Emirates Platinum Mastercard enhancements from May 2014.....

[slodki]

I have the Platinum mastercard and have been using it to earn 1.5 skyward miles per $1 spent. A great card in my opinion, until the Qantas/Emirates merger, which seems to have dried up a lot of availability and redemption rates have gone up, not to mention the fuel surcharges.

I was re-reading over the 'benefits' of the card on: Emirates Citibank Platinum - Citibank Australia

Enjoy 1.5 Skywards Miles per $1 spent with your Miles automatically transferred to your Skywards account each month2. Effective 1 May 2014, earn rates will revert to 1 Skyward Mile per $1 spent in Australia, 1.5 Skyward Miles per $1 spent internationally, and 2 Skyward Miles per $1 on Emirates spend2.​​​

Does anyone know if this also applies to current card holders? Not too happy about this if it does, and might have to start looking at other options. Perhaps the AMEX

 

[DeKa]

A great card in my opinion, until the Qantas/Emirates merger

Off topic, but it wasn't a merger. It is a 5 year partnership.

To answer your question, given it's a Citibank card, my experience with Citibank is that changes affect all cards of that type, so yes your earn rate would have changed.

 

[quokka77]

Mmm. Citibank does it again. Unless you're rusted onto Emirates for some reason, time to look elsewhere. Glad I didn't get this card when I was considering it recently.

 

[Aleks]

No more lounge access in Dubai as well - skywards has also become a redemption partner for Amex as well (although the transfer rate is 4:3)
Anyone tried calling and getting the annual fee waived?

 

[astrosly]

No more lounge access in Dubai as well - skywards has also become a redemption partner for Amex as well (although the transfer rate is 4:3)
Anyone tried calling and getting the annual fee waived?

Yes my renewal was due at the end of Nov 2013 and I called to let them know I was considering canceling the card for a number of reasons including the reduced FF point rate and the loss of the lounge in DXB (though this year I got EK silver so I can use the business lounge). But the primary reason was that I couldn't use a lot of their inclusive benefits of the card because I lived in a rural location; namely, the chauffeur service and the wine programme (as the participants are mostly in the capital cities) so I couldn't justify the $229pa on what benefits I actually could use. They didn't hesitate to give me the next year fee free.

 

[Duffa]

Yep, I'm definitely outa here. Have been fee free for two years.
Tempted to throw some ATO on this card and then stick the rules to them but I reckon they would just do a soft interpret of "government charges".