In September 2022, Emirates and United announced that they planned to launch a partnership. I wanted to take another look at this, as the partnership has officially launched as of today. Reciprocal mileage earning and redemption opportunities are now possible… in a frustratingly limited capacity.
In this post:
How the Emirates & United partnership works
Emirates Airline and United Airlines have entered into a partnership, which sees the two airlines cooperating.
In November 2022 the first phase of this partnership launched, as Emirates and United added an interline agreement at major US airports. This is a very basic level of cooperation, whereby customers can book Emirates and United on a single ticket, making it easier to check-in and check bags, and giving Emirates customers access to 200+ destinations in the United States and beyond.
The more significant part of this partnership has launched as of March 2023, and is now live. So let’s go over the details of that. The execution is lackluster as of now, though I should note that we’ve been told to expect more cooperation in the future. Only time will tell if that turns out to be the case.
United launches Newark to Dubai route
As of late March 2023, United has launched a new daily flight between Newark and Dubai. This feeds into Emirates’ global network, with connection possibilities to 100+ destinations. The flight operates daily using a Boeing 777-200ER, with the following schedule:
UA164 Newark to Dubai departing 10:15PM arriving 7:40PM (+1 day)
UA163 Dubai to Newark departing 2:15AM arriving 9:05AM
This marks United’s return to Dubai, as the airline previously flew from Washington to Dubai until early 2016.
Emirates & United reciprocal mileage earning
For flights as of March 26, 2023, Emirates and United have launched reciprocal mileage earning opportunities for members of both frequent flyer program. However, the execution here is weak.
United MileagePlus members can only earn miles for travel on connecting Emirates flights if they’re booked in conjunction with United’s Newark to Dubai route. In other words, MileagePlus members can’t earn miles on Emirates unless the Newark to Dubai United flight is part of their itinerary.
Below are the MileagePlus earning rates on Emirates if you booked through United.
Below are the MileagePlus earning rates on Emirates if you booked through Emirates.
Emirates Skywards members can only miles for travel on United if the flight is marketed by Emirates. In other words, Skywards members can’t earn miles on United for tickets booked directly through United.
Below are the Skywards earning rates on United if you booked through Emirates.
Emirates & United reciprocal mileage redemptions
Emirates and United have also introduced reciprocal mileage redemption opportunities, though again, the opportunities are limited, especially for United passengers.
United MileagePlus members can redeem miles on Emirates flights from Dubai to Africa, the Middle East, and the South Asian Subcontinent, but only if it’s part of an award reservation that includes a United flight between Newark and Dubai.
Emirates Skywards members are better positioned in this regard, as they can redeem miles across United’s network. You can find the distance based award chart below. Unfortunately don’t get too excited about the redemption rates, especially given United’s general lack of saver level award space.
This partnership is important symbolically
If nothing else, it’s pretty major to see Emirates and United partnering, given the history. Going back several years, there was a huge battle between the “big three” US carriers and “big three” Gulf carriers, regarding the Open Skies policy between the two countries. Fortunately since then the situation has been resolved.
In mid-2020, shortly after the pandemic shut down global air travel, Emirates President Tim Clark went on record as saying that he wanted Emirates to partner with a “big three” US airline. Clark has long felt strongly that Emirates shouldn’t join a global alliance, as he believes that bilateral agreements are much more beneficial. Clark argued that Emirates could generate huge amounts of revenue for a major US airline.
Prior to the United announcement, Emirates had partnered with Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways in the United States, though the Dubai-based carrier is now taking a different approach:
- Emirates & Alaska ended their partnership in mid-2021, as Alaska joined the oneworld alliance and focused on its partnership with Qatar Airways
- Emirates & JetBlue ended their partnership in October 2022, as Emirates is clearly instead focusing on United, while JetBlue focuses on Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways
My take on Emirates & United partnership
A partnership between Emirates and United makes perfect sense on many fronts:
- Both United and Continental used to have a partnership with Emirates back in the day, so this cooperation isn’t totally new
- United can provide feed at so many of Emirates’ US airports, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark, San Francisco, Washington, etc.
- From a competitive standpoint, we’ve seen American Airlines and Qatar Airways launch a strategic alliance during the pandemic, while American previously refused to cooperate closely with Qatar Airways; on top of that, American also partners with Etihad Airways
- Emirates is the biggest foreign airline serving India, and flying directly from the US to India has become more complicated in the past year, with Russian airspace closures; for example, United can’t operate a nonstop San Francisco to Bangalore route with current airspace restrictions
While this partnership is exciting in general, I have to say that this is all a bit more toned down than I was hoping when it was first announced. I was anticipating we’d see something similar to the Emirates and Qantas partnership that launched many years ago, but unfortunately this is a far cry from that.
Don’t get me wrong, this is mutually beneficial, but frequent flyers with both airlines won’t be getting full reciprocal perks across the board, regardless of how they book. That’s disappointing.
The way I view it, Emirates wins by getting connectivity at so many US airports, which is a real value-add. Yes, United gets some additional passengers on domestic flights, but the way revenue is distributed on these fares, that won’t be much in most cases. United also launched a Newark to Dubai route, allowing the airline to return to the UAE, and especially get better access to India.
By comparison, it’s interesting to note that Air Canada and Emirates recently launched a partnership. This partnership is much better executed, and includes reciprocal points redemptions across Emirates’ network.
Bottom line
United Airlines and Emirates have fully launched their partnership. With this, we’ve seen United return to Dubai (with a new route out of Newark), and we’ve also seen reciprocal mileage earning and redemption opportunities rolled out.
Unfortunately this partnership is more valuable symbolically than in practice, at least for savvy frequent flyers. The reciprocal mileage earning and redemption opportunities are limited, unlike Emirates’ new partnership with Air Canada.
What do you make of this Emirates & United partnership?
That old adage, the devil's in the details, is so true here. I really like Emirates and flew them when they had a partnership with Alaska. Never had an issue with getting mileage and status credit on Alaska. This year I booked United/Emirates but went via Chicago to Dubai not EWR. Big mistake! You don't earn anything on United with these other, non-EWR, flights. So, no PQF and no PQP. Next time, it's Singapore or...
That old adage, the devil's in the details, is so true here. I really like Emirates and flew them when they had a partnership with Alaska. Never had an issue with getting mileage and status credit on Alaska. This year I booked United/Emirates but went via Chicago to Dubai not EWR. Big mistake! You don't earn anything on United with these other, non-EWR, flights. So, no PQF and no PQP. Next time, it's Singapore or Qatar to Singapore. I assumed that when United had a partnership with Emirates, it was really a partnership. I shouldn't have assumed anything and this certainly soured my opinion of United.
Don’t buy any ticket which has united and emirates connection. Brought a ticket from United website. Clearly states my 2 bags will be free till thee end. At Dubai on my connection Emirates charges me $600, if I didn’t pay they said they would
Keep on of my bags. They said call united. Call united and they said they pay it and ask for reimbursement. Came back home filled out reimbursement form and they...
Don’t buy any ticket which has united and emirates connection. Brought a ticket from United website. Clearly states my 2 bags will be free till thee end. At Dubai on my connection Emirates charges me $600, if I didn’t pay they said they would
Keep on of my bags. They said call united. Call united and they said they pay it and ask for reimbursement. Came back home filled out reimbursement form and they replied back saying sorry we can’t reimburse you, sorry for the communication error. Major fraud by both companies!!!
Denver, being one of UA's largest domestic hub, is the only hub that EK deosnt fly to. Any discussions of EK adding Denver?
Agree. Flying United domestically in the US and transferring to an Emirates flight makes sense but United launching their own flight to Dubai. Who would want to take that flight.... The benefits and conveniences of having the flights in one ticket. If United were to sell seats on the Emirates flight this may be different.
AA flies JFK to Doha which is popular connecting with Qatar. We will see what the load factors and fares United can generate.
Imagine if you will flying on United then transferring to an Emirates flight
A meaningless partnership.
I love this for the tasty, tasty hypocrisy of the US3 and their long, drawn out Open Skies "woe is me" saga which was laughable at its inception and has not aged well. And fast forward to late 2022 and today and the US3 have clearly adopted the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality because it's painfully obvious that the rice bowl that is domestic US travel fuels just one aspect of revenue,...
I love this for the tasty, tasty hypocrisy of the US3 and their long, drawn out Open Skies "woe is me" saga which was laughable at its inception and has not aged well. And fast forward to late 2022 and today and the US3 have clearly adopted the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality because it's painfully obvious that the rice bowl that is domestic US travel fuels just one aspect of revenue, but the US3's generally lackluster-to-downright-pitiful (comparatively) hard/soft product internationally is dragging them down on international routes - specifically to the ME in this particular instance but arguably elsewhere judging by my anecdotal evidence of family and friends and Reddit acquaintances always opting for alliance partners when possible. So now they're super keen to partner with those same airlines they had no problem dragging through the mud a few short years ago.
Can't wait to hear the overly vociferous Ed Bastion have some delightfully insipid and head-up-his-own-ass comments about AA's and UA's respective partnerships with QR and EK, comments which will likely just drip with envy because he's late to the party. I mean, EY is still theoretically game, but they're kind of saddled up with AC and hence UA/*A by the way side. So Ed and his merry band of C-suite idiots might just have to suck it.
The ME3 are subsidized by their state owners with cheap fuel and landing fees. This is going to be true for Saudi Arabia's new carrier. It is easy to offer a better product when you don't have to turn a profit or are a subsidized flag carrier. AA has only made money long term internationally on its JFK-LHR route.
It is easy for you to complain from your PC without having manage routes where you need to compete on price while your competitor does not.
This is a huge deal for flying to India from EWR especially BOM or BLR as those flights required Russian Airspace. Emirates already had their flights from JFK which is very inconvenient even to folks in Manhattan.
The only kicker is that currently the fares from EWR to BOM are atrocious especially in Business Class unless they make them competitive with the Emirates flights from Kennedy. The fares to DXB are fine. It’s just when...
This is a huge deal for flying to India from EWR especially BOM or BLR as those flights required Russian Airspace. Emirates already had their flights from JFK which is very inconvenient even to folks in Manhattan.
The only kicker is that currently the fares from EWR to BOM are atrocious especially in Business Class unless they make them competitive with the Emirates flights from Kennedy. The fares to DXB are fine. It’s just when you add connections to India they become ridiculous. Perhaps buy separate tickets on United and Emirates which can be a hassle
You could always have bought a separate ticket. This partnership means you don't have to anymore (unless they choose to price higher than competition)!
Understood but in event of IRROPS it is pain in the back. Also the United flight to DXB just started on March 23 so it is still a big deal for BOM travel. Lufthansa is a tired airline with mediocre soft product and ok hard product and BA has huge surcharges on award tickets. LHR is a mess too.
So right now QR with the suites from PHL or JFK or EK from JFK were...
Understood but in event of IRROPS it is pain in the back. Also the United flight to DXB just started on March 23 so it is still a big deal for BOM travel. Lufthansa is a tired airline with mediocre soft product and ok hard product and BA has huge surcharges on award tickets. LHR is a mess too.
So right now QR with the suites from PHL or JFK or EK from JFK were the only good options since the non stop United flight to BOM was cancelled due to Russian airspace.
Additionally besides personal travel my company travel defaults to US airlines unless I can justify non stop flights. I won’t fly Air India unless I have to in an emergency. So now with the United option to DXB I can easily select the EWR-DXB-BOM route. For most of us in the EWR area having United elite status the UA flight is a big deal as I make several trips to BOm. Last few trips to BOM have been useless in terms of status as I was flying all over the place with different airlines. SQ is the only good option for UA elites but that requires a EWR-SIN non stop and then to BOM which can be a long commute.
It also appears they're passing along fuel surcharges. EWR-AMS currently pricing at 64,000 miles + $815.10. Yikes!