Qantas and Virgin are not the only airlines for which Australian residents can accumulate frequent flyer points through their credit card spending. If you’re either a regular international traveller, or someone who embarks on an overseas trip once every couple of years, you should give serious consideration to the value you can extract from the Emirates Citi World Mastercard. There are plenty of ways to earn and spend Emirates Skywards miles, boosted by first purchase bonus points, plus a huge list of complimentary benefits that surpasses that of many of its competitors.
The Emirates airline
Emirates is a rapidly-growing airline with a state-of-the-art fleet, consistently rating in the top ten in the world for growth while winning awards for its reliable high-quality service. Every week more than 80 Emirates flights leave Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide for Dubai, meeting connecting flights to every corner of the world. You can also fly Emirates to New Zealand and Asia. This makes the Emirates Skywards Miles program (free to join) extremely attractive for Australians.
The Emirates Skywards program
Not only has the airline won awards, so has its frequent flyer program, Emirates Skywards. As well as earning miles with your Emirates Citi World Mastercard, you will also accrue Skywards Miles when you purchase flights on Emirates or its partner airlines (which include Qantas, Jetstar, Japan Airlines, Virgin America and the low-cost European carrier easyJet). Other businesses which deliver extra Skywards Miles in return for your patronage include major hotels, car rental and entertainment companies operating in the stable parts of the Middle East, if you decide on a stopover there. Just be sure to have your membership number ready when you apply for this card – you won’t be able to add it in later. Not signed up? Membership is free and simple to complete online.
Earning Emirates Skywards Miles with your card
In order to earn Skywards Miles with this card you will need to organise your own Skywards program free membership if you have not already done so, and provide your membership number to Citi. Here’s what you will earn, uncapped:
Redeeming Emirates Skywards Miles for flights
Any brand of frequent flyer points is best used for flight redemptions in order to get the best return for your dollar, and Emirates is no exception. The redemption rates are very similar to those applying to Qantas award flights, for example:
For booking on Qantas and Jetstar, your Skywards Miles are redeemable at the same rate as Qantas Frequent Flyer points, so you could book a Qantas return flight between Melbourne and Sydney for 16,000 Emirates Skywards Miles.
Redeeming Emirates Skywards miles for gift cards, merchandise and accommodation
If you really don’t want to spend your points on flights you can exchange them for Westfield retail gift cards. The $250 card for 54,000 miles is the best value, but this represents a return of only 0.5 cents per dollar spent on AUD non-Emirates purchases.
The gift cards are found in the Emirates High Street Collection, an online catalogue of mainly luxury brands with around 400 items to choose from. The USD price is displayed as well as the number of points required, so you could choose a US$194 bottle of Le Clos champagne for 32,400 miles. AT AUD/USD parity this delivers a return of around 0.5 cents per AUD, but it looks better at current (2016) exchange rates – slightly over 0.8 cents per AUD spent.
If you’re travelling to the Middle East you can redeem your Skywards Miles for Budget car rental in the United Arab Emirates, at the Le Meridien hotel and various entertainment venues in Dubai, and at Marriott, Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton hotels throughout the region. Marriott hotel stays are also available at Manchester and Glasgow in the UK.
Don’t have quite enough points for your chosen reward? No problem. A ‘points plus cash’ option is available for all Skywards Miles redemptions.
9 months balance transfer at 0% p.a. interest
Perhaps you don’t need to start earning Skywards Miles immediately. In that case you could postpone using it as a purchase card and use it as a balance transfer card instead for the first nine months. Simply apply to bring across any unpaid balances from your existing credit cards, and pay no interest at all for nine long months. Since this is a prestige card, the chances are you already have sufficient cash on hand to clear those balances, but your new Citi card lets you put it in the bank to earn interest instead.
Don’t forget to make a diary note of the interest-free period’s expiry date, or you will be stung with the revert interest rate of 22.24% p.a. (the cash advance rate). And once you’ve made that first purchase to earn your 40,000 or 50,000 bonus points, put the card away for nine months and use another card temporarily for your purchases. This is because carrying an unpaid balance transfer on your account means that you will forfeit the ‘Up to 55 days on purchases’ and start paying the steep 21.49% p.a. purchase interest rate immediately when you make a purchase transaction.
Six types of complimentary insurance cover
Premium cards, like this one, don’t hold back when it comes to complimentary insurance cover. Travellers and shoppers can take advantage of the extra security offered, and it doesn’t cost you a extra cent once you’ve paid your annual fee. You will, however, need to activate the policies by using the Emirates Citi Word Mastercard (or Skyward Miles) to pay your travel fares or purchase the personal items to be covered. The policies are:
Yet more travel and lifestyle benefits
Travellers and platinum lifestyle enthusiasts can extract even more value from this card without having to exert themselves. The complimentary benefits, from Citi, Emirates and Mastercard, just keep on coming. Try this list for size:
Premium pricing, but it’s worth it
Such a long list of financial and lifestyle benefits doesn’t come cheap, but what you have to pay is much less than its true value. The annual fee is $299 p.a., with no additional fee for supplementary cards, but in the first year this is halved to $149 p.a.. The 50,000 bonus points are worth over $230 even if you just squander them on Westfield shopping cards. Dine out once a month at a Citibank Dining Program restaurant and take a couple of overseas trips a year and you’ve already recovered over $1,000 in free wine and free insurance.
A card for the long-haul traveller
If you want to earn Emirates Skywards Miles, use Emirates lounges and be chauffeured to and from the airport, then this is the card for you. Skywards Miles are easily used for Qantas, Jetstar and other leading airlines’ flights, and Emirates itself offers an award-winning service to Europe, the Americas and Asia. International travellers will drive outstanding value from the complimentary insurance and lifestyle benefits, and enjoy free wine when they are recuperating from their travels on home soil.
It’s still getting worse and worse. It works out OK if fly with Emirates once every year. There a free limo to/from the airport and a lounge in Australia. The first year half-price fee makes it worth it, but after that it is now a pale version of a once great card.
I expect Citi will drop this card next year as they have driven most customers away by dropping almost everything that made this card good.
It’s OK if you fly Emirates once a year. If not then don’t bother with this card. Points earn rate is lower now and there is no lounge access in Dubai any more. Insurance changed from Zurich (ok to deal with) to Allianz who don’t seem as friendly. Customer service has been very hit and miss. Sometimes great, sometimes OK, and sometimes terrible.
After much research years ago, I found the Citibank Emirates card to be very beneficial and have taken advantage of the uncapped points structure and have had it for a long time. When I first signed up, it was uncapped, then it changed to capped, then uncapped and once again capped. I will be closing my account, as I am a huge spender and will no longer benefit from spending big and I am sad that I probably won’t be flying with Emirates again.
The reason for this is that the point structure has changed as of March 18th 2016. Annual fee after 1st year is $299 (we pay $598 for 2 cards which now seems too high for a capped card). You no longer earn miles with BPAY purchases, which is not the case with other banks. Tiers are capped at $1=1 mile up to $3000 spent, then .5 mile from $3000 to $10000, and thereafter no miles earned.
There are many other credit cards which are uncapped and accrue points when making BPAY purchases. Time for me to do some more research.
The fees are moderate but the benefits are great. Limousine service to the airport, use of Emirates lounge with superb food and the use of points for gifts, airfares or upgrades. Paying off the card is easy and can be done at the local post office. Regular online communication allows you to check your airmiles and accounts are sent to the email address.
Interest rate | Period | Fee | Limit | Revert rate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Balance transfers | 0% p.a. | 9 months | 0% | 80% of credit limit | 22.24% p.a. |
You can't balance transfer to the Emirates Citi World Mastercard at the promotional balance transfer rate from:
Interest rate | Period | Fee | Limit | Revert rate | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Balance transfers | 0% p.a. | 9 months | 0% | 80% of credit limit | 22.24% p.a. |
Purchases | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Monthly | Annually | |
---|---|---|
Cash advances | 1.85% | 22.24% p.a. |
Purchases | 1.79% | 21.49% p.a. |