(Dead) Possible unadvertised 25% transfer bonus to Emirates from Capital One Miles

Update 5/1/25: Doctor of Credit reports that this is no longer working and that those who received the 25% bonus have had the bonus points removed from their accounts.

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Dan’s Deals has reported on a potential 25% transfer bonus from Capital One miles to Emirates Skywards. This bonus is not advertised by either side, so it is unclear whether or not it is intentional. A few commenters at Doctor of Credit note getting a 25% bonus when transferring, so it is possible this will work, but far from certain.

When I log in to my Capital One account, I only see the normal 1:1 transfer ratio advertised, which would yield 1,000 Emirates Skywards miles for 1,000 Capital One miles.

However, a few commenters at Doctor of Credit report receiving a 25% bonus when transferring since yesterday.

It is worth noting that as this is unadvertised, we don’t know for sure that it will stick / is intentional / will work for all members. It is anybody’s guess as to whether this will last or work at all unless and until it is advertised by one side or the other.

Adding some cause for caution here is the fact that Citi went in the opposite direction and devalued transfers to Emirates overnight last week and then yesterday we reported that both Chase and Amex have messaging indicating that transfers to Emirates will be unavailable from those programs beginning at the end of May. That’s a presumably temporary change.

Word on the street is that the outages with Chase and Amex are planned IT-related pauses as systems are upgraded rather than being foreshadowing of changes coming to those partnerships. If that is true, my expectation is that we will see similar transfer outages with other partners, though perhaps over a staggered time period. With that being said, it is difficult to know whether this 25% transfer bonus from Capital One to Emirates is a planned promotion that went live earlier than they meant for it to go live (certainly not impossible with the 1st of a new month coming tomorrow) or whether it is a symptom of planned IT upgrades progressing in an unplanned manner.

I’d only consider transferring if I had a near-term use in mind where I’d be willing to transfer the full number of points necessary and in that case I would transfer enough miles for that redemption considering the 25% bonus. In other words, if I wanted to book an award that costs 125K miles, I’d try transferring 100K and if the bonus happens, I’ll have enough miles to book my award. If it doesn’t, I can try another transfer. On the flip side, a small test transfer (like just 1,000 miles) followed soon after by a much larger transfer is often a trigger for holding up transfers for fraud concerns. It is also worth noting that if you create a brand new Emirates account, then immediately transfer points and try to book an award, do not be surprised if your account is locked for fraud concerns. That’s exactly what happened to my wife a couple of years ago and by the time it was all resolved, the trip for which we were trying to book was well behind us, so we’ve been stuck with 200K+ Emirates miles ever since.

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