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Emirates Skywards is planning a new UK credit card – here’s what they are thinking

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Emirates Skywards seems to have revived its plans to launch a new UK co-brand credit card.

This is a project that I know was being worked on before the pandemic (I know someone who worked on that one, and it even went as far as surveying members on preferred card designs) but was then dropped.

Someone has clearly now decided it is worth reviving.

A survey was sent to selected Skywards members on Friday:

“Emirates Skywards is considering launching a new credit card in the United Kingdom (UK). As a valued Skywards member in the UK, we would appreciate your time in completing a short survey to help us understand the credit card benefits and features that are important to you.”

The survey itself is nothing special:

  • Who is your current primary payment card with?
  • Which features from the list do you most like about that card?
  • What rewards do you earn on that card?
  • Would you be interested in having a co-branded Emirates credit card?
  • Which of these benefits would you want? (earning miles, a sign-up bonus, lounge access, insurance, elite status, flight and holiday discounts, in-flight benefits etc)

Emirates already has some ideas …..

The survey includes three possible structures for a credit card (click to enlarge):

You’ll see that all offer 0.75 Skywards miles per £1 spent.

(The image below is one of the old UK Emirates Skywards credit cards, issued by MBNA.)

Under each option you are asked what annual fee you would pay. This is a bizarre question, to be honest, since virtually the only difference between the three options is the size of the first year sign-up bonus. After the first year, the three options are fundamentally the same.

After I responded to that question I got this, which is more interesting from a reward perspective (click to enlarge):

However, you are still only getting 1 mile per £1 on core UK spending. Emirates wanted to know if £200+ would be an acceptable annual fee for such a card.

Is this proposition going to fly?

It’s not going to be easy, put it that way.

In the new world of 0.3% interchange fees, you need to think beyond the traditional concept of an arms-length partnership, where you simply sell miles to a bank partner.

For example:

  • Barclaycard is using its Avios credit cards to bring in a young(er) and relatively wealthy group of people to the bank, as its core customer base continues to age. It is happy to take a loss on the credit cards if it means it can cross-sell other products, especially Barclays Premier.
  • Virgin Atlantic formed a full joint venture company with Virgin Money to launch its credit cards. Instead of simply selling Virgin Points to the bank, the two companies have a complex deal which shares income from interest payments, FX spending and annual fees. This allows Virgin Red to sell points to the JV very cheaply.

At the moment Emirates doesn’t give the impression of being willing to go this far. This is why the proposition outlined in this survey isn’t competitive given the fees being suggested.

I assume that the Emirates customer base is heavily leisure driven and unlikely to be used to paying for credit cards.

I suggest that any new Skywards card needs to have a free option and, if there is a paid version on top, it should focus on benefits of interest to ‘once a year’ Emirates flyers – lounge access, priority check-in, priority boarding etc. The hard 3-year miles expiry rule may also need to be waived.

Emirates needs to see any UK card as a way of enhancing customer loyalty and not simply as a way of selling miles to a bank.

In the meantime, we have a complete guide to earning Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards which you can find here.

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How to earn Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards

How to earn Emirates Skywards miles from UK credit cards (April 2025)

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:

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on the ‘free for a year’ American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card is increased from 20,000 Membership Rewards points to 30,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (30,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 27th May 2025, the sign-up bonus on American Express Platinum is increased from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to a huge 80,000 points. Points convert 1:1 into Avios (80,000 Avios!) and many other programmes. Some people may see even higher personalised offers. 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 American Express Preferred Rewards Gold card earns double points (2 per £1) on all flights you charge to it, not just with Emirates but with any airline.

Category

Emirates and Emirates Skywards

Comments (84)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Sam says:
    14 Jan14 January 05:49

    Hi Rob, “Barclaycard is using its Avios credit cards to bring in a young(er) and relatively wealthy group of people to the bank, as its core customer base continues to age” – how do you know this? As in have Barclays said this?

    • Jake says:
      14 Jan14 January 09:54

      I think it’s implied. Giving out 100k Avios as a bonus (as they did previously) + vouchers etc does not make the bank money. The only way the whole system works is if the bank is able to cross-sell additional products to subscribers – particularly younger ones that may purchase products with a longer shelf life.

    • Nick says:
      14 Jan14 January 10:30

      However cynical I usually am with this kind of thing, it worked with me. I would never have considered moving my current account but I did for the 100k and have kept it since. I’m going to cancel Amex plat when the fee increase kicks in, it was borderline anyway and now just doesn’t work against the Barclays paid card. I’ve had it un-churned for 5 years… I guess that’s feedback for both parties if they’re reading!

      • Sam says:
        14 Jan14 January 11:44

        Thanks Nick and Jake. It worked with me at the time of the bonus but moving away from Barclays conpletely with all products as its on the boycott list re what’s going on in Palestine so they have lost a younger and wealthier crowd with that!

        • Camille55 says:
          14 Jan14 January 16:01

          Is there a “boycott list”? If so, where?

          Sam – Is there a level of bonus that might attract you back (regardless of geopolitical issues)?

          • Sam says:
            14 Jan14 January 19:11

            Quite a lot of boycott lists but with Barclays, it’s their investments in arms deals in Israel which is all over the media (not mainstream because of course they aren’t going to publicise it) but all over social media.

            No bonus at all would attract me back. The only thing that would is them not supporting apartheid/refusing Israeli arms deals that are killing the majority of kids.

          • Charles Martel says:
            14 Jan14 January 23:18

            Do you also boycott companies that invest in the arabic world where women and gays are suppressed?

  • r* says:
    14 Jan14 January 06:39

    They need to add something thats actually useful, at least an upgrade voucher or something. How many ppl will be flying frequently with emirates to get points other than on cc spend, what would make it appeal to anyone other than emirates flyers?

    A hard expiry on points is especially unattractive, who wants to build up enough pts for an economy flight that has a stop in dxb and huge fees on the booking?

  • Matt says:
    14 Jan14 January 07:23

    In the UAE, the top tier Emirates credit card offers a 100k sign on bonus, 2 miles per USD spend and silver status.

    I get the point about interchange in the UK, but they’re only going to appeal to a very small niche unless they can beat the equivalent Avios or Amex MR card offers.

    • Julia says:
      14 Jan14 January 07:37

      Excellent news. Do you think there will be a minimum wage or will it be on income?

      We’re thinking of moving to the UAE after the labour government in Portugal made changes to the residency visas plus, getting people to take American Express in Portugal is hit and miss. I like Matt’s information on getting a card in UAE, thanks Matt, but we will be new with no credit history. This is all very exciting stuff for a Sunday!!!

      • Kowalski says:
        14 Jan14 January 08:11

        Monthly income requirement for the UAE Emirates credit card with 100k signup bonus is 30,000 AED (£6,400). Plus there’s a joining fee of 2,999 AED (£640).

        • Julia says:
          14 Jan14 January 08:20

          Thank you Kowalski.

          • Dominic says:
            14 Jan14 January 08:59

            On top of this, most the sign-up bonuses require a minimum spend per month for X months (often 15-20k AED monthly).

            But yeah, the spending perks smash the UK ones out the water every day. My Etihad card gives around 4.8 miles per 1 GBP spend.

      • Matt says:
        14 Jan14 January 09:05

        There’s no real concept of a credit history in the UAE, banks tend to base all decisions on what is written in your employment contract and will freeze your accounts when they receive notification that your visa has been cancelled until you repay all loans or credit card debt (this sounds worse than it is in reality).

        • Subs says:
          15 Jan15 January 11:45

          Any other suggestions for the best UAE cards? Planning to move in the next few months

    • BBbetter says:
      14 Jan14 January 09:55

      You don’t ’get’ the point of interchange fee cap, if you keep repeating the same point about ongoing rewards.

  • Tim says:
    14 Jan14 January 08:03

    Could you try to get your contacts at IHG to say if they have any plans whatsoever to launch a new UK credit card? They remain very vague whenever I ask them.

  • n1368585 says:
    14 Jan14 January 08:21

    Before they think about introducing any credit cards they need to scrap this absurd 3-year expiry rule with the points.
    What’s a 20,000 point bonus seriously going to get you. No equivalent 241 voucher offered for a min. annual spend?

  • AspirationalFlyer says:
    14 Jan14 January 08:28

    I’m only willing to pay one credit card annual fee per year, which has alternated over the last 10 years between AMEX, HSBC World Elite and the Virgin Atlantic card. In order to pay £200 for a card, I’d need to persuaded that either: (1) the sign-up benefits; or (2) the ongoing benefits, are really worth switching. None of the above does so. On #1, my benchmark is at least 50% of the miles for a one way business class ticket to US or Middle East, combined with reasonable fees. I think they would need to offer minimum 25K or 30K. On #2, it is a solid earning rate and a form of voucher (upgrade, companion, reduction in miles) that works for me, again with reasonable fees. If they offered a voucher with a 50% reduction in the miles needed for redemption (solo return, couple one way) that could be used in at least business class I’d be more tempted.

  • exp70 says:
    14 Jan14 January 08:54

    Whats missing are: Higher sign-on, 1.5-2 : £1 for UK spend and a voucher target. Otherwise I may as well take the HSBC or Amex offerings (non-BA/Avios products). Its a shame there isn’t something that really competes with BA/Avios here in the UK, as personally prefer the experience of flying with Emirates for example over BA.

    • Rob says:
      14 Jan14 January 09:30

      You have the Amex Rewards Credit Card essentially offering 1 Emirates mile per £1 on a totally free card with a 10,000 points sign-up bonus. Whilst this will presumably be a Visa / MC product, it needs to at least match the ARCC option.

  • Numpty says:
    14 Jan14 January 09:20

    In response Qatar can start accepting the BA 241 voucher. Wishful thinking!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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