Best credit card signing bonuses right now

The Voyager World Elite is Emirates NBD's strongest pure-travel proposition. Booking through the Voyager Travel Portal at 12 miles per dirham — with 6x on any other travel — builds a miles balance faster than almost anything else in the UAE market, and the perk stack (unlimited lounges, airport transfers at both ends, meet & greet, fast-track immigration, OneVasco visa service) covers the whole journey, not just the departure gate.

If your loyalty already lives with Emirates, this is the most direct credit card route to Skywards value in the UAE: miles post straight to your Skywards account, the automatic Silver tier delivers Business Class lounge access and priority treatment on every Emirates and flydubai trip, and the 2x rate on Emirates spend compounds what you're already spending on flights. The up-to-100,000-mile welcome bonus is genuinely large — roughly a return Business Class reward to several Skywards destinations.

For Etihad loyalists who want to stay Sharia-compliant, this is the flagship: 3.5 miles per AED 4 on Etihad and foreign spend is among the strongest co-brand rates in the UAE, and the perks are the real premium set — unlimited lounge access with a guest, two airport transfers, monthly golf, home check-in, and companion-ticket and upgrade vouchers once your spend crosses AED 150,000 and AED 350,000. Complimentary Silver status plus Tier Miles on card spend keep your Etihad Guest tier alive between flights.

For a household that shops at Carrefour and lives around Majid Al Futtaim malls, this is the strongest SHARE earner on the market: 6% back (12% in the first 90 days for applications until 31 December 2026), an unusually good 2% on everything else local, a 10,000-point bonus, and unlimited lounge access with a guest — all on a Sharia-compliant covered card. The AED 999 fee also has a real escape hatch: spend AED 75,000 in a year (or AED 30,000 in foreign currency) and it's reversed from year two.

Free-for-life travel cards with real lounge access are rare in the UAE, and that is the Voyager World's whole pitch: no fee, Mastercard Travel Pass lounges, UAE and select international airport transfers, a OneVasco visa service and a 75,000-mile welcome bonus, at an approachable AED 12,000 salary requirement.

The value proposition is unusually easy to audit: a Free Night Award worth up to 35,000 points every anniversary — that's a genuine AED 700–1,000 hotel night at properties like Le Méridien or Courtyard — plus automatic Silver Elite, 10 Elite Night Credits and lounge access, on a card the bank advertises as free for life. Stay in a Marriott-family hotel even twice a year and the card pays for itself before you count a single point.

The SHARE Visa Signature is the best-balanced card in the SHARE family: 6% back at Mall of the Emirates, every City Centre mall and Carrefour, instant redemption at 5,000+ stores, lounge access and a 5,000-point welcome bonus — on a card that is free for life. For a Carrefour-and-City-Centre household earning AED 12,000+, the effective return on that spend is hard to beat at zero cost.

The Skywards Signature is the sensible way into the Emirates co-brand family: a 12,000-dirham salary bar instead of 30,000, AED 735 a year instead of 1,575, and the same clean mechanic of miles posting straight to your Skywards account. The unlimited lounge access — over 1,000 lounges in 300+ cities — is a standout at this fee level, and the 40,000-mile welcome bonus meaningfully shortens the runway to a reward flight.

For most people weighing ADIB's two Skywards cards, this is the one to get. You keep the benefits that actually matter day-to-day — unlimited lounge access via the VAC app, Skywards Silver, home check-in and airport transfers — and the earn rates only drop modestly (2.5 vs 3 Miles on Emirates, 1 vs 1.5 locally), while the fee falls from AED 4,500 to AED 1,500.

This is the U by Emaar Infinite re-priced for UAE Nationals, and the difference is entirely in your favour: no AED 2,625 joining fee, a free first year, 15% back on Emaar spend for the first three months and a concrete 10,000-Upoint bonus on USD 10,000 of retail spend in the first three statements. The ongoing package is identical — 7.5% at Emaar, Platinum status, suite upgrades, 20% off hotel dining and spas, 1,000+ lounges and Dubai Mall valet.

If Etihad is your airline, the Elevate is built to keep you inside its ecosystem: a full mile per dirham on Etihad, hotels and dining, a Gold fast track after one return flight, Tier Miles that accrue while you shop, and a 50%-off award voucher every AED 150,000 of spend. That combination — status, miles and cheaper redemptions — is something no generic travel card matches for Etihad flyers.

The SHARE Visa Infinite is a specialist card with the highest mall co-brand earn rate in the UAE: 8% back as SHARE Points at Mall of the Emirates, every City Centre mall and Carrefour, redeemable on the spot at 5,000+ stores. A household that puts AED 3,000 a month through MAF malls and Carrefour gets roughly AED 2,880 a year back — comfortably clearing the AED 1,575 annual fee.

The Darna Visa Signature is the card most Aldar regulars should actually get. It keeps the heart of the proposition — 7.5% back across Yas Mall, the Yas Island parks and Aldar hotels, instant till redemption, Gold-tier hotel and dining discounts — at an AED 12,000 salary bar and, for now, no fee at all for life.

If your food, groceries-on-demand and online shopping already run through noon's apps, this card pays you unusually well for it: 20% back on noon Food, 10% on NowNow and 5% everywhere else in the noon universe, with a free noon One membership, a 15% noon Minutes discount and an AED 500 welcome bonus — all on a card that costs nothing and needs only an AED 5,000 salary.