Skywards miles ripoff

My wife had 10,000 miles expiring at the end of December 2017. She had the option of transferring the miles to someone else, which made sense and was a great option, rather than buying unnecessary items from the online store. I assisted her in transferring the miles to my account. The transfer option as it turned was not free and in fact cost $25/1000 miles transfer fee which is approx. R312/1000 miles whereas the equivalent shopping value of the miles is approx. R68/1000 miles). This is not only ridiculously exorbitant but ********* for an otherwise great airline. There is absolutely no reference to a transfer fee anywhere on the website and you only get to know the cost when Emirates asks for your payment method. Why bother offering the transfer option when clearly it is not cost effective and has little benefit to the transferor. It would have been cheaper to forfeit the miles than to transfer it.

I cannot blame Emirates for the actual transaction cost as I authorised the cost hoping that at the end of the transaction process, the cost would be declared free. Unfortunately, I ended up spending R3400 to transfer 10,000 miles worth approx. R680. What a rip-off!!!

I phoned the emirates helpline to try to get the transaction reversed. Their response was that their system did not allow a refund when transfers are done. This is incredible in the modern world and with a sophisticated airline like Emirates.

You can do better Emirates as this behaviour is not in keeping with your reputation. I intend to skip the Emirates option of flying and try the growing number of quality alternatives for the foreseeable future. Abdool **********