ICICI Bank launches Emirates Skywards credit cards

ICICI Bank and Emirates have launched new Emirates co-branded credit cards in India. This follows the closure of the Standard Chartered Emirates credit cards sometime back. Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank credit cards have been launched in the Gemstone range. We have three variants – Emeralde, Sapphiro, and Rubyx. These cards will offer the ability to earn Emirates Skywards miles on spends and use them for travel. Here is everything we know about these cards:

Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card

Tata Neu Infinity HDFC Bank Credit Card LTF

u003cstrongu003eJoining/Annual Fee:u003c/strongu003e Rs 10000 plus taxes

u003cstrongu003eWelcome and Renewal Benefit:u003c/strongu003e 10000 Skywards Miles

u003cstrongu003eRewards:u003c/strongu003e u003cspan style=u0022text-indent: -0.9em; background-color: var(u002du002dhas-boxed, #ffffff); color: var(u002du002dcolor); font-family: var(u002du002dfontFamily); font-size: var(u002du002dfontSize); font-style: var(u002du002dfontStyle, inherit); font-weight: var(u002du002dfontWeight); letter-spacing: var(u002du002dletterSpacing); text-transform: var(u002du002dtextTransform);u0022u003e2.5 Skywards Miles/Rs 100u003c/spanu003e

u003cstrongu003eRewards on Insurance and Utility:u003c/strongu003e 1 Skyward Mile/Rs 100

No rewards on fuel

Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier Membership

Upgrade to Emirates Skywards Gold Tier membership on Rs 15 Lakhs spend in a year. Rs 50000 of this should be on Emirates.

The Emirates Skywards Gold Tier upgrade is possible only after spending a whopping Rs 15 Lakhs in a year. This will be difficult to achieve especially if you have other credit cards.

Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Sapphiro Credit Card

u003cstrongu003eJoining/Annual Fee:u003c/strongu003e Rs 5000 plus taxes

u003cstrongu003eWelcome and Renewal Benefit:u003c/strongu003e 5000 Skywards Miles

u003cstrongu003eRewards on Insurance and Utility:u003c/strongu003e 1 Skyward Miles/Rs 100

No rewards on fuel

Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier Membership for the first year

Tier will be based on spends from the second year onwards

Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Rubyx Credit Card

u003cstrongu003eJoining/Annual Fee:u003c/strongu003e Rs 1000 plus taxes

u003cstrong style=u0022text-indent: -0.9em; background-color: var(u002du002dhas-boxed, #ffffff); color: var(u002du002dcolor); font-family: var(u002du002dfontFamily); font-size: var(u002du002dfontSize); font-style: var(u002du002dfontStyle, inherit); letter-spacing: var(u002du002dletterSpacing); text-transform: var(u002du002dtextTransform);u0022u003eRewards:u003c/strongu003eu003cspan style=u0022text-indent: -0.9em; background-color: var(u002du002dhas-boxed, #ffffff); color: var(u002du002dcolor); font-family: var(u002du002dfontFamily); font-size: var(u002du002dfontSize); font-style: var(u002du002dfontStyle, inherit); font-weight: var(u002du002dfontWeight); letter-spacing: var(u002du002dletterSpacing); text-transform: var(u002du002dtextTransform);u0022u003e 1.5 Skywards Miles/Rs 100u003c/spanu003e

u003cstrongu003eRewards on Insurance and Utility:u003c/strongu003e 1 Skyward Miles/Rs 100

No rewards on fuel

Emirates Skywards Blue Tier Membership

Complimentary Airport Lounge and Spa Access

The lounge and spa access for the Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank cards is through Dreamfolks Pass. The lounge and spa access benefits are the same as the normal Gemstone cards.

u003cstrongu003eEmeralde Variant: u003c/strongu003eUnlimited domestic and international airport lounge and spa access

u003cstrongu003eSapphiro Variant:u003c/strongu003e Two visits/quarter to domestic and international airport lounges and two spa visits/quarter

u003cstrongu003eRubyx Variant:u003c/strongu003e u003cspan style=u0022text-indent: -0.9em; background-color: var(u002du002dhas-boxed, #ffffff); color: var(u002du002dcolor); font-family: var(u002du002dfontFamily); font-size: var(u002du002dfontSize); font-style: var(u002du002dfontStyle, inherit); font-weight: var(u002du002dfontWeight); letter-spacing: var(u002du002dletterSpacing); text-transform: var(u002du002dtextTransform);u0022u003eOne domestic lounge access per quarteru003c/spanu003e

The BookMyShow offer for the normal Gemstone cards are also available for these cards.

My View

ICICI Bank credit cards are generally not that rewarding. So, it was surprising to see Emirates tie-up with ICICI Bank for new co-branded cards. Coming to the rewards, I am surprised to see there are no accelerated rewards for Emirates spends. The outgoing SC Emirates World card had a 2X benefit for Emirates spends. This feature could have been continued on the Sapphiro and Emeralde variants.

The Skywards Miles earn rate is low on all three card variants. Plus, bigger spends like insurance and utility get only 1 Skywards Miles for every Rs 100. This is too low. There are no milestone rewards as well on any of the cards.

Overall, I do not find the cards to be exciting. We have much better travel cards for now.