Review: How does the Jumeirah One hotel loyalty scheme work?

This is our review of the Jumeriah One hotel loyalty scheme.

Jumeirah One is the programme for Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts, the Dubai-based group with properties across the Middle East. Jumeirah One replaced Jumeirah Sirius in 2020 although it hasn’t made much of an impact, with relatively weak benefits and revenue-based redemptions.

Outside Dubai, Jumeirah hotels can also be found in London, Capri, Mallorca (reviewed here), Oman (reviewed here), Bali, Guangzhou, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the Maldives amongst other places.

I stay at Jumeirah Hotels in the Middle East on a regular basis so I understand the programme fairly well. Since it moved to revenue-based redemptions I find it has little value. My Burj Al Arab review is here if you want to find out what it is like inside.

Jumeirah One is worse than Jumeirah Sirius

I’m not entirely sure why Jumeirah bothered with a new loyalty scheme in 2020, because very little changed.

The biggest change was negative. The scheme moved to be totally revenue-driven for redemptions.

Revenue based free night pricing has destroyed most of the value in the scheme for me. Sirius used to work like Hilton Honors – you would get a number of rooms available at fixed points pricing, and when they were gone it moved to far higher pricing based on the cash price.

All Jumeirah One redemptions are revenue based. The only interesting element is that the ‘pence per point’ rate changes from hotel to hotel.

I did some maths as you will see below. You get around 1.5p per Jumeirah One point. This is poor given that you only earn 2 points per $1 spent.

Converted to Sterling you are getting around 3.75p of points per £1 you spend. What possible incentive is there to book direct with Jumeirah to earn points when you get so little back? Until Hotels.com Rewards devalues, and If the pricing is equal, you might as well book via them and pick up 10% of your ex-tax spend back in Hotels.com Rewards.

Good news: the problem with status tiers has been fixed

At some point in the last 18 months, Jumeirah has finally fixed the ‘elephant in the room’ problem with its status system.

Your tier points are no longer reset to zero when you are upgraded.

What used to happen is that, when you went up a status level, your status points were reset to zero.

You may not immediately see the problem here. However, as Jumeirah mainly runs holiday hotels, people are running up large bills. You receive your tier points in big chunks.

For example, Jumeirah One Silver status needs 5,000 tier points and Gold requires 30,000 tier points. You do an expensive stay ($14,999 before taxes) at a Jumeirah property which earns 29,999 tier points. What used to happen is that when your stay posted, you hit Silver and all 29,999 points were lost. 24,999 were wasted because you only actually needed 5,000 to hit Silver. Your balance reset to zero. You were still $15,000 away from Gold status.

I have come a cropper with this a couple of times over the years, and it has stopped me reaching Gold before now. My Burj Al Arab stay in December 2020 earned 7,898 tier points due to a ‘double points’ offer. I was promoted to Silver, which required 5,000 points, and my balance was reduced to zero. 2,898 tier points were lost.

The situation has now changed

When you are upgraded now, your tier year is reset and the points required for the threshold are deducted from your account.

So, if we go back to the example above, a base member who earns 29,999 tier points in one go will no longer see them reset to zero. Instead, 5,000 tier points (the Silver threshold) are deducted. The member will be a Silver member with a tier point balance of 24,999 points, which makes hitting 30,000 points for Gold achievable.

This does not work for tier renewals. Sticking with my example, the newly promoted Silver member with 24,999 points will NOT renew at that level unless they earn 5,000 fresh tier points. The tier point counter will be reset to zero after 12 months unless you are promoted.

How does Jumeirah One work?

The programme has three tiers – Silver, Gold and Platinum. The spend targets I quote below are over a rolling 12-month period.

You earn two tier points per $1 spent, excluding taxes and service charges.

You can earn points on up to three rooms per night (if all are booked under the same name) which is beneficial for families who book multiple rooms, and makes it a lot easier to hit status.

Points expire after 24 months of no EARNING activity. If you are in London, popping into one of the two hotels for a coffee is probably the easiest way to achieve this. The T&C imply that buying Jumeirah gift vouchers online will also earn points although I have no experience of this. Spending points does not count as ‘activity’ according to the rules.

You can transfer points for free to another member with an ‘active’ account, but this does not count as ‘activity’ for the receiver.

Jumeirah One is part of some American Express Membership Rewards schemes but NOT the UK one, so you cannot transfer in from Amex.

Get a free night voucher after your first stay

It’s worth noting that new members receive a free night voucher after their first stay. This is valid on a four night or five night (varies by hotel) cash stay within six months, in any room category.

Potentially, if you were planning a long stay at a pricey resort, you could save money by joining Jumeirah One Rewards and doing a one night stay at a cheaper Jumeirah property to trigger the voucher.

Jumeirah One Silver benefits

Silver requires 5,000 tier points, so $2,500 of spend.

Benefits are:

• 25% bonus on base points
• 2pm late check-out subject to availability
• welcome amenity
• free breakfast (two people per room)
• 10% restaurant discount in the UAE

Having had Silver status, I find free breakfast the main benefit here. The 10% restaurant discount also adds up over a long stay. If Jumeirah One has a ‘sweet spot’, it is Silver status.

Jumeirah One Gold benefits

Gold requires 30,000 tier points, so $15,000 of spend. This is a MASSIVE leap from Silver – I don’t know any other loyalty scheme which requires 6x the spend to jump between two tiers.

Benefits are:

• 50% bonus on base points
• 5th night free on redemptions
• free Silver status for a friend
• 4pm late check-out subject to availability
• welcome amenity
• free breakfast (two people per room)
• free minibar (soft drinks only)
• free one-way airport transfer on a 4+ night stay
• complimentary garment pressing
• 10% restaurant discount in the UAE

There is a LOT of spending required here for what is, let’s be honest, a fairly modest step-up in benefits over Silver.

Remember that you can get a guaranteed 4pm check-out and free breakfast simply for booking via American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts if you have an American Express Platinum card. You can get similar benefits via our own hotel partner (details at the bottom) irrespective of what credit card you hold. There is no need to spend $15,000 in the previous 12 months to access these benefits!

Jumeirah One Platinum benefits

Platinum requires 90,000 tier points, so $45,000 of spend (!)

Benefits are:

• 100% bonus on base points
• 5th night free on redemptions
• free Gold status for a friend
• 9am early check-in subject to availability
• 4pm late check-out subject to availability
• one category room upgrade subject to availability
• welcome amenity
• free breakfast (two people per room)
• free minibar (soft drinks only)
• free two-way airport transfer on a 4+ night stay
• complimentary garment pressing
• 15% restaurant discount in the UAE

I’m slightly lost for words here. Spend $45,000 in a year – and this is excluding taxes – and you can have a one category upgrade on your next stay, subject to availability. It’s all a bit of a joke.

For comparison, the two most exclusive hotel statuses amongst the main chains – Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador and InterContinental Royal Ambassador – only require $15,000 to $23,000 of annual spend. The benefits are also far better than this.

What rewards does Jumeirah One offer?

Since the relaunch, I have struggled to find any outsize value in the programme.

Personally, what I now do is – when checking out of a Jumeirah hotel – ask them to use my entire points balance as part payment. It’s not a great deal but I can’t do any better. Of course, I immediately earn a slug of points back so the cycle repeats!

Here are some free night examples (cash prices include all taxes and service):

• Jumeirah Carlton Tower London on 1st October – £795 or 42,997 points (1.8p per point)

• Burj Al Arab on 1st October – Dhs 6,429 or 113,493 points (1.2p per point)

• Jumeirah Muscat Bay on 1st October – OMR 218 or 25,001 points (1.8p per point)

Let’s look at vouchers:

• Dhs 100 dining voucher – 1,500 points (1.5p per point)

• Bottle of house wine in a hotel restaurant – 1,000 points (2.5p per point?)

• £100 dining or spa voucher – 6,700 points (1.5p per point)

There are also transfers available to Emirates Skywards and Saudia Alfursan. All other airline partnerships were dropped during the pandemic.

The transfer rate is poor at 2 Jumeirah One points to 1 mile. You are ‘paying’ a terrible 3p+ per mile compared to redeeming for hotel rooms or restaurant / spa vouchers.

What return am I getting with Jumeirah One?

Let’s take 1.5p per point as your average redemption value.

Based on earning 2 points per $1 as a non-status member, your return is 3.75% on your pre-tax spend. This isn’t great.

With Silver status, booking direct has a little more value due to free breakfast and the 10% dining discount. However, unless Jumeirah is offering a decent discount for direct booking, there isn’t enough here to stop you booking via an online travel agent with a better reward scheme.

Conclusion

Jumeirah One has, clearly, improved now that it does not wipe out your tier points after every status upgrade.

It is still a shadow of how it was in the Jumeirah Sirius days, when reward pricing was fixed. I used to transfer points from my UK Amex card to my American Express International Currency Card, which was a Jumeirah partner. Over October half-term in 2019, my notes show I got an amazing 3.4p per UK American Express Membership Rewards point this way on a Jumeirah stay. Over Easter 2016 I got 3.8p. No-one could do that now.

In some ways the problems with Jumeirah One mirror the problems with the hotel group. It has lost a lot of hotels in recent years – most recently three mid-tier hotels in Dubai, the flagship Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, the Frankfurt hotel and the Shanghai hotel. It has also lost hotels in Istanbul, Rome, Bodrum, New York and the Maldives amongst others. My view is that it is confused and unfocussed – outside Dubai, should it target Western tourists who trust the brand from the Dubai hotels, or Emiratis who are travelling?

I am struggling to see the point of Jumeirah One. The jump from Silver to Gold is ludicrously high. The conversion rate to Emirates Skywards is poor. The earning rate on stays is too low. Having to spend $45,000 per year to get a one-category upgrade (if available at check-in) is a joke, especially as you can book with Emyr via Jumeirah’s ‘Passport to Luxury’ and get the same deal.

In some ways Jumeirah struggles because it is trying to satisfy two groups of customers at once. Some properties sell for £200 per night whilst others sell for £2,000 per night. The programme offers little to anyone who is not a high roller – and the high rollers are probably insulted that they only get free soft drinks in their mini-bar and a tiny upgrade.

Booking a Jumeirah hotel for cash?

If you are thinking of booking a Jumeirah hotel, our hotel booking partner Emyr Thomas is an appointed Jumeirah ‘Passport to Luxury’ agent.

ALL bookings via Emyr will come with:

• complimentary one-way transfer
• early check-in and late check-out (subject to availability)
• room upgrade on arrival (subject to availability)
• $75 resort credit per stay ($100 credit per DAY at Burj Al Arab)
• personalised welcome amenity and card
• complimentary daily breakfast for two
• complimentary Wi-Fi
• enhanced guest recognition though VIP status at all guest experience touch points

You will still receive your Jumeirah One points. In my experience, Emyr can also occasionally access lower rates than the Jumeirah website shows.

There is no minimum stay needed to get these benefits, except for Jumeirah hotels in China where you must stay three nights.

Unlike some ‘preferred partner’ hotel schemes, Emyr can add these benefits to most rates and packages shown on the Jumeirah website, not just ‘Best Flexible’. These include:

• Jumeirah Advance Purchase rate (bed & breakfast)
• Jumeirah semi-flexible rate (bed & breakfast)
• Jumeirah Escapes (bed & breakfast and half board)
• Jumeirah Flavours (half board)

You can contact Emyr via this page of Head for Points.