From spacious economy seats to a cushy business class setup to its unparalleled first class suites, Emirates has earned its spot as one of the world’s best airlines. And while it primarily flies to and from its hub in Dubai (DXB), you can also hop on a nonstop Emirates flight from the U.S. to Italy and Greece.
And I think it’s one of the best deals in all of travel.
Emirates operates two of these so-called fifth-freedom routes to Europe: One to Italy and another all the way over to Greece. It’s a great way to cross the Atlantic Ocean – especially if you’re using points and miles.
Emirates charges just 35,000 miles roundtrip to do it in economy or as low as 108,000 miles for Emirates business class.
Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to earn Emirates Skywards miles even if you’ve never flown Emirates: It’s a transfer partner of all the major credit card points programs, so if you have credit card points with Amex Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, or Citi ThankYou points, you’ve got a way to book a flight to Europe on Emirates.
But searching, finding, and booking these fares can be a challenge. That’s what you have us for: Here’s how it’s done.
Emirates Flights to Italy and Greece
Emirates flies two “fifth-freedom” routes – flights between two countries where the operating airline is not based in either of them – connecting the U.S. and Europe. If you’re looking for flights to Italy or Greece, you’ll want to have these two routes on your radar.
- New York (JFK) to Milan (MXP)
- Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH)
Emirates now flies its popular A380 aircraft on the route to Milan, where you’ll get lie-flat seats in business class and can even head for a drink at the onboard bar. Between Newark and Greece, Emirates currently uses its Boeing 777, where it has recently unveiled a new and improved business class product.
The Emirates Skywards Sweet Spot to Europe
There’s been some good news when it comes to using Emirates miles. Rates to book these flights in economy actually went down!
In early 2022, Emirates started charging far more miles for a one-way ticket on many routes to and from its home base in Dubai (DXB). Then, it increased the mandatory surcharges on nearly all of its award tickets – not once, but twice. What once cost just $180 in additional taxes and fees now costs more than $600. Ouch.
Yet all along, this sweet spot to Europe has escaped largely unscathed. The taxes and fees for these award flights only saw a modest increase. And so long as you book a roundtrip ticket, it’s still a bargain using miles – even after Emirates hiked business class award rates by 20%.
At 108,000 miles roundtrip plus around $250 in taxes and fees for business class seats, it’s one of the best ways to fly to Europe using points and miles. And if you prefer to just fly economy and save some miles, it’s only 35,000 miles roundtrip plus about $150 or so.
And that’s about 10,000 miles less than it was just last year!
That’s outstanding. You’ll have difficulty finding a better deal to Italy or Greece using miles, as many airlines charge around 70,000 miles for a one-way ticket in business class and 30,000 miles one-way for economy.
Book Roundtrip for the Best Deal in Biz Class
To get this 108,000-point roundtrip business class fare on Emirates, you’ll need to fly roundtrip.
Luckily, in economy, you can book one-ways for half the roundtrip price – only 17,500 points each way!
Up front, however, the five-star airline only offers its lowest “Saver” award rates for roundtrip purchases. If you search and book one-way flights instead, you would only be able to book a “Flex Plus” award … and that requires 87,000 miles.
You can easily check how many miles Emirates charges for specific routes at the different award levels by using its calculator tool.
With substantial savings, we’re big fans of the business class saver award rates on nonstop flights to Europe for just 108,000 miles roundtrip.
So, let’s go into more detail on how you can book it for yourself.
How to Book Emirates Flights to Europe with Skywards
These cheap award rates are only half of the equation to booking a trip to Europe using Emirates miles. The other half is arguably even more important: You need to find the award availability.
In order to book these roundtrip award flights for 35,000 miles in economy or 108,000 miles in business class, Emirates has to actually release seats to be booked with miles. And that’s not always a slam dunk – especially in business class.
Sometimes, you’ll find seats wide open for two or more travelers to fly either route in business class. Other times, you won’t find a thing while searching through Emirates – or you may only see flights at much higher award rates. Fortunately, economy is much easier to book using miles so that shouldn’t be a problem.
We’re constantly searching these routes to let our Thrifty Traveler Premium members know if there’s a good chance to lock in business class seats to Europe. In our experience, the flights from Newark (EWR) to Athens (ATH) are easier to find award seats – especially right now. As with almost every airline, booking business class seats to Europe for a summer trip using miles can be incredibly difficult.
It comes and goes, as Emirates seems to release business class award seats in waves. We’ve found great availability for two (or more), like this award alert we sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members a few weeks ago.
If you’re starting from scratch, there aren’t really any tricks to book these awards other than hunting for award seats at the lowest rates. To book an award ticket with Emirates, you’ll first need to log in to a free Skywards account. Once you’re logged in on the Emirates website, you’ll see the option to book a classic rewards ticket. Make sure that the box is checked.
Use Flexible Search to Find the Deals
Before you transfer points, you have to make sure the flights you want are available to book with points. So let’s do that. You can find availability without any points actually in your account, so login to your Skywards account and let’s do some searching.
Once you’re logged into your Emirates account on the Emirates website, head to the “Book Flights” section (or click this link) and enter either New York-Kennedy (JFK) or Newark-Liberty (EWR) into the departure city box and Milan (MXP) or Athens (ATH) into the destination box and select the “Classic rewards” box in the top left. For this example, I’m going to plan an October 2025 honeymoon for two in Italy.
It will likely take a little bit of trial and error to find what is called “Saver” award space. The “Saver” rate is that 35,000 roundtrip flight, while the regular economy rate is 60,000 roundtrip. When we find Saver award space like this, we always send it to our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers, too. In fact, we just sent an award alert for these flights a few weeks ago that looked like this.
Our flight deal alerts also include detailed booking instructions for all of our deals and give our members a full rundown of what points they can use and at what price. If you don’t have time to search for your own flight deals, we will happily do it for you!
If you’re searching on your own, though, you’ll have to spend some time poking around at a few dates to find that 35,000 roundtrip rate that will appear like this.
As you can see, you’ll get a little more with the Flex Plus ticket, including free changes, refunds, and two free checked bags. But with the Saver rate, you can still get a free checked bag and make changes to your flight for a low $25 fee.
When you select your “Saver” fares on the dates you want, you’ll get to a checkout page that looks like this. The full price will be confirmed at the bottom. Remember, that’s the rate for two passengers!
Once you select your fares and get to the checkout page, you’ll get a warning that you don’t have enough Skywards miles for the transaction. Now, let’s take care of that.
Want to fly Emirates first class to Europe? Unfortunately, first class awards are only available as Flex Plus awards, so it will always be 102,000 miles each way between the U.S. and Europe or 204,000 miles roundtrip. Finding first class award space on these routes can be even tougher – especially for more than one traveler.
But if you can make it work, there’s a great deal to be had: You can combine a first-class award in one direction with a business or economy award in the other. Just be sure to do a roundtrip search in order to get the lowest Saver level rate on the business or economy portion of your itinerary.
You’ll need to seek out the award availability in each cabin separately and then do a roundtrip search in a single cabin to book this type of award online. Once you get to this screen, just choose the different cabins in each direction.
So long as you’re making a roundtrip booking, you’ll be able to get the Saver award rates if you can find the award space to make it work.
Not finding any availability in first class? You may be able to upgrade a business class award ticket to first class at check-in using your miles.
Read more: How to Score an Upgrade Into Emirates First Class
Transfer Credit Card Points to Emirates Skywards
Once you’ve found the flights you want at the price you want to pay, it’s time to transfer your credit card points to Emirates Skywards miles. It couldn’t be easier.
You can transfer points from all the major travel rewards programs at a 1:1 ratio. That means 1,000 points = 1,000 Emirates miles.
- American Express Membership Rewards: See our guide on Amex transfer partners for a walkthrough!
- Capital One Venture Miles: Check out how Capital One transfer partners work!
- Chase Ultimate Rewards: Emirates is one of the best Chase transfer partners.
- Citi ThankYou Points transfer to Emirates, too.
- Bilt Rewards is the newest option on the scene.
No matter which points you’ve got, most transfers should be instant. To avoid any hiccups, you’ll want to make sure the name on your credit card account matches the name on your Emirates account exactly. For instance, if you use a middle initial (or don’t), make sure both accounts have the exact same spelling and format. If the names don’t match exactly, this can cause delays when transferring points.
To be on the safe side, you can call Emirates at 1-800-777-3999 to put award seats on hold if you’re worried that your points won’t transfer instantly. Emirates agents will usually hold award space for 72 hours. The only downside to this is that you will have to complete the booking over the phone, which can be more time-consuming than simply completing the booking yourself online.
Finish Your Booking
Once the points arrive in your Skywards account, pull up the same flights you already found on the Emirates website and book them!
It’s as easy as that if you want to book roundtrip flights. But one of the coolest parts about this deal is that you can also book these flights one-way for half the price (and you might want to) – just 17,500 miles and about $53!
Finally, if you’re not based in New York City, now’s the time you’ll want to book your positioning flights. You’ll want to give yourself a good, long connection in NYC so you don’t risk missing your Emirates flight (the same goes for the way back home), so I’d even consider giving yourself an overnight layover in NYC if possible.
Luckily, these flights depart JFK and EWR very late at night, so you’ll likely have time to position into NYC the day of.
Bottom Line
There are many ways to fly to Europe using points and miles. One that might be under your radar is flying Emirates on its nonstop routes from the New York City area to both Greece and Italy.
With easy-to-earn points and roundtrip flights in business class for 108,000 miles for a trip to Italy or Greece, or in economy for just 35,000 roundtrip, you’ll want to consider booking one of these Emirates flights for your next trip to Europe.
