Best credit card for Dubai flights

CMcIntyre_2

I am starting a house extension within the next six months and would like to benefit from the level of spending that will occur during this project. My aim is to take my family to Dubai to relax after the disruption has ended in my house and would like to know if I can use a credit card to pay for items so I will benefit from free flights or equivalent benefits. Any advice would be welcomed.

[Deleted User]

You can use any credit card. The best one though depends on your needs - ie a long 0% deal, cashback, flights, air miles, Tesco vouchers and so on.

You then need to factor in your likelihood of getting your preferred card.

CMcIntyre_2

Getting the card shouldn't be a problem. I would like to use any benefits on Emirates but do not want to pay the £150 annual fee. Any cards I should look at in more detail? I will also be paying the card in full each month with no balance transfers.

gingercordial

Will the builders you are going to use take a credit card for payment? Or is the high spend you refer to the cost of buying materials, new appliances, furniture etc?

There is a BA/American Express card which gives lots of Avios and a free companion flight, but I believe there are two levels and the one that gives better points has an annual fee; however Emirates is not within the One World alliance and so you would need to fly with BA/Qatar/Royal Jordanian to take advantage of this. Also bear in mind that B&Q and Ikea do not take Amex, although Homebase does.

grumbler

MSE articles:

• Airline Credit Cards
• Cashback Credit Cards

eagle

gingercordial wrote: »

Will the builders you are going to use take a credit card for payment? Or is the high spend you refer to the cost of buying materials, new appliances, furniture etc?

There is a BA/American Express card which gives lots of Avios and a free companion flight, but I believe there are two levels and the one that gives better points has an annual fee; however Emirates is not within the One World alliance and so you would need to fly with BA/Qatar/Royal Jordanian to take advantage of this. Also bear in mind that B&Q and Ikea do not take Amex, although Homebase does.

Gingercordial makes some very good points above - my preferred option tends to be BA as they fly everwhere I go.

However, you are restricted with a BA card if you want Emirates. My suggestion is to go for the Amex Gold charge card which has a £0 fee for the first year. You will get 20K bonus points if you spend £2K in your first three months of membership. You can ern a bit more than that if you are referred for the card. Once you've stashed away your points, you can transfer them to the Emirates Skyrewards program at a value of 1:1.

Hope this helps.

fifeken

A free UK to DXB return flight with Emirates. for example, will cost a minimum of 45,000 Skywards Miles, every chance it will be more. There would also be around £300 in taxes and charges still to pay, over and above the miles.


Do your calculations on spend and reward before selecting any card. You might not get back what you're hoping for.

JeffreyR

has to be BA Amex avios all day. Can use for other trips too and they recently lowered the off peak points required!