by Daniel | Last Updated Jan 2nd, 2022
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With the ability to earn discounts on Emirates flights and instant elite status for the first year of card ownership, The Emirates Skywards Premium and Rewards World Elite Mastercards are both worth considering.
Each card offers some nice benefits and a points earning structure that can be most effectively used on Emirates Airlines.
Emirates is quite often ranked amongst the top 5 best airlines in the world and is the 4th largest airline in the world.
It is also the largest operator of both the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777.
So let’s continue on and take a deeper look into what these cards are about.
Who Are These Cards Good For?
The Emirates Skyward World Elite Mastercards are most useful for people who frequently fly with Emirates, as most of the benefits that come with the cards are directly associated with Emirates.
APR
Now let’s take a look at the APR of these cards, and for this section they are both the same, and all of the rates depend on what your creditworthiness is and are based on the markets depending on what the Prime rate is
So the APR for purchases and balance transfers is either 15.99%, 19.99%, or 24.99%.
The APR for Cash advances is 25.24%
And finally, there is a balance transfer fee of either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer depending on whichever is greater.
Annual Fee
Next up let’s take a look at how much each card will cost you on an annual basis.
Starting with the Rewards card you will have an annual fee of just $99.
And with the Premium card, the annual fee is $499.
Now it’s worth keeping in mind that both of these cards have the ability to offset the annual fee with the welcome bonus they each offer.
Sign-up Bonus
Now let’s take a look at the sign-up bonus that is offered with each card and what the difference is.
Starting with the Rewards card you will earn 50,000 Skyward Miles after you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months of card ownership.
And with Skyward Miles being worth about 1 cent per mile, these miles are worth approximately $500.
Along with this, you will also have the ability to save up to $99 off up to 4 Economy or Business Class ticket purchases, which is worth up to $396.
Next up, with the Premium card, you will earn 60,000 Skyward Miles after you spend $3,000 within the first 90 days of opening the account.
And based on the points being worth 1 cent per mile, these miles are worth about $600.
This card also offers the ability to save up to $499 off up to 4 Emirates ticket purchases, which is worth up to $1,996.
So as you can see, both cards offer a sign-up bonus that can easily offset the cost of the annual fee.
With the Rewards card offering up to $896 in value and the Premium card offering up to $2,596 in value.
Earning Miles
Next up, let’s take a look at how you can earn miles with each card.
And for this section, both the Rewards card and Premium card have the same miles earning structure and have 3 different options for earning miles.
The first option is 3 miles per dollar spent through the website emirates.com or at the Emirates Sales office.
With the second option you will earn 2x miles on eligible purchases such as airfares, hotels, and car rental purchases.
And finally, all other purchases will receive 1 mile per dollar spent.
Benefits and User Perks
Now let’s take a closer look at what benefits and user perks are on offer with each card.
Starting with the Rewards card you will receive Emirates Silver tier membership for the first year of card membership, and this usually takes 25 flights or $20,000 spend each year to become a member.
And being a Silver-tier member comes with a few nice extra benefits which include priority check-in and boarding and 25% bonus Skywards miles on Emirates flights.
Next up, there is $0 fraud liability protection which means that you won’t be responsible for any unauthorized charges that are made to your account.
You will have complimentary access to your FICO credit score.
And finally, there are no foreign transaction fees.
Now with the Premium card, you will get the same benefits as the Rewards card, but you will also get the following extras.
First up, you will receive Emirates Gold Tier membership for the first year of card ownership, and this usually takes either 50 flights or a spend of $40,000 per year to get.
And being a Gold tier member comes with even more perks than what you get with the Silver.
First of all you will receive 50% bonus Skyward miles on Emirates flights.
You will get priority baggage delivery.
And there is complimentary access to the Emirates business class lounges world wide for both you the cardmember and a guest.
Next up, you will also earn 10,000-anniversary bonus Skyward Miles worth $100 if you spend $30,000 on the card each year.
There is a complimentary Priority Pass that is worth $429, and this gives you access to over 1300 airport lounges from all over the world.
And finally, you will get a $100 credit for either TSA PreCheck or Global Entry.
So the Premium Card does offer a fair bit more in the way of benefits than what you get with the Rewards card.
World Elite Mastercard Benefits and Coverage
Now seeing that both of these cards are a part of World Elite Mastercard, you will get quite a lot of extra benefits.
First of all, you will get a free 3-month membership to DoorDash which gives you free delivery on orders that are over $12, and you will also get $5 off your first 2 orders per month.
If you take more than 3 rides with Lyft each month you will recieve a $5 credit.
You will get 5% back on all HelloFresh orders, and if you are a new customer of HelloFresh you will get up to 14 free meals, which is worth at least $90.
If you spend $20 on movie tickets at Fandango or on Fandango’s streaming service you will get a $5 Fandango reward that can be used towards your next ticket purchase or at-home movie.
You will get a free ShopRunner membership that gives you free 2-day shipping and free returns from a variety of stores across the US including Saks Fifth Ave, Bloomingdale’s, and Brooks Brothers.
And finally, there is the Mastercard Luxury hotel and resorts portfolio which includes more than 3,00 properties from all over the world, and this provides you with daily complimentary breakfast for two, up to $100 in credit that can be used at the hotel, room upgrade if it is available and early check-in and late checkout.
Final Thoughts
So what are my thoughts about the Emirates Skyward World Elite Mastercards?
I think if you do travel with Emirates a fair bit, or plan to do so in the future, these cards do offer some useful benefits.
Each card has the ability to save quite a lot of money on Emirate flights each year, assuming you travel with them.
Something to think about Is that you will have to spend quite a bit to maintain your Emirates membership status, with the Rewards card you must spend at least $20,000 each year to maintain your Silver tier membership, and with the Premium card, you will need to spend $40,000 per year to keep the Gold tier membership.
But if you know you will spend at least this much each year then it’s not really an issue.
A couple of other cards that I would recommend considering would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve card.
Both of these cards are priced at a similar rate to the Emirate cards, they also have great sign-up offers and have plenty of great benefits and user perks.
One of the main benefits of the Chase cards is that you can earn more points from a wider variety of places, and they are worth more than the Skywards miles when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards.