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Emirates says that its Skywards loyalty program now attracts, on average, 220,000 new members every month and that last week the total Skywards membership crossed the 20 million mark.
As Skywards was first introduced over 17 years ago we can see how slow take-up of the program must have been in the early years. At 220,000 new members/month Emirates would now cross the 20m member threshold in a little over 7.5 years so the growth of Skywards has certainly picked up in more recent times.
To celebrate the milestone Emirates has put together an infographic showing all the key numbers behind Skywards….
…and the airline says that Skywards members traveling from Dubai on Emirates in the week beginning 4 March 2018 “can look forward to little surprises at check-in, on board and in the lounges for some of its longest-standing members”
Some of the numbers cited by Skywards are pretty impressive…or at least they would be if 1 Skyward mile allowed you to fly one actual mile.
With 35 billion miles redeemed in 2017 that would be equivalent to circumventing the earth at the equator over 1.4 million times. As it is that’s approximately….
- 170,000 roundtrip First Class flights between Dubai and New York
- 212,000 roundtrip Business Class flights between Dubai and Los Angeles
- 483,000 roundtrip Economy Class flights between Dubai and Sydney
The statistic I enjoyed the most was that the UK has 800,000 more Skyward members than the next largest Skyward hot-spot (the US) and almost double the number of Skyward members than the UAE…where Skywards is based.
I’ve never collected Skyward miles (or redeemed credit card points for Skyward miles) so, if any readers have, let me know what you think of the program as a whole.
For me, Skywards isn’t a priority at all what with their excessive fuel surcharges and large mileage requirements for awards. The only real sweet spot that I can find is redeeming them for TAP Portugal flights from Lisbon to Morocco, Azores or Madeira. Or for Emirates’ 5th freedom route from MXP to JFK
The MXP – JFK route for 90k return really does look good (especially as its an A380). Shame about the €450+ additional fees.
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