Airline loyalty in the Gulf region is entering a new phase. Once defined by mileage accumulation, elite tiers and complimentary upgrades, loyalty programmes are increasingly becoming broader lifestyle platforms designed to influence customer behaviour far beyond the airport.

Across the GCC, airlines are expanding their ecosystems into city experiences, entertainment, dining, shopping, financial services and partner networks, reflecting a fundamental shift in how carriers define customer relationships.

The emerging strategy is clear: airlines no longer want customers to think about them only when booking flights. They want to remain part of travellers’ everyday decisions.

Read more-How UAE airlines are making sure travel journey starts at your doorstep

From Emirates’ city-focused initiatives and Etihad-linked destination experiences to Riyadh Air’s lifestyle-driven Sfeer programme, regional carriers are redesigning loyalty as a continuous relationship rather than a transaction that begins and ends with air travel.

Industry analysts say the change is being driven by evolving consumer expectations, particularly among younger travellers who increasingly value speed, personalisation and immediate relevance over traditional status structures.

Spend, relevance and experience reshape airline loyalty models

Research from Deloitte’s annual consumer loyalty survey highlights how airline loyalty strategies are undergoing a major transformation. Carriers are increasingly moving towards spend-based qualification models and deeper integration with co-brand credit cards, forcing airlines to balance financial efficiency with customer engagement.

The shift towards spend-based loyalty allows airlines to better identify and reward high-value customers while simplifying programme economics. However, Deloitte notes that carriers face a challenge in ensuring that these models do not alienate frequent travellers who may not spend at the highest levels today but could become valuable customers over time.

The challenge for airlines is finding the right balance between rewarding frequency and rewarding spend.

“You risk excluding people who might have been high-frequency travellers but are at a lower price point and maybe who could spend a lot over time but aren’t today,” Deloitte’s research commentary noted.

The research highlights that airlines are increasingly supplementing traditional mileage systems with ecosystem partnerships and experiential benefits to create stronger emotional connections.

Co-brand credit cards have become a major component of this evolution. According to Deloitte findings, airline loyalty members increasingly view branded credit cards as more than payment tools. They have become mechanisms that connect airline brands with everyday spending, allowing consumers to move closer to rewards through purchases beyond travel.

The result is a major expansion of the loyalty relationship.

A traveller is no longer only earning rewards while flying. They are engaging with an airline brand while dining, shopping, paying bills or using partner services.

Dragonpass: Loyalty is shifting from transactions to recognition

The move towards lifestyle loyalty is also being reinforced by changing consumer expectations around convenience and personalisation.

Andrew Harrison-Chinn, chief marketing officer at Dragonpass, said the biggest challenge facing loyalty programmes today is ensuring that customers receive relevant rewards at the right time.

“Having the right tools to simply and transparently offer customers relevant rewards, at the right time, is the biggest challenge currently facing most loyalty programmes,” Harrison-Chinn said.

According to Dragonpass’ GCC Loyalty Index, more than 66 per cent of GCC travellers define brand loyalty through factors unrelated to traditional point accumulation. Instead, customers prioritise service quality and trust, with 46.6 per cent highlighting the importance of receiving the best service and 39.5 per cent focusing on consistent brand delivery.

Harrison-Chinn said loyalty leaders must move away from simply buying transactions and instead focus on earning customer recognition.

“When a traveller receives a loyalty benefit that hits the mark, it shouldn’t just feel like a financial rebate,” he said. “Our data proves that 60.1 per cent of consumers feel genuinely ‘valued and recognised’ when a perk lands correctly.”

This shift explains why airlines are building wider ecosystems that include lifestyle experiences, rather than relying only on points and redemption structures.

The rise of the airline lifestyle ecosystem

Emirates has been among the strongest examples of this broader approach through its My Emirates Pass initiative, which transforms a boarding pass into access to experiences across Dubai and the UAE.

The programme allows eligible passengers to use their Emirates boarding pass to access offers across attractions, restaurants, shopping destinations, entertainment venues and wellness experiences.

The concept extends the airline relationship beyond the flight itself, encouraging travellers to engage with Emirates as part of their wider destination experience.

Similarly, Etihad has strengthened the connection between travel and destination discovery through the Abu Dhabi Pass, designed exclusively for Etihad guests.

The city pass, authorised by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, provides discounts and digital access to attractions including cultural destinations, entertainment venues and family experiences. The initiative positions the airline not only as a transport provider but also as a gateway into the destination economy.

Air Arabia has also expanded its loyalty proposition through AirRewards, allowing customers to earn points through flights, baggage purchases, seats, meals and other services. The programme further extends value through family accounts and points transfers, reflecting the growing importance of household-based loyalty.

Riyadh Air uses loyalty to build community before scale

For newer Gulf carriers, loyalty is becoming a foundational brand-building tool.

Riyadh Air’s Sfeer programme demonstrates how airlines are attempting to create emotional connections even before their networks mature. Rather than positioning loyalty purely around miles, Sfeer is designed around membership, partnerships and lifestyle engagement.

The programme includes Sfeer Points, Level Points, partner benefits and Founding Member privileges. Riyadh Air has positioned Sfeer as a community built around travel, entertainment, dining, mobility and everyday experiences.

This approach allows the airline to establish a customer relationship early, creating engagement between flights and encouraging direct bookings.

The programme reflects a wider industry belief that future loyalty will depend as much on belonging as rewards.

Personalisation becomes the new competitive advantage

Dragonpass research also highlights a growing gap between what consumers receive and what they actually value.

The company found that 53.6 per cent of GCC travellers believe loyalty rewards often do not match their personal needs or lifestyles, while 69.9 per cent become frustrated by irrelevant blanket offers.

Harrison-Chinn said brands must move from analysing only past purchases to understanding future preferences.

“When you build profiles based on lifestyle, aspirations and preferences then you are looking to the future,” he said.

This is encouraging airlines to develop more personalised loyalty structures.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club, for example, combines Avios earning with travel benefits, shopping opportunities, family earning options and premium services across different membership tiers.

Kuwait Airways’ Oasis Club similarly combines mileage rewards with practical travel benefits such as baggage privileges, lounge access, priority services and family mileage pooling.

Meanwhile, flyadeal’s integration with AlFursan Reward Miles provides travellers with additional flexibility by allowing eligible customers to earn and redeem miles on available flights.

Loyalty becomes a year-round relationship

Other Gulf carriers are also experimenting with alternative models.

Oman Air’s Flight Pass introduces a prepaid travel concept that allows customers to purchase future flights in advance, locking in fares and creating a different form of customer commitment.

Together, these initiatives show that airline loyalty is expanding into multiple directions. Some programmes reward spending, others reward travel frequency, while newer models focus on experiences, convenience and emotional connection.

The common factor is that airlines are attempting to remain relevant between journeys.

Deloitte’s airline research reinforces this shift, noting that customer experience and digital convenience are increasingly influencing purchasing decisions. Digital-first airlines are finding opportunities to reduce costs while generating additional ancillary revenue by improving the overall customer journey.

For GCC airlines, the future of loyalty is therefore unlikely to be measured only by the number of miles accumulated.

Instead, success will depend on whether carriers can become integrated into customers’ lifestyles.

As travellers increasingly compare complete ecosystems rather than individual products, airlines that deliver personalised, effortless and meaningful experiences will be better positioned to build lasting loyalty.

The next generation of airline loyalty is not simply about rewarding where customers fly.

It is about becoming part of how they live.

Motorists across Dubai and other parts of the UAE could notice cloudier skies and slightly cooler conditions on Tuesday, as the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM) forecast a gradual drop in temperatures, particularly along coastal areas.

The weather is expected to remain fair to partly cloudy for most of the day, with clouds developing over eastern regions during the afternoon. While no widespread rainfall has been forecast for Dubai, the increased cloud cover could give parts of the emirate a more overcast appearance compared with recent days.

The NCM attributed the conditions to an extension of a weak surface low-pressure system from the east, accompanied by an upper-air high-pressure system.

Light to moderate winds are expected to freshen at times, reaching speeds that could generate blowing dust in exposed areas, potentially reducing visibility for motorists. Sea conditions are forecast to remain slight in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea.

Looking ahead, the weather authority said similar conditions are likely to continue on Wednesday, with fair to partly cloudy skies and the possibility of convective cloud formation over eastern areas during the afternoon. Southeasterly to northeasterly winds are expected to strengthen at times, reaching up to 40km/h.

Temperatures are forecast to rise again on Thursday, particularly across coastal areas, while convective clouds may once again develop over eastern parts of the country. Humid conditions are also expected during the night and into Friday morning over some coastal areas.

Friday is expected to remain fair to partly cloudy, with humidity increasing overnight into Saturday morning. By the weekend, the NCM forecasts a chance of fog or mist formation over some coastal areas early on Sunday, alongside generally fair weather.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to six on Monday, compared with a 10-day average of about 11 vessels, shipping data showed, amid fading hopes of a peace deal between the US and Iran.

Four commodity vessels, including two empty oil product tankers, entered the waterway, data from Kpler showed on Tuesday as of 0420 GMT. Two vessels — a small tanker laden with liquefied petroleum gas and another carrying residual fuels — exited the Strait, the data showed.

In pre-war days, about 130 to 140 ships typically transited the strait.

On Monday, 25 vessels transited the Bab el-Mandeb strait on the Red Sea, broadly unchanged when compared with the 10-day average of nearly 24 ships, Kpler data showed.

US President Donald Trump on Monday responded to Iran’s conditions for a peace deal by laying out his own demands that Iran pay compensation for people killed in wars, attacks and protests.

The proposal was a response to Tehran’s demands for compensation and an end to sanctions. The Iranian demands were largely in line with the terms of a preliminary peace deal signed in June, which has since broken down.

Since the war began in February, Trump has repeatedly swung between threats of escalation and assertions that a peace deal is close.

Leaking crude oil from a tanker grounded off a nature reserve in Oman has created a slick covering almost 400 square kilometres, the country’s government said on Monday.

The Caroline Bezengi is loaded with close to one million barrels of Russian oil bound for Asia and first reported difficulties on June 8 off Yemen, with two maritime security sources saying initial assessments indicated a blast had occurred onboard.

No party has taken responsibility for attacking the vessel.

Oman, in its first public disclosure on the environmental impact, said on Monday it was seeking to tackle the oil leak near the Hallaniyat Islands.

Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik issued a royal decree last year creating a nature reserve around the islands, an area that is home to wildlife including Arabian Sea humpback whales and Socotra cormorants.

The oil slick covers some 390 square km (150 square miles), Oman’s Environment Authority said in a statement carried by the state news agency, adding there was no concern for facilities in the area including water desalination plants and tourist facilities.

It extends northeast of the islands and is within an estimated seven kilometres of the coast, the authority said.

Environmental group Greenpeace last week estimated the slick at around 600 square kilometres, citing analysis of satellite imagery.

A spill of this scale requires dispersant be sprayed across the affected area by aircraft and the use of booms and other equipment to collect the oil before it reaches the shore or sinks to the sea floor, said Tony Gutierrez, professor of environmental microbiology and biotechnology at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University.

“If this oil is kept offshore, the impact will be much less than if the oil reaches shallower waters and the actual coastline,” he said, citing the impact on diverse marine life such as coral, birds and fish.

“You could find oil still there years later. And that’s what happened with Exxon Valdez. Ten years down the line, there still were remnants of oil,” he said, referring to a 1989 spill in Alaska.

An analysis by Reuters of satellite imagery and shipping specialists showed the spill from the stranded 274-metre (900-foot) tanker was still spreading at the end of last month, raising concern about possible environmental damage.

John Amos, CEO of SkyTruth, a nonprofit organisation aiming to strengthen environmental conservation through the use of satellite images, said although the incident had been ongoing for more than two months, there had not been any sign of vessel activity at the site to suggest a response to stabilize the Caroline Bezengi and remove the remaining oil cargo to prevent a catastrophic spill.

“We haven’t seen that on publicly available satellite imagery. We haven’t seen that on satellite-collected AIS tracking data. And that’s a concern,” Amos said.

The Caroline Bezengi loaded at Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in April and passed through the Suez Canal at the end of May, ship-tracking data shows.

Built in 2001, it is part of the so-called shadow fleet of older oil tankers used by Russia which lack Western insurance cover and sail under the flags of various nations to obscure their true ownership.

It was listed on public shipping databases as flying the Cameroon flag but was among 39 vessels de-listed from Cameroon’s ship registry in June.

The ship is subject to sanctions imposed by the European Union, Ukraine, the UK, Canada and Switzerland.

Its registered owner is Rentoor Shipmanagement Ltd and its manager is Villar Shipmanagement Ltd, according to LSEG data. Reuters could not immediately reach those firms, which appear to be based in China.