Are Accelerated Rewards on Your Credit Cards Worth It?

In March we covered best credit cards for

• Etihad Guest Miles,
• Emirates Skywards Miles
• Cashback
• Hotel Loyalty Cards
• Other Co-branded Credit Cards

The above categories should cover a lot of ground in picking the right credit card(s) for you. I had also explained how to the dos and don’ts of credit card loans & easy installments plan.

Several premium credit cards in UAE offer accelerate reward points for an additional fee. The rationale is simple, you can get a multiple on your usual rewards points if you pay the fees. In this post, I will look at some of the credit cards who offer this feature. I will also try to understand if it is worth the additional fee.

FAB Etihad Guest Infinite Card – Miles Accelerator Program

I had signed up for this credit card because of the great sign-on bonus – 120,000 Etihad Guest miles for a fee of AED 2,500. Etihad Guest program offers great redemption opportunities. I have analyzed them in a three part series – Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

I have reviewed the salient feature of the card as part of Best Credit Cards for Etihad Guest Miles.

FAB Etihad Guest Card has a ‘Miles Accelerator Program’. You can earn 7.5 Etihad Guest Miles for every AED 10 spent on all your purchases (domestic and international). The usual earning rate is 4.5 miles for domestic spends and 6 miles for international spend.

The enrollment fee is AED 250 per month. However, you need to enroll for a minimum of two months.

Verdict

You will receive 3 additional miles on domestic spend on this promotion. I value Etihad Guest miles at about AED 0.07. So, you will get miles worth AED 0.2 per AED 10 of spends.

If you have a minimum spend of AED 12,500 per month, you will earn an additional miles worth AED 250 to justify the monthly fee. Anything beyond that will be your profit.

SPG Card by Emirates NBD – Express Points Program

I have reviewed this as part of Best Hotel Loyalty Cards in UAE.

The Emirates NBD SPG World MasterCard allows you to earn up to 50% more points every month for all your retail purchases on the Card. There is a cap of 4,000 points per month. The standard earning rate on this card is 6 Marriott points per USD spend on Marriott properties and 3 Marriott points per USD spend on other retail.

The monthly fee is AED 300. However, cardholders enrolled into Express Points will not be charged the annual fee.

Other terms and conditions can be found here.

Verdict

I value Marriott points at AED 0.05. On your regular spends, you will earn 1.5 additional Marriott points or AED 0.075 per USD. To justify the fee, your monthly spends would have to exceed US$ 4,000 (AED 15,000). Also note that the annual fee waiver is applicable only from the second year onward. Further, you will have to keep the express points program activated for the entire year.

Skywards Infinite by Emirates NBD – Express Miles

I have reviewed this as part of Best Cards to Earn Skywards Miles. The basic features are similar to the above Express Points Program. You earn 50% more miles and no annual fee is charged as long as you are enrolled in the Express Miles program.

The standard earning rate is 1 Skywards Miles per USD.

The monthly fee is AED 250.

Verdict

I value Skywards miles at AED 0.05. On your regular spends, you will earn 0.5 additional miles or AED 0.025 per USD. To justify the fee, your monthly spends would have to exceed US$ 10,000 (AED 36,000).

Bottomline

As you can see, accelerated rewards only make sense for very high spenders. So far, I have never enrolled in one and do not intend to in future.