There aren’t many other ways to snag lots of LifeMiles besides sign-up bonuses on credit cards.

If you regularly stay at Marriott hotels, then you could possibly top off your balance with its hotel points at a 3:1 ratio. However, this isn’t recommended, as there are better uses for Marriott Bonvoy points.

The last resort would be to buy LifeMiles. There are often sales providing up to a 200% bonus, so be sure to take advantage of that.

Other Options To Fly to Dubai

Although there are only 2 airlines you can fly directly to Dubai, there are many different ways to book these flights using various loyalty programs.

You can look into Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, Qantas, or Malaysian Airlines as well. These airlines don’t offer the most competitive redemption rates, but they’re technically still options.

Final Thoughts

Now that we’ve looked at all the best ways to fly to Dubai from North America, let’s recap what we learned.

There are 2 airlines offering nonstop flights from North America to Dubai:

Air Canada (Toronto)
Emirates (U.S. and Toronto)

To book Emirates, we’d first look at Japan Airlines. Alaska Airlines minimizes your out-of-pocket cost and its miles are competitive against other programs.

Next, we’d look to Emirates Skywards if you have lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Amex Membership Rewards points, or Capital One miles.

To book Air Canada, we’d examine ANA very closely. If you don’t have enough Amex or Marriott Bonvoy points but have a lot of Citi ThankYou Points, you can also check out Avianca, a Citi transfer partner.

Flying on Emirates is basically a requirement to be inducted into the luxury flyer club. It has a glamorous, over-the-top experience that everybody should try at least once!

If you’ve done it before, you can then try Air Canada for a solid executive-like experience. Plus, you’ll get a chance to try the Air Canada business class lounge in Toronto!

Bottom line, there’s a lot of value to be had when flying to Dubai, especially when you choose to fly using points and miles.

For rates and fees of the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.

The information for the Citi Prestige® Card has been collected independently by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Gold Card, click here.
For rates and fees of The Business Platinum Card® from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of the American Express® Business Gold Card, click here.

Featured Image Credit: Aleksandar Pasaric via Pexels

Frequently asked questions

Which airlines include carrier-imposed surcharges on award flights to Dubai?

Korean Air SKYPASS and Emirates pass on fuel surcharges for flights on Emirates. Japan Airlines doesn't currently pass on fuel surcharges, ever since Emirates reduced its fuel surcharges dramatically.

What is the fewest number of miles you can use to book an economy class award flight to Dubai?

Technically, you can book an Emirates round-trip economy ticket on JAL for 55,000 miles or Korean Air for 70,000 miles (with the latter, you'd still be paying up to $200 in fuel surcharges). We'd look at ANA for round-trip economy tickets for 65,000 miles and no fuel surcharges on Air Canada.

What is the fewest number of miles required to fly business class to Dubai?

You can book Emirates business class for 110,000 to 130,000 JAL miles round-trip plus ~$7 in surcharges. You can also book Air Canada business class for 104,000 ANA miles roundtrip and ~$50 to $100 in taxes and fees.

What is the fewest number miles required to fly first class to Dubai?

As of April 1, 2021, Emirates no longer allows its first class awards to be booked with Alaska Airlines miles. Japan Airlines mileage redemptions are allowed until September 1, 2021, and Qantas and Korean Air redemptions are still allowed indefinitely.

To fly on Emirates from New York City (JFK) to Dubai (DXB) round-trip in first class would cost 217,500 Skywards miles or 165,000 Japan Airlines miles.

Can I book a first class award on Emirates with partner miles?

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About Stephen Au

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Stephen has been privileged to enjoy many premium cabin products and 5-star hotels. As one of the foremost experts in credit cards, over the past 4 years, he has amassed a portfolio of over 70 credit cards, both personal and business. Stephen has personally tested, first-hand, almost every major rewards credit card on the market today, spanning banks such as American Express, Bank of America, Barclays, Brex, Capital One, Chase, Citi, City National Bank, U.S. Bank, and more.

Disclaimer: Any comments listed below are not from the bank advertiser, nor have they been reviewed or approved by them. No responsibility will be taken by the bank advertiser for these comments.

23 comments

Tigri23 August 29, 2018
You need to update your post; Chase & KE are no longer transfer partners.
Reply
- Alex Miller September 1, 2018
  Transfer partners all updated! Thx
  Reply
Ash September 9, 2018
We are going to Dubai in December and are flying virgin atlantic from Newark, NJ to Dubai, with a 10 hour stop on London. We used 85,000 delta miles to book this. On the way back, we used Amex MR points transferred to emirates to fly first from Dubai to JFK… which also provided us with car transfers in Dubai and NYC, and lounge access.
Reply
- Alex Miller September 10, 2018
  Nicely done Ash!
  Reply
bb October 3, 2018
FYI you may also want to update as the A380 is back in service for IAH.
https://www.emirates.com/media-centre/emirates-a380-returns-to-houston
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAE212
Reply
- Stephen Au October 5, 2018
  Great catch! We’ll update accordingly. Thank you!
  Reply
Ross March 19, 2019
What about flights not connected to North America? In 2020 I’ll be flying from MLE (Male, Maldives) to Zurich or another location in Germany or Switzerland if it makes the booking easier), and on to MSP (Minneapolis).
I’m looking to spend 2-3 nights in Dubai on the way to Europe, where I want to spend 4-5 nights before flying home to MSP. I want to avoid flying from MLE back to Hong Kong or through Colombo so I’m looking at Emirates since they fly a direct flight MLE-DXB.
What’s the most efficient way to work this itinerary as far as stopovers are concerned. I’d hate to book each leg individually if stopovers could make it more points-efficient. Thoughts?
Reply
- Stephen Au March 19, 2019
  Hey Ross,
  Thanks for reading. We appreciate your support. If you’ve got your sights dead-set on flying with Emirates, your only options that allow stopovers is Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank. Alaska Airlines also doesn’t pass on fuel surcharges. However, the mileage cost is a lot higher.
  Check out these two options!
  Reply
  - George March 24, 2019
    Mileage plan does not allow Middle East to Europe routing.. any other ideas? same boat as Ross and cannot find point efficient way to achieve this.
    Thank you!
    Reply
    - Stephen Au March 25, 2019
      The best way to accomplish this would be using Japan Airlines miles transferred from Marriott. Unfortunately, they use a distance-based award chart, so you’ll want to book a total distance at the upper end of a distance bracket. Thanks for reading.
      Reply
LeChelle Kwenette Ford May 20, 2019
I want to book a round trip to Dubai using delta skymiles leaving from JFK. What is the best way to book maximizing the delta skymiles & money.
Reply
- Stephen Au May 21, 2019
  Hey LeChelle,
  Delta’s search engine is pretty robust. Just visit delta.com and perform a search. Be sure to choose spending with miles instead of cash or money. Thanks for reading.
  Reply
SANIL THOMAS May 21, 2019
i have 130,000 AA miles and 80,000 amex UR points
I want to travel with my wife from chicago to dubai in a business class round trip
Is it possible to travel with that many points in september ?
what should be my best way to redeem those points
thanks in advance
Reply
- Stephen Au May 22, 2019
  Sanil,
  Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like you’ll have enough miles and points for a round-trip. It’s probably enough for one-way travel, but not for a round-trip. Thanks for reading.
  Reply
Cherene Saradar October 26, 2019
Hey there. Thanks for all your great info! In your opinion would there be any benefit to transferring Chase Ultimate rewards to Marriot and then Marriott points to Alaska in order to book Emirates without the fuel charge? I know that sounds kind of crazy but just curious.
Reply
- Jarrod West October 26, 2019
  Hi Cherene,
  While that is possible, I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. You would need to transfer 360,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points to Marriott in order to receive 150k Alaska miles needed for a one-way award.
  With that amount of Ultimate Reward points, you could fly Singapore Suites from round-trip from NYC to Sydney (with connections in Frankfurt and Singapore) for 304k points. You could also spend 12 nights at a top tier Hyatt category 7 property.
  Obviously the value of each of these redemptions is relative to the value you place on them, but just make sure to consider your opportunity cost.
  Thanks for reading!
  Reply
Angelli December 21, 2019
Flying one way USA-DXB in May ’20. Have miles/points galore but hate fuel surcharges. What’s the best bang for the buck (bang for the points) one way USA to DXB? Fly out of BOS but can position ourselves almost anywhere in order to get best bang, best experience. Don’t care about first, business works for the 2 of us.
Reply
- Stephen Au December 30, 2019
  Hi Angelli,
  Flying Emirates from the U.S. will always mean fuel surcharges. The only way to avoid those fuel surcharges is by using Alaska Airlines miles. Thanks for reading!
  Reply
Mariusz September 26, 2021
You can no longer use Alaska miles on Emirates. Correct?
Reply
- Jarrod West October 3, 2021
  Hi Mariusz,
  Yes, that is correct.
  Reply
Rob November 26, 2021
I am not finding “Another sweet spot is flying to Asia via Dubai. You’d only shell out an additional 10,000 miles in economy or 22,500 miles in business to fly another 7 to 8 hours to Asia!” anywhere on Alaska Airlines. I see only 30K+ for economy for one ways from DXB to Asian destinations with very limited availability dates. Please provide some examples since this would be a great deal, indeed!
Reply
Ethan September 2, 2022
Did Emirates own Skywards Milage Program changed since your article? I’m seeing JFK-DXB as 115,000 miles ONE way and cost USD $907.67. Hardly as cheap as this article indicates as “Business 145,000 to 165,000 ~$361”
Reply
- Stephen Au November 19, 2022
  Hi Ethan,
  Only a small percentage of Emirates business class flights can be booked round-trip at the rate of 145,000 to 165,000 miles. But just remember that it’s still possible. That said, the taxes and fees are now also more than $800 each way due to the increase in fuel prices worldwide.
  Reply

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