Keen to earn Skywards miles while you get yourself around Dubai by taxi? Well…

Did you know: ride-hailing app Careem lets you earn Skywards Miles as you drive around in their cars.

Yes, for every USD2 (Dhs7.35) you spend via the Careem app you’ll earn one Skyward mile. You can accrue the miles when using Careem in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan, Kuwait or Morocco.

Now, don’t get us wrong, the odd lift to brunch via Careem isn’t going to score you an upgrade. To put it into perspective, an upgrade will cost you 9,000 Skywards miles as a minimum (aka, USD18,000 or Dhs66,000 spent on Careem).  You can also shop on the Emirates High Street with Skywards miles, but, as an example, a set of Villeroy & Boch tumblers will cost you 4,300 miles (aka USD8,300 spent on Careem). 

But hey, it’s a great top up to your Skywards account, right?

emirates phone

The other good news is that you can now use Skywards Miles for Careem credit – so if you have some miles about to expire, you can pay 4,500 Skywards Miles for USD25 of credit (aka Dhs91). 

Desperately aiming to get yourself up to Silver on Skywards? Well, unfortunately that won’t happen as you zoom around the city in a Careem. Why? Well, you can only earn Skywards Miles via Careem, not Tier Miles: while Skywards Miles can be used to buy rewards (hello upgrade) only Tier Miles can be used to bump up your Skywards membership to silver/gold/platinum.

Still keen for an upgrade to Skywards Silver? You can only earn Tier Miles by flying on an Emirates flight (or a codeshare flight that carries an EK flight number).

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*A car just drove itself from Dubai to Abu Dhabi*
*Pay-by-the-minute car rental is now in Dubai*

MEANWHILE, WHICH IS CHEAPER? UBER OR CAREEM?

It’s hard to say exactly which ride hailing app is cheaper for Dubai residents at all times, considering surge pricing and the like, but just as an FYI…

We put in a fare estimate request at exactly the same time for both Uber and Careem – and for a trip from Media One Hotel to the Burj Al Arab (only the best), Uber threw up an estimate of Dhs35 to Dhs44, while Careem estimated the trip would cost just Dhs30.  

For a standard Uber you’ll pay Dhs1.90 per kilometre, and for a standard Careem you’ll pay Dhs2.23 per kilometre, but the base fare on Careem is only Dhs7, while the base fare on Uber is Dhs10. Also, the minimum fare on Careem is Dhs16, while the minimum on Uber is Dhs20.

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