Emirates is making moves in the co-branded credit card space, adding new options for UAE residents. The two new cards from HSBC come with interesting perks and lots of little details.
The HSBC Emirates Skywards Credit Card offers ground miles for future redemption on award tickets, flight upgrades, hospitality tickets to world-famous sporting events and many other exclusive benefits on Emirates and our partner airlines. We offer our customers a great opportunity to increase their earnings. – Dr. Nezib Ben Kedar, Executive Vice President, Emirates Skywards
The new card comes in two versions, “Infinite” and “Signature,” aligned with the tiers Visa uses for different card benefit levels. Of course, there’s an annual fee, which is 2,625 dirhams (about $700) for the Infinite card and 1,050 dirhams (about $300) for the Signature. There is also an explicit minimum monthly income level of 30,000 dirhams or 10,000 dirhams (approximately $8,000 and $3,000 respectively), which may seem strange at first glance but is controlled by the opaque ‘credit score’ industry. It might be better than doing it. so.
All of this is relatively normal. The sign-up bonus approach still allows you to earn some money just by paying the annual fee and earn more by quickly hitting the spending threshold, but the 60-day window to earn is relatively short and the amount offered compared to the spending requirement Although the number of points awarded is small, this is normal. According to US comparative standards. However, these are UAE-issued cards, so it’s a different story.
Earning rates and benefits can be very interesting.
Elite status with credit card
The Infinite card includes Emirates Silver status. Signature cardholders can quickly gain status by paying Dh30,000 (approximately $8,000) for the card within 60 days. Maintaining this status requires an annual expenditure of AED 180,000, of which AED 10,000 is paid directly by Emirates. While these numbers are high, they’re also consistent with the option to earn lower status through CC spending in other programs, such as JetBlue’s TrueBlue card ($50,000, no airline minimum).
The companies are also touting perks for cardholders with no mileage expiration date. However, this only applies to points earned from credit card purchases. Any remaining points in your account will remain at their normal expiry date. Not only is this confusing for consumers, but it generally reduces the value of the benefit. Additionally, the expiration date for extended points will be 2 months from the date of card cancellation.
Earnings rates are also interesting, with the top ad offering “up to 2.75 Skywards Miles” per $1 worth of spend on the Infinite Card and 1.75 Skywards Miles on the Signature Card. However, these numbers only apply to spend on Emirates or flydubai, so most earnings are likely to be well below these numbers. Regular domestic expenditures earn 1 or 0.75 points depending on the level of the card, except for government services, public transport, public transport, telecommunications, education, real estate, fuel, groceries and supermarkets, insurance, and car dealerships. Earn. These categories earn just 0.25 or 0.1 points per dollar across two card tiers. Foreign transactions (not denominated in AED) yield slightly higher returns than domestic expenditures.
Additional Benefits: Minimum requirements apply
The card also advertises a myriad of additional benefits, including (depending on the card level):
Free beach access at luxury hotels in Dubai and Abu Dhabi Discounts at Amazon and select cinemas across the UAE Discounted international roaming charges and free travel insurance with Airalo Visa airport lounge access
Each of these benefits comes with additional spending requirements, details of which are only explained in the fine print.
For example, Infinite cardholders are limited to beach access three times a month, and thereafter only if the cardholder pays Dh10,000 (approximately $3,000) for the month. Otherwise, there is an entrance fee of AED 250. Movie discounts are similarly available, starting from Dh10,000 per month for the Infinite card and Dh6,000 for the Signature card.
The international roaming deal is Airalo’s 1GB eSIM, which costs about $9 (I’ve used this successfully on many trips, but opt for a local or regional eSIM rather than a global eSIM). This is also free only for payments of AED 1,500 or more. However, as an added kicker, the minimum spend must be in foreign currency. This is a great way to ensure that your card is used for that trip, rather than just letting your rewards sit in a drawer while you “spend” them.
Similarly, lounge access benefits require international transactions. This does not apply to first visits and travelers can leave the country with lounge access. However, all subsequent charges will be charged unless the cardholder spends money on the card outside the UAE.
The cards are, frankly, great. They offer point earning opportunities and other benefits applicable to the markets they serve. But the myriad of small print adds nuance that can lead to disappointment and extra spending if cardholders aren’t careful.
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