Emirates Skywards UK cards: annual fees and earning rates before bonuses

Jaja’s two UK Emirates Skywards cards earn the same rate on ordinary eligible sterling purchases. Premium earns more on qualifying direct Emirates bookings and eligible non-sterling purchases. This comparison asks how far eligible card spending alone goes towards the annual fee, with welcome bonuses and tier benefits left out of the calculation. Emirates UK card comparison

What the fees and earning rates actually buy

Jaja’s Rewards summary box lists a £120 annual membership fee. The Premium summary box lists £250. Both say the fee is charged on the anniversary of account opening.

Under the Rewards benefits terms, eligible purchases earn 1 mile per £1, rising to 2 for qualifying direct Emirates flight purchases. The Premium benefits terms specify 1 mile per £1 on eligible GBP purchases, 1.5 on non-GBP purchases and 3 on qualifying direct Emirates flight purchases. The direct-booking channels are emirates.com, Emirates Sales Offices and the Emirates Contact Centre.

A break-even calculation you can change

For illustration only, suppose you personally value a Skywards mile at 0.5p. Use your own estimate from a flight you would actually book.

At that assumed value, £120 requires 24,000 miles to recover and £250 requires 50,000 miles. With entirely eligible sterling spending earning 1 mile per £1, that means £24,000 and £50,000 respectively, before caps, rounding or other costs.

Now assume £12,000 of eligible general GBP spending plus £2,000 of qualifying direct Emirates flight spending over a year, below each monthly cap. Rewards would earn 16,000 miles and Premium would earn 18,000. That’s 12,000 miles on general spending, plus 4,000 or 6,000 on the flights. At the illustrative value of 0.5p per mile, the Rewards miles are worth £80, leaving £40 of its fee uncovered. The Premium miles are worth £90, leaving £160 of its fee uncovered. This example excludes welcome offers and all other benefits.

Check the monthly earning cap

Jaja’s card benefits terms cap monthly earning at four times the credit limit. Apply the cap for your own account to each statement cycle before adding up a year’s expected miles.

The terms exclude cash advances, transfers, instalment payments and fees or charges from earning. Refunds reduce miles, and crediting can take up to six weeks after the statement cycle. Use eligible spending, rather than every payment leaving your account, in the calculation.

Decide whether the extra £130 has a job

On the same qualifying direct Emirates spending, Premium earns one extra mile per £1. At the hypothetical 0.5p value, £26,000 of that spending would produce £130 of extra miles before caps. Value any foreign-currency earning, status or other benefits separately.

Value benefits separately only when you would use them, check their full conditions, and read current offer terms before counting any welcome bonus. This illustration assumes you pay the statement balance in full by the due date and incur no purchase interest. It excludes interest and other charges, which would change the result.