Some credit cards offer automatic privileges, which can take a number of forms. These are discounts or upgrades that come from simply using a credit card and are very similar in essence to instant rewards from rewards credit cards. However privileges and rewards from credit cards are not the same thing.
Rewards from a credit card are offered to the user as points that are given per dollar spent on the credit card. After a certain amount of points have been accrued then the points can be redeemed for rewards that the credit card lender offers. These days rewards are offered on a wide variety of goods and services, not just the traditional travel related rewards such as flights or hotel stays. Interestingly recent studies in the UK have shown that while the popularity of rewards credit cards are ever increasing, most credit card rewards program participants have never redeemed their points for rewards.
Priveledges from credit cards usually work a little differently in that the priviledges come as standard features of typically Gold and Platinum cards and tend to be automatic. These include luxury transfers to and from airports, (the Emirates Cit Platinum offers complimentary chaffeur-drive to and from all Australian airports) complimentary international travel and purchase cover insurance ( has become an almost standard feature of Gold and Platinum credit cards on offer). Another of the most popular of the common privileges offered are upgrades. If a consumer books a standard flight on an airline and pays with the credit card with the automatic privileges program then they can be upgraded from standard to business class. This can be worth several hundred dollars on an international flight. Automatic privileges can also equate to automatic discounts ie whenever the credit card in question is used to purchase certain goods such at particular providers a percentage of discount may automatically apply.
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