Emirates has launched a new Skywards miles sale with up to a 25% bonus for purchases made through December 22, 2024. 
Based on the email I received, all Skywards members can buy miles at up to a 25% discount; however, there can be various targeted offers.
You can access this offer on the Emirates website here.
Note that base and Silver members can buy 100,000 and Gold/Platinum 200,000 Skywards miles in a calendar year. Usually, only members with previous activity on their Skywards accounts can purchase miles.
Individual offers might be targeted, so always check your own account eligibility.
Here is what is offered to me for my account located in Thailand:
Under this promotion, the price for one mile is 2.54 cent (US$) and that’s rather high.
Miles can be purchased in different tranches and bonus amounts:
- 5,000+ Miles = 10% Bonus
- 16,000+ Miles = 15% Bonus
- 26,000+ Miles = 25% Bonus
You can check the number of miles required for any city pair using this calculator (access here).
Overall, this sale is only suitable for members who have to substitute their account with a certain number of points. Emirates Award availability wasn’t exactly great whenever I checked it, so to buy them as an alternate option to peak season fares is rather risky.
I’d also consider the overall price, because $2,500 + award ticket tax for a redemption at the cost of ~ 100,000 miles is not exactly cheap. You should be able to find a paid ticket in Business Class for that at any time with some flexibility for date and carrier.
Conclusion
During previous sales, Emirates has sold Skywards miles up to a 40% bonus. I would not buy miles at this price unless I had a good use for them right now. It also seems that Points and Emirates may have raised the cost of the miles.
It seems that this 10-25% off/bonus sale has become almost quarterly based on the offers Emirates has had historically for the past few years. Sometimes, there are pre-sales for up to 40%, but I still think that Skywards miles are too expensive to buy.
Either way, many accounts are never targeted, so a particular sale might have only limited use, even within one family of several accounts. If you play to buy miles, I’d check availability first and compare the taxes due and the pricing for cash revenue fares.
These are the terms and conditions for this sale:
The Promotion provides an Eligible Member with the opportunity to get up to 25% bonus Miles on the retail price when purchasing Skywards Miles (the “Offer”) during the Promotion Period from 00.01 GST on 10 December 2024 to 23.59 GST on 22 December 2024. This Offer is available only for transactions made to Buy Miles / Gift Miles on emirates.com via the Points Platform, Emirates Contact Centres and Emirates reservation and ticketing offices, and cannot be applied in combination with another offer that may be available on the Buy Miles / Gift Miles product. Skywards Miles bought/gifted through this Offer will count towards the combined maximum limit that a member can purchase for self or receive as a gift in a calendar year.
