My Emirates Credit Card Application Approval Experience

I was wondering about how long it would take to get the status reflected. Officially it was up to 8 weeks. Good to know that reality is different.

One also gets three miles per US $ spent on Emirates flights, though it may make more sense to buy Emirates flights with the Amex. Plat. or the Citi Prestige (if one still has it; I do) for 5x airfare points that may be transferable to Emirates (though I know that a couple of the transferable points currencies put a hold on these).

@Ben - It would be very interesting to read an article about all of the annual fee cards you currently have (as well as a total of how much you spend annually on annual fees)!

I'm also curious about which cards you carry everyday in your wallet.

Unrelated story but interesting:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/23/boeing-justice-department-deal-737-crashes

That would be a pointless article because I'm sure Ben maxes out or exceeds the annual fee using various benefits and offers each card gives him access to.

search the website. he's already written one of these.

Maybe an update of that post would be good?

But sadly you must live in the USA... or is that not correct?

What for those of us in the UK?

If the US govt allowed it, Middle Eastern airlines would dominate the US market. America is supposed to be about freedom and open commerce, except where you are inferior. Our airline staff are way better looking too.

Hey Ben, Thanks for sharing this great info. But as a Canadian is there a EMIRATES CARD OPTION for Canadians to apply in Canada ?? Kindly please advise. Also In Canada Master Card is not very popular & very well accepted and American Express Card is NOT accepted by most businesses in Canada so is there a EMIRATES CARD VISA option ? Your kind reply will be appreciated very much.

Is this avail to Australians?

I applied for the 99$ card for the silver status and was approved immediately and a few minutes later I refreshed my emirates account and my silver status was already there.
Applied and approved for barclays aviator red card on 4/8
Applied and approved for emirates barclays card on 5/13

Card isn’t open to Australians.

But if this is about booking Emirates First Class this can still be done with Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Emirates limited their first class because they wanted people to take up this card (and related cards in other countries).

This isn’t some sort of backdoor route, Emirates themselves said this:

“ Emirates Skywards Blue Tier members can still redeem Miles for upgrades prior to flight departure (from Business Class to First Class) and use Cash+Miles to save on First Class tickets. Members based in the UAE, KSA, India and US can also sign up and enjoy immediate Silver Tier membership status with the loyalty programme’s cobranded credit cards including Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, SAB, ICICI Bank, Barclays, and HSBC”

Those are some pretty big markets they’re selling these cards in even outside the US.

Also would explain why they’re fairly relaxed about Qantas still having access given there’s no branded credit card in Aus. Sure American Amex can transfer to Qantas but plenty won’t do this.

Nice to gear what Emirates Gold card offers. Where can I find what silver stays of te less costly card offers?
I am feeling “ steered” by you or did I miss that?

With an ITIN

Has been a gold member at Emirates for more than 20 + years.
I also had a Citibank skywards card which used to help me rack up lot of miles and maintain my gold status easyily.
Then 7-8 years ago first Emirates the value their miles after their partnership with Qantas and they didn't even announce or give us members a chance to keep the miles value at least for the older earned miles.
Then few years back they started to be value the credit card works for the mileage earning here in their home country. They saw that members like me were milking away the miles benefits on the cards.
They almost forced me to cancel my card asking me questions like what is source your income and how you are able to spend so much when your states salary is so and so.
At the end I just got fed up and cancelled thinking I'll change to another bank.
I was so wrong.
First bank I got the 2nd card from....they didn't give any tier miles nor skywards miles so membership tier level became an issue.
Then I cancelled and went to another bank and same thing they don't give tier mileage only skywards miles.
So I thought maybe I should have kept the Citibank card after all somehow.
Wrong!
Recently they just announced the devaluation of miles earning system on Citibank card holders.
It's like they make a system and once people start to understand the system and use it they will change it because it's not good for them.
I'm very disappointed. So much so that fir travelling this year I'm taking a one way flight out and I'll buy a separate airline return ticket from Europe to come back home and then go.
I like Emirates a lot. Been a loyal customer since they started flying and I stuck with them once I started flying for work . I guess all this investment didn't do much for me at the end. Like a lifetime platinum membership at Marriott or anything remotely close to that.

So in the home country for Emirates we don't have any credit cards giving us what the Barclays Card gives as above.
Plus whatever miles I have left.....it's like upgrade seats are RARELY available for days and days when I'm flying and then the taxes and fees are so high. It's just so irritating. Even with what miles they let us earn they make it so difficult to use.
I'm really disappointed in Emirates after being a life long customer

It must be amazing to be part of the US credit card market. Here in the UAE, Emirates' home country, we have to jump through hoops and spend a lot on Emirates to obtain even Silver status through co-branded credit cards.

Shame all that extra money can't buy class though!

I’m wondering if you have silver or gold status, do you have more first-class award availability in advance?

Submitted an application for a Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard. 802 credit score & 8/24.

Got the following message:
"We appreciate your interest in the Emirates Skywards Rewards World Elite Mastercard®

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide you with an immediate decision on the application you just submitted. Your application requires further review, which may take up to 10 days.

We will notify you in writing in no more than 30 days (and often sooner) about the status of your application."

Called the reconsideration line and was told that I have been denied due to having too many open accounts in the last 24 months. 🙁