Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card
The Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde is ICICI's super-premium airline co-brand, built around Emirates Skywards Miles that credit directly to your Emirates account. It earns a flat 2 Skywards Miles per ₹100 on all spends (roughly 2% in mile value at our ₹1/mile airline baseline), welcomes you with 10,000 Skywards Miles and complimentary Skywards Silver Tier status, and repeats the 10,000 miles on each ₹10,000 renewal. Spend ₹15 lakh in a year (with at least ₹50,000 on Emirates.com) and you upgrade to Skywards Gold. Lounge access is unlimited — domestic and international — for the primary cardholder, via Priority Pass for cards issued on or after 15 Nov 2024 (DreamFolks before that), and you get up to 10% off Emirates flights. There is no fee waiver; the ₹10,000 joining and renewal fees are the price of entry. The maths only works if you actually fly Emirates and redeem miles in premium cabins — as a general spender's card the 3.5% forex and the absent fee waiver blunt the 2% earn.
Key features
What this card is built to do — the highlights that actually matter.
Welcome Benefit
~₹10,000 in vouchers, points or cashback on card activation
️ 2% on Other
2 Emirates Skywards Miles per ₹100 (~2% at the ₹1/mile airline baseline) on all eligible spends; miles credit to your Emirates Skywards account
️ Airport Lounge Access
12 complimentary visits per quarter at domestic and international airport lounges
24x7 Concierge
Up to 10% off Emirates flight bookings on emirates.com or the Emirates App using the card
Fuel Surcharge Waiver
1% waiver on fuel transactions, capped at ₹500/month
Movie Ticket Benefit
Buy one BookMyShow ticket and get up to ₹750 off the second, four times a month, gated behind ₹25,000 of quarterly spend (from 15 Jan 2026)
Hotel Membership
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership — 25% bonus miles on Emirates flights, extra baggage and priority check-in
Milestone Bonus
~₹10,000 in bonus rewards on hitting annual spend milestones
Full reward structure
| Category | Type | Rate | Monthly cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Other | airline miles | 2% | — |
Fees & charges
| Charge | Amount |
|---|---|
| Annual fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹11,800 |
| Joining fee (incl. 18% GST) | ₹11,800 |
| Finance charge (APR) | 3.75% p.m. |
| Forex markup | 3.5% |
| Fuel surcharge waiver | 1%, cap ₹500 |
Perks & benefits
Estimated annual value beyond rewards — ~₹66,600/yr in total.
milestone bonus ~ ₹10,000 /yr
10,000 Skywards Miles on each annual renewal (the matching 10,000-mile welcome benefit is a one-off joining bonus, counted separately); Skywards Gold Tier on ₹15 lakh annual spend (incl. ₹50,000 on Emirates.com)
️ lounge access ~ ₹40,000 /yr
Unlimited domestic and international airport lounge access for the primary cardholder — via Priority Pass (cards issued on/after 15 Nov 2024) or DreamFolks (issued before)
hotel membership ~ ₹8,000 /yr
Complimentary Emirates Skywards Silver Tier membership — 25% bonus miles on Emirates flights, extra baggage and priority check-in
concierge ~ ₹5,000 /yr
Up to 10% off Emirates flight bookings on emirates.com or the Emirates App using the card
movie ticket ~ ₹3,000 /yr
Buy one BookMyShow ticket and get up to ₹750 off the second, four times a month, gated behind ₹25,000 of quarterly spend (from 15 Jan 2026)
fuel waiver ~ ₹600 /yr
1% fuel surcharge waiver on transactions up to ₹4,000 at any fuel outlet
Should you get it?
Best for: Frequent Emirates flyers who redeem miles in premium cabins, High spenders who value unlimited lounges and airline status
Super Premium tier — built for high spenders who want top-end perks.
Strongest value if you spend heavily on Other ( 2% back).
Frequent travellers benefit from the included airport lounge access.
✓ Pros
- Unlimited domestic and international lounge access
- 10,000 Skywards Miles on joining and each renewal, plus Skywards Silver status
- Up to 10% off Emirates flights and a path to Skywards Gold
✕ Cons
- No fee waiver — the ₹10,000 joining and renewal fees are unavoidable
- Value lives inside Emirates Skywards; poor for anyone who does not fly Emirates
- Flat 2 miles/₹100 (~2%) on everyday spend, but a 3.5% forex markup
Eligibility & documents
Age
21 –65 years
Min. income
₹2,50,000 /mo
Employment
Salaried · Self-employed
Documents required
- PAN card
- Aadhaar / valid address proof
- Latest 3 months bank statement
- Income proof — salary slips (salaried) or ITR (self-employed)
- Recent passport-size photograph
How to redeem rewards
Ways to convert what you earn into real value.
🎁 Redeem Skywards Miles for Emirates flights, upgrades and partner awards via your Emirates Skywards account
🎁 Use miles toward hotel stays and partner bookings in the Emirates Skywards programme
What your Emirates Skywards Miles are worth
Realistic value per point by redemption route — the difference is what most people leave on the table.
Emirates award flights & upgrades ₹1 per Skywards Mile, the house baseline for a full-service airline currency
The concern No fee waiver on a ₹10,000 card, and the value hinges entirely on flying Emirates and redeeming Skywards Miles in premium cabins — bank the miles without redeeming them well and the ~2% on paper is not what you actually collect.
The bottom line
This is a legitimate super-premium travel card, but it's designed specifically for the dedicated Emirates flyer — unlimited lounge access at home and abroad, Skywards Silver status, a 10,000-mile welcome bonus, and up to 10% off Emirates fares all reward continued loyalty to the airline. A flat 2 miles per ₹100 is a decent ~2% return at our ₹1-per-mile baseline, but there's no fee waiver to fall back on, and the entire value proposition falls apart if you don't redeem Skywards Miles wisely. Treat it as a card you earn on locally and cash in once you're in the air.
Sources & verification
Fees, reward rates, and benefits for the Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card are taken from ICICI Bank 's official Most Important Terms & Conditions (MITC) and fee schedule — see the card's official page . Last verified 13 Aug 2026 . Reviewed by Devchandra Sah . Always confirm current details on the issuer's site before applying. How we research →
Independence. CardAdvisor is an independent editorial publication. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or authorised to act for ICICI Bank . All issuer names, product names, and payment-network marks are the property of their respective owners and appear here for identification and comparison only. Card faces shown on this site are our own original illustrations — we do not display or host issuer card artwork or logos.
Value timeline
Every real-world change to this card's rewards, fees and benefits we've tracked — newest first, each linked to its source.
Tracking since 2022 · 4 changes · last change Jan 2026
▲ Revaluation ▼ Devaluation ◆ Neutral / reversed
2026 2 changes — 2 cuts
▼ Benefit Observed 22 Dec 2025 · Effective 15 Jan 2026
BookMyShow movie benefit becomes spend-gated
Complimentary movie benefit → Requires ₹25,000 spend in the previous quarter
The same 15 January 2026 revision made the Emeralde's BookMyShow buy-one-get-one movie-ticket offer conditional: the cardholder must have spent at least ₹25,000 in the preceding calendar quarter to keep it. What was an unconditional perk now demands a spend threshold, mirroring the spend-gating ICICI rolled across its wider portfolio.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: High
▼ Reward Observed 22 Dec 2025 · Effective 15 Jan 2026
Miles earn rate cut and categories excluded from earning
2.5 Miles/₹100; insurance/utility/government/education earned → 2 Miles/₹100; insurance/utility/government/education excluded
In its own devaluation announced 22 December 2025 and effective 15 January 2026, ICICI cut the Emeralde's base earn from 2.5 to 2 Skywards Miles per ₹100 and stopped awarding miles on insurance, utility, government and education payments (fuel, rent, cash and EMI were already non-earning). The headline earn dropped by a fifth and everyday bill categories were carved out, trimming the card's real-world value for anyone who was routing such spends through it. ICICI's own Most Important Terms and Conditions carry the change verbatim: "2 Skyward Miles will be earned per ₹100 spent instead of 2.5 Miles on eligible domestic & international retail spends", and "No Miles will be accrued on payments under the categories of Insurance, Utility, Government & Education payments." The same clause confirms every other feature — Silver tier, unlimited lounges and the ₹15 lakh route to Gold — was left untouched.
Verification: ICICI Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
2024 1 change — 1 improvement
▲ Lounge Effective 15 Nov 2024
Lounge programme switches from DreamFolks to Priority Pass
DreamFolks membership (~650 lounges) → Priority Pass membership (~1,400 lounges)
From 15 November 2024 the Emeralde's complimentary lounge access moved provider: cards issued on or after that date carry a Priority Pass membership (1,400+ lounges across 145+ countries) for the primary cardholder, while cards issued earlier retain DreamFolks (~650 lounges). Access stayed unlimited and uncapped, so — unlike ICICI's non-premium cards, which were pushed behind a ₹75,000/quarter spend gate the same month — the Emeralde's lounge perk was not spend-gated; new applicants simply gained a larger network.
Verification: CardAdvisor Research · Confidence: Reconstructed
2022 1 change — 1 neutral
◆ Launch Effective 15 Mar 2022
Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde launched
ICICI Bank and Emirates Skywards launched their co-branded credit card range in India on 15 March 2022, with Emeralde as the super-premium top tier (above Sapphiro and Rubyx). It launched earning a flat 2.5 Skywards Miles per ₹100 that credit straight to the cardholder's Emirates Skywards account, a ₹10,000 fee with no waiver, 10,000 welcome miles plus complimentary Skywards Silver tier status, unlimited domestic and international lounge access, and up to 10% off Emirates fares. Because it earns Skywards Miles, not ICICI Reward Points, it never participated in ICICI's PAYBACK-to-Rewards programme migration.
Verification: ICICI Bank ↗ · Confidence: High
Each change links to the issuer's own document — bank T&C, MITC, notice, press release or product page — where one is public. Where the bank published nothing, it's marked CardAdvisor Research and verified against the card's current terms. Independent of the live terms shown above. This timeline is one card's slice of our market-wide change record across every tracked card.
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Source: Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card value timeline — CardAdvisor
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Source: Emirates Skywards ICICI Bank Emeralde Credit Card value timeline , CardAdvisor (CC BY 4.0).
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Quick summary
Type Super Premium credit card
Reward rate 2%
Best for Frequent Emirates flyers who redeem miles in premium cabins
Joining fee ₹10,000
Annual fee ₹10,000
Reviewed by
Devchandra Sah · Cards tested, miles earned, trips booked — for over a decade
Last verified 13 Aug 2026
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