scrubbedexpat141

Emirates NBD give you Silver permanently with one of their credit cards I think.

TheShed

You are right Scamp, but with the new Platinum level, Silver is basically the new Blue :P Virtually zero status

scrubbedexpat141

Well my citi bank does very little for me and the golf is impossible to book so might close it and change to NBD just so I'm silver. Those carpets at heathrow make it worth it

NorthernLad

25000 tier miles to achieve silver, 50,000 for gold.

It was free with my gold Skywards to get egate onto the Skywards card, but it used to be 5000 tier miles to have egate added if you were silver Skywards.

ENBD Infinite card does get you a silver Skywards card, but as already mentioned the Silver is the new blue, very few benefits (and no lounge access at airports other than Dubai).

Millhouse

I've never tried to book the free golf. What's the issue?

Do you use the free fatness first access?

Brains1983

I'm gold with Etihad, and unless I'm on a business ticket, I have to use a lounge in a different terminal (quite a hike), think they may have oversubscribed the gold etihad guest system.. It's still OK at overseas airports. I guess they will devalue their tier system shortly aswell.

scrubbedexpat141

You have to book online and pick several date options and course options. THey then 'get back to you' within 3 days and invariably it's a 'NO'. Used to have a phone number to book but it's since stopped working.

They only have a very few 4 ball slots and mostly 2 balls. They only get a couple a weekend for each course MAX and they go quickly. Can only book a certain number of days in advance and need to be very quick to get one.

Recently managed it, but I think because it was summer and not as busy, in winter it's a non starter. I've had the card a few years now and have tried probably a dozen times and managed to have one free round. It's just horseshit.