Review: Emirates Skywards American Express and Visa credit cards

UPDATE – DECEMBER 2024:  This article is now out of date, but don’t worry.  We produce a monthly directory of the top UK travel credit card offers – please click HERE or use the ‘Credit Cards’ menu above.  Thank you.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 30,000 Avios. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 80,000 Avios! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

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This is my review of the Emirates Skywards UK credit cards.

It is part of my series of articles looking at the major UK loyalty credit cards and discussing whether or not they are worth applying for. These articles will be linked to the relevant sections of the ‘Credit Card Offers‘ page.  My other UK airline and hotel credit card reviews can be found here.

Key link: Emirates Skywards American Express and Visa application form

Key facts: No annual fee

The representative APR is 22.9% variable.

About the card

There are two versions of the Emirates UK credit cards – the free basic version and the £150 annual fee Elite version. This review covers the free card. The Emirates Elite credit card is reviewed here.

The Emirates Skywards credit cards are issued by MBNA (now part of Lloyds Bank) as a double-pack, with recipients receiving an American Express card and a Visa card. This model may not continue into the future as Amex fees on co-brand cards to UK retailers are now capped at the same level as Mastercard / Visa at 0.3%.

MBNA also issues the United, American, Etihad and Virgin credit cards, amongst others. If you already hold one of these cards and are refused for the Emirates cards, they will often change their mind if you ring up and offer to reduce the credit limit on your existing card.

It is important to note that MBNA allows you to have both versions of the Emirates credit card. You can apply for both this free card and the Elite card and get the sign-up bonus on both. This is the total opposite of the American Express policy on the British Airways cards, where you can only have either the free card or the Premium Plus version at the same time.

What is the sign-up bonus?

You will receive 5,000 Emirates Skywards miles when you apply and make a purchase within 90 days. Occasional special offers can see this raised to as much as 12,000 miles – the last offer ended in June 2017.

On their own, 5,000 Emirates miles are (literally) not going to get you far. I discuss some possible redemption ideas below, but if you do not already collect Skywards miles then it is highly unlikely – except for very high spenders – that you would earn enough from card spend alone for anything worthwhile.

MBNA has a stated policy of not allowing you to get another sign-up bonus if you have previously had the same card in the past. In reality, if you leave a gap of a couple of years you will often find that you do receive it.

Any other benefits?

MBNA and Emirates have added some interesting bonus features to the free card:

10% discount on Emirates Holidays – this is either worth a huge amount (enough on its own to get the card) or nothing, depending on your preferences!

25% discount when you buy Skywards miles – worthwhile if you need to buy some to top-off an account, but Skywards miles are not exceptional value when bought directly

0% interest on Emirates transactions for 12 months – could have some value, worth noting that MBNA – on the American Airlines card at least – actually (by mistake?) gives 0% on all airline transactions and not just AA

0% on balance transfers for 6 months, made within 90 days of opening the account (3% fee) – note that you will not earn miles on a balance transfer

Double miles on Emirates flight purchases

What is the annual fee?

There is no annual fee.

What do I earn per £1 spent on the card?

Cardholders earn 1 Skywards per £1 spent on the Amex and 0.5 miles per £1 on the Visa. MBNA has a good reputation in my experience for posting points punctually.

This is par for the course with a free credit card, but is not exceedingly generous – especially as Skywards miles do not go as far as other airline currencies.

If you are happy to pay a fee, MBNA’s £70 American Airlines card, for example, is a lot more generous at 1.25 miles per £1 on a Visa.

You should remember that Skywards is an American Express Membership Rewards partner. If you got an American Express Gold card, for example (free in the first year) you would get a 20,000 point sign-up bonus, equivalent to 20,000 Skywards miles. You would earn the same 1 point per £1 spent, but you would have far more flexibility – Amex points convert to a large number of airline and hotel schemes.

If you want to collect Skywards miles from a Visa or Mastercard, however, this card is the best free option.

What is a Skywards mile worth?

This is a tricky one, because it depends on very specific sets of circumstances.

Emirates is not part of a major airline alliance, although it has a lot of partners. Oddly, easyJet is one of them and you can redeem miles for easyJet flights. The rate is poor, though, at about 0.4p per mile.

In September 2016, Emirates introduced ‘cash and miles’. This allows you to use miles to reduce the cost of any Emirates cash flight at the rate of $0.008 per mile.

Skywards also has a draconian expiry policy. Your miles expire three years after you earn them, with no exceptions. It is not possible to save up over a long period for a redemption.

Looking at the core UK to Dubai route, a Skywards ‘saver’ ticket is 90,000 miles in business class compared to 100,000 Avios (off peak) or 120,000 Avios (peak) on British Airways. Emirates also has ‘flex’ awards which cost 125,000 miles for the route but which offer substantially better availability.

As I regularly find out, Emirates includes its free chauffeur service on reward tickets in cities where they have it which gives added value. If you redeemed to, say, Bangkok return with a stopover in Dubai in both directions, you would receive eight free chauffeur rides.

Emirates does NOT offer one-way rewards at the ‘saver’ level – you need to book a ‘flex’ ticket to get that. This is another reason why collecting miles solely from the Skywards credit card is not a good idea, as the minimum required for a decent reward is high. A one-way business class ticket from the UK to Dubai will be 62,500 miles.

Skywards charges high taxes and fuel surcharges on redemptions, which are on a par with those charged by British Airways.

Miles can be used to upgrade economy tickets to business class but this benefit is restricted to customers with expensive flexible economy tickets.

You can also use your Skywards miles to buy standard and VIP tickets to watch Arsenal and other top football clubs. Surprisingly, they can also be transferred into Heathrow Rewards points at a ratio of 6,000 miles to 2,000 (£20-worth) of points.

I see no reason to value Skywards miles higher than I value Avios points, ie 0.75p. (That would ‘value’ a London to Dubai saver award in business at 90,000 miles x 0.75p + £650 tax = £1,325, which is roughly the price you would pay for cash in a sale.) On this basis, the 1 mile per £1 on the Amex is equivalent to a 0.75% rebate on your spend. The Visa returns just 0.38%.

How does this compare to a cashback credit card?

My default comparison card is the ASDA Cashback Credit Card which is free for life and offers 0.5% cashback. The representative APR is 19.9% variable.

These are probably better returns than earning 0.5 Skywards miles per £1 on the Emirates Visa.

In some ways this debate is academic, though, because unless you are an exceptionally heavy card spender, this card will only be of interest to an existing Emirates Skywards collector looking to top-up an account.

How else can you earn Skywards miles from a credit card?

There are three good alternative ways to earn Emirates miles from your credit card spend:

The American Express Preferred Rewards Gold charge card offers 20,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up and is FREE for the first year. These convert to 20,000 Skywards miles.

The American Express Platinum charge card offers 30,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up. These convert to 30,000 Skywards miles. It has a £450 fee, refunded pro-rata if you cancel.

The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express credit card offers 10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest points for signing up. These convert to 10,000 Skywards miles. It has a £75 fee, refunded pro-rata if you cancel.

Conclusion

The current offer of 5,000 miles as a sign-up bonus is OK for a free card when compared with the standard bonuses on the British Airways, Virgin and Lufthansa free cards. This does not necessarily compensate for their lack of flexibility.

In terms of spending, 1 mile per £1 on the Amex is typical of the rate you would see on a free airline card. The same goes for the Visa at 0.5 miles per £1.

The application form for the Emirates Skywards credit cards can be found here.

How to earn Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards (December 2024)

Emirates Skywards does not have a UK credit card.  However, you can earn Emirates Skywards miles by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

Cards earning Membership Rewards points include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 15,000 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 50,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 37,500 Emirates Skywards miles

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 7,500 Emirates Skywards miles. This card is FREE for life.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is increased to 30,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 22,500 Emirates Skywards miles. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 14th January 2025, the sign-up bonus on The Platinum Card from American Express is increased to 80,000 Membership Rewards points. This converts into 60,000 Emirates Skywards miles! The spend requirement is changed to £10,000 in six months for this offer. Click here to apply.

Membership Rewards points convert at 4:3 into Emirates Skywards miles which is an attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 0.75 Emirates Skywards miles. The Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, with any airline.